Excited for the season!

[BroncoBowlby 88]

I'm actually kinda pleased with were this team is right now, or at least I'm as happy as you can be with a team that is 1-2. In the 2 loses we were in it the whole and could have won at least one of the games. Our defense is improved even with stars out. Woodyard has turned into a tackling machine in the absence of DJ. Once the running game picks up and John Fox's system of ball control and tough D gets going we should be in good shape. Lets not forget that this team was very hurt by the lock out, more than most teams, and now that they have had a chance to play together with the new playbooks, I can see things starting to work out better. Call it a pipe dream, or over anxious, or whatever you wish, but I'm pleased with what I've seen so far.

[weazel]

Im pretty excited for the season as well, when does it start?

[Clipworthy]

I'm sure the running game will pick up when Knowshon returns. Wait. Nvm.

[Locnar]

I'm excited to see the 4th quarter heroics of Kyle Orton.

[BroncoJoe]

Calling Hotcarl. Attention Hotcarl. Please pick up a white paging telephone.

[BroncoNut]

I don't know if I'd go so far as to be excited, but you do bring up some good points. time will tell. I'm just not sold on denver football being at all exciting this season. I'm kinda out of gas. but you never know and I may be eating crow or something like that. I hope you are right though

[Ravage!!!]

Ohhh... I feel sorry for this guy. He's going to come on here and see all his optimism get wiped out!

Welcome to the boards. :salute:

[Northman]

I love Bronco fans who just joined the fanbase. Welcome!

[sneakers]

I love Bronco fans who just joined the fanbase. Welcome!

So filled with optimism in their uncallussed hearts.

[Softskull]

I'm with you 88. I had no illusion that we'd be good this year. What I am hoping for is improvement over last year and certainly as the year progresses. Our Dfront 7 are playing at a much higher level than last year. The offense is about the same, just more conservative play calling. The FO has shown that it's going to improve by the draft and not free agency. I don't have an issue with that. We had an incredible talent purge. It will take time to replace that. Our first and second rounders this year are doing very well. I think Franklin, Thomas and Irving need a bit more time in the oven, but will be good contributors in the future. Over all, nice draft.

I'm even ok with Orton starting for now. I read a theory on another board (hello Chris) that Fox as a conservative coach will use Orton as a stabilizer to get all the other parts in place. Tebow's style is a modified chaos and won’t allow the other pieces to gel. I don't know if that's completely true, but it makes sense. I hope to see Tebow starting after week 8.

[Bullgator]

This IS hotcarl. Well played sir.

[BroncoStud]

I'm actually kinda pleased with were this team is right now, or at least I'm as happy as you can be with a team that is 1-2. In the 2 loses we were in it the whole and could have won at least one of the games. Our defense is improved even with stars out. Woodyard has turned into a tackling machine in the absence of DJ. Once the running game picks up and John Fox's system of ball control and tough D gets going we should be in good shape. Lets not forget that this team was very hurt by the lock out, more than most teams, and now that they have had a chance to play together with the new playbooks, I can see things starting to work out better. Call it a pipe dream, or over anxious, or whatever you wish, but I'm pleased with what I've seen so far.

You talking Madden 2012? "Exciting" and the "Denver Broncos" don't belong in the same sentence this year... You must have traded for Vick in Madden or something... Kudos dude.

[BeefStew25]

The young guys are playing on D. Let's watch and have fun.

[Joel]

The D looks light years better to this point, even with our three best players on the sideline. Now they're coming back so obviously I expect the D to get even better; there are actually more than 2-3 guys I EXPECT to have games worthy of highlight reels. Special teams looks pretty good, too, and it's not often I can say that about Denver, despite the advantage of Mile High air. I try not to think about the offense but it's not a total loss. I mean, OK, sure, Clay Matthews and A. J. Hawk will take our rookie LT to school this week, but hopefully that means he'll learn a few things unless he just gets lost in the blinding blur of Pro Bowlers whizzing by him to count coup on Orton. I wonder what's happened to Cladys consistency, but the answer may just be all the instability on our line, and I still have long term faith in both him and Kuper. I feel pretty good about Lloyd, Royal and Decker at WR; between the three we ought to have at least two decent starting WRs for the long term. Give me a C, G, QB and RB in whom I had faith and I'd feel pretty good about the team (I'm assuming that with all the talk of TE signings we're OK there even if it means converting Tebow to the position nearly everyone outside Denver thinks he was meant to play.)

All that said, I still don't see a playoff run or even a high finish unless the lockout makes a lot of teams far more erratic and inconsistent than us. Yet despite the bright spots there's enough overall weakness for me to see the resultant high draft picks as a silver lining. Since I think weak teams should draft talent I'm encouraged by the fact we seem to be a weak team that did just that last year. I think we could be very scary if we keep that up for another couple years and find ourselves stacked with great talent a lot of places so we can win regardless of the system employed. At that point will be at or near the level to go deep into the playoffs, and only missing 2-3 pieces at most, which can easily be acquired in the draft if we are careful and go for the few positions we'll then need.