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View Full Version : Broncos' front-liners start anew



Lonestar
08-12-2009, 03:32 AM
By Jeff Legwold
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/12/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

Broncos rookie quarterback # 3 Tom Brandstater lets loose a long pass downfield that was caught by rookie tightend # 85 Marquez Branson during training camp at Dove Valley. (Joe Amon / The Denver Post)
Broncos rookie quarterback # 3 Tom Brandstater with his new haircut after practice at Dove Valley. (Joe Amon / The Denver Post)As Champ Bailey heads into his 11th NFL season, he's been named to eight Pro Bowls and he's been through ups, downs and all around. Yet ask him who can cover receivers in a defense that can't rush the passer or stop the run and the answer is quick and to the point.

"Nobody," Bailey said. "Nobody can do it without the guys up front. I don't care who you are."

The Broncos need those guys to be front and center on defense. Especially if they have any hope of leaving behind their defensive struggles of the past two seasons.

And folks will get their first look at the front three in the Broncos' new look 3-4 defense Friday night at San Francisco.

"In a lot of ways we have nowhere to go but up," said outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil. "And it all starts with those guys up front."
Poll a long line of NFL personnel executives about the Broncos' defense of '08 — 448 points allowed, 27th in run defense, 26th in pass defense and 29th overall — and the same notion always pops up.

Little. Small. Light at the point of attack.

And while the Broncos did not dive into the big-ticket line in free agency to fix those woes up front, they have tried to get bigger along the defensive line. And they brought in Wayne Nunnely — a former defensive line coach in the San Diego Chargers' 3-4 defense — to organize a unit, like much of the rest of the roster, that is going to have plenty of new faces under the helmets.

Nunnely's shouts of "knock 'em back" are not only a constant drumbeat at practice, they stand as his message to a defense that has surrendered ground far more often than it has taken it in the last two seasons.

"We're a lot bigger up front," Dumervil said. "We're a totally different defense. I was at end last year, 260 pounds working against tackles. I was up there with the big guys, now I'm at linebacker, now I'm behind the big guys taking on smaller guys. Big guys on big guys, you know?"

"Definitely being able to stay stout and not give up any movement along the line of scrimmage, that's big," said defensive lineman Carlton Powell, who was in Mike Shanahan's last draft class, but missed '08 with a torn Achilles tendon.

The Broncos will try to accomplish that goal with a group of players who for the most part have not previously been starters.

Ronald Fields (314 pounds) has lined up at nose tackle with the starting defense much of the time in this training camp, with Ryan McBean (297 pounds) and Kenny Peterson (295 pounds) having been at the two defensive end spots much of the time, as well as Marcus Thomas (316 pounds), Matthias Askew (292 pounds) and Nic Clemons (300 pounds).

Of that group, only Fields and Thomas have started more than one game in their careers, and all nine of Fields' career starts came with San Francisco in the 2006 season, when current Broncos defensive coordinator Mike Nolan was the 49ers' head coach.

"I knew what I was going into when I came in here and people said defense was the big problem here," Fields said.

Said Bailey: "When you look and see, this will be the fourth scheme in the last four years — but now you can kind of tell why teams like Pittsburgh and New England have success year after year, because they do what they do, play the 3-4, and they get better at it.

"This is a defense, the 3-4, (that) I think we can do some things with, especially if we can be physical and force the issue."

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13041563?source=rss

anton...
08-12-2009, 05:09 AM
i think this is THE very thing that will make or break this season...

BroncoTech
08-12-2009, 06:26 AM
What we don't want to see is Doom 25 yards down field and the only guy in the vicinity of a touchdown like we saw the last game of 2008. I can see this not working, like we saw smart quarterbacks picking apart our zone blitz scheme the last few years. This is a vulnerability just waiting to be exploited.

gobroncsnv
08-12-2009, 06:53 AM
Even stupid QB's can pick apart a D when they have 2 minutes to find an open target. I'm glad we have Champ, but I'll be even happier when we see a pass rush... The switch to 3-4 will have to be better, in that we were closer to having 3 good dlinemen than we were to having 4 the past few years. (like 10 years, I think)