Next up is the Denver Broncos, the second place team in the AFC West. Champ Bailey is the leader of this team, but it all depends on how Jay Cutler plays as the starter for a full season.
2006 Season: 9-7, 3rd AFC West Missed Playoffs
Offense: Multiple West Coast
Quarterback: Jay Cutler I loved watching this kid while he was at Vanderbilt and I think he may be something special in the NFL. Cutler was good enough to unseat Jake Plummer late in the season last season and almost lead the Broncos to the playoffs. This year should be his breakout season…look out world, here comes the kid from Santa Claus, Indiana. Maybe he’ll do to the NFL what 2 small town Indiana kids have done for the NBA and MLB(Larry the Legend and Scott Rolen) Grade: 4 out of 5.
Running Back: Travis Henry The free agent signee from the Titans is a great signing for a team that normally churns out 1,000 yard rushers at will. However, last season proved they needed a good workhorse back and they decided that that person was not Tatum Bell or Mike Bell. Henry’s best seasons were in Buffalo and he should be able to run wild with this line. Grade: 4 out of 5
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: Key Player-Javon Walker This group of receivers should make Jay Cutler look like John Elway. Walker, Rod Smith, Brandon Stokley(an Ed McAffery clone), and Daniel Graham should be spreading the field all day long. Walker is the deep threat out of the 4 and should have a career year. Grade: 5 out of 5.
Offensive Line: Key Player-C Tom Nalen Well, this offensive line still has the stalwarts of Nalen and Matt Lepsis and they still block with the zone blocking technique that made Terrell Davis, Clinton Portis, Mike Anderson, and Rueben Droughens look like Jim Brown. Grade: 4 out of 5
Defense: 4-3
Defensive Line: Key Player-DE Ebenezer Ekuban Ekuban had 7 sacks last season and is opposite Kenard Lang, who had 6 sacks. In the middle, Gerard Warren is back to being a beast in the middle of the D-Line. Ekuban should have double-digit sacks this season. Grade: 4 out of 5
Linebackers: Key Player-MLB D.J. Williams With the retirement on OLB Al Wilson, D.J. Williams has become the leader of this crew. Williams played opposite Jonathan Vilma at Miami and now has the great Ian Gold playing next to him. Grade: 4 out of 5
Cornerback: Key Player-Champ Bailey What an upgrade! Instead of having 1 shutdown corner, the Broncos now have 2. Dre Bly was acquired from Detroit for RB Tatum Bell. Now Bly is used to taking on the #1 receiver for the opponent, now he will have the face the #2, which will make him even better. Grade: 5 out of 5
Safety: Key Player-John #### #### is still laying people out from safety. He’s lost a step from his time with the Bucs, but he’s still the rock in center field. Grade: 3.5 out of 5
Special Teams K: Jason Elam P: Todd Sauerbrun Elam has lost a little bit of length on his kicks and Sauerbrun is nuts. Elam is still accurate as hell, he just make the 60 yarders like he did earlier in his career. Grade: 4 out of 5
Overview The Broncos would be a championship-caliber team is they didn’t play in the AFC West. They’ll battle with the Chargers for the division and will fight to the end against the Titans for the final wild card spot.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Fight the Titans for a wildcard seed? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA thats funny. For some reason I have this feeling that the Chrgers will still have a good season but they wont do as great as they did last year. Between Paul Ernster and Todd Sauerbrun kicking we will make teams wish they never played us. Those two can make a team have the crappiest field position ever making the ball land at the 1 yard line and Todd is very good at doing that. RB wise not only is Travis Henry going to be explosive but remember we have Mike Bell too who had a good rookie season sharing time with Tatum Bell. John #### a 3.5 out of 5? He will tear you apart on the field. Defense just sucked it up after half the season as a whole so he wasnt able to do his job as effectivly as he usually does. The 1st half of the season Denver was making records defensively. But this year will be better.
I agree 100% with broncogirl...Titans???are u kiddin me the titans will not have that good of a year if u ask me! and john #### is soo much better than a freakin 3.5......also, i think the wide reciever brandon marshall that u failed to mention will have a breakout year
The broncos will be lucky to get 8 wins. definately not in the playoffs. Cutler is going to get blitzed like crazy bacause teams now reallize as with when he played a team like the seahawks last year with corners hired off the streets due to injurys. his weakness is being flushed to off side where 79% of his ints. occured. Jones was Another !st round bust from Arizona much like the last savior Plummer. The two bells strengths were them as a duo most of the time with different styles keeping D on their heels. Javon could be great but I cannot believe rod smith can keep taking possesion reciever type abuse another year.The third reciever cannot stay healthy and there is no depth there either. The Oline cannot offord any injury at all because they have only one or two quallity backups. And who is cutlers back up? The defense will be still realling from the tragic loss of Darrent williams who was a good compliment to bailey and the loss of their heart and soul wilson. #### will be forced to help with run more. the secondary with slow #### and adequate bly will be susceptable to any team with two speed recievers or tight end. subtracting one to take bailey out of the play.Overall special teams is good. I agree it all depends on cutler. He needs the colarado dan marino comparison to come true now. He will need the 48 touchdown passes record not the meaningless 1 or 2 touchdown for 5 straight game record. which I dont see happenning on this 1 allstar offense. And by the way broncogirl #### is a hitter but he was slow when he came here and is very slow now. Without baileybyebye
I am an avid sports fan who attempts to watch/read about as many games as possible. Growing up in St. Louis, I am a die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fan. Not having an NFL team for most of my life, until the Rams showed up, I am a Tennessee Titans fan and I am also a University of Tennessee fan. I am a recent graduate of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
