TXBRONC
12-31-2007, 09:47 PM
I saw this article in the RMN it's worth your while.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/31/legwold-offseason-tweaking-ready-begin/
LEGWOLD: Offseason tweaking ready to begin
By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News
Originally published 03:40 p.m., December 31, 2007
Updated 03:40 p.m., December 31, 2007
Twelve teams in the NFL started the postseason wheels spinning Monday. Twelve teams started breaking it all down to get ready for one-and-done games that everybody in the vocational world of football wants to play.
"And we're not one of them,'' said safety John Lynch. "If you play in this league, you have to hate that.''
While the Broncos could certainly see it coming down the tracks for weeks, the offseason officially began Monday with the requisite number of trash bags, cardboard boxes and piles of papers being pulled out of the lockers.
Players were looked over and went their separate ways. And that was that, a 7-9 goes into the books of team history as the second consecutive playoff miss for a group that has openly talked of its playoff worthiness during both of them.
"We just need to tweak the areas that need to be tweaked,'' said Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley.
The tweaking will commence, as it always does, with the annual review of the team's roster.
In Mike Shanahan's Broncos tenure that has meant the defensive coaches look at the offensive players and the offensive coaches look at the defensive players. Lists are made, compared and the players are eventually, after all of the discussion, placed in order.
Top to bottom.
Bottom to top.
And the plan, the organization of the wants and needs, will begin to take shape.
That is the talent side of the equation and while the Broncos players consistently talked about the "talent'' that was around them this season, the simple truth is they were not talented enough to overcome their circumstances enough to keep playing into the next month.
They didn't win enough games to make the postseason. Injuries are a factor, but it would be difficult to argue that a team, like the Colts for example, didn't lose as many key players to injury this season as the Broncos did.
Yet the Colts still won a division that also included both of the AFC's Wild Card teams.
So the Broncos clearly have a talent hurdle, but some others as well.
This from Rod Smith in recent days about a missing "professionalism'' around the Broncos:
"And what I mean by that there's a certain way you've got to go about handling your business, there's a way you go about doing it. You can be a talented person and that's all fine and good, your stats could look great, but if you go about it the wrong way it's all for nothing.''
This has been the underlying theme all season from the Broncos' most veteran eyes in the locker room. One of the same mistakes being made over and over, one of things discussed during the week that were not remembered in the game at the end of the week, one of too many people with eyes on other things besides going about winning in the right way, one of basic frustration about the way things went.
Put it all together and that is a large to-do list. Does it take major upheaval on the roster? Or more accountability? Or a change in parts of the coaching staff?
Likely it will be all of the above in some fashion.
That's because 12 teams were in the playoff business Monday and the Broncos could only press their noses against the glass, because they didn't do what they had to do to get inside.
At 7-9 the Broncos have suffered through just the second losing season in Mike Shanahan's time as head coach.
They expected far more, got far less.
It is why most in and around the team expect changes and plenty of them to repair what did and didn't happen in '07 as the team moves to '08.
OFFENSIVE MVP
What a difference 142 days, 102 catches and 1,325 yards makes.
On Aug. 10 an exasperated Shanahan cornered wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who had not practiced in the first 11 days of training camp because of a thigh injury, in the team's conditioning complex and told him to get on the field.
Fight through the pain was Shanahan's message, that the tests said the muscle was healed, that working through it was "just part of it.''
Marshall went as far as to say; "if it was up to me, I wouldn't have (practiced), but coach wanted me to."
Fast forward through a breakout season's worth of games and Shanahan was talking about Marshall's "maturity'' Sunday night and the potential for him to be "the top guy.''
Marshall has already promised to work with quarterback Jay Cutler, who also gets a significant nod here as well, in the offseason to build on the potential he has now shown.
Smith has said: "(Marshall) should do this every year, and he can, it's up to him. He has to put in the time to be one of those guys who does it year after year after year. You don't want to have one year like this and then come back with 25 catches. That means youre not there yet.''
But in a year when Marshall was the only Broncos wide receiver to play in every game, he went from complimentary player to the front of the line.
The Broncos hope he can now stay there.
DEFENSIVE MVP
Defense is not always a numbers game.
And defensive end Elvis Dumervil's 12.5 sacks are certainly worthy of note and consideration here. And linebacker D.J. Williams' selfless move to three different linebacker spots in the last three seasons that may have hampered some short-term progress in his game should not be under-valued.
He has never complained, even as plenty of heat for the team's defensive failings was tossed his way even as he was one of the league leaders in tackles he finished with 170, 70 more than the next Broncos player.
But cornerback Champ Bailey simply, consistently, affects more of what opposing offenses do than any player the Broncos have on the field defensively.
He tackles better than any cornerback in the league, better than almost any who have been in the league at the position. He studies, he plays beginning to end and he affects play despite the fact most offenses don't even bother to look his way.
He may not have reached his level of '06 when he should have been the league's defensive player of the year, but he is still the best at what he does and promises more.
"I can be better,'' Bailey said. "I want to be better. I want to find ways to make plays and have an impact.''
BREAK IT DOWN
The rumblings have already started in the Broncos complex that assistant head coach/defense Jim Bates could reach some kind of settlement on the two years remaining on his contract and part ways with the team if his meetings with Shanahan in the coming days dont go well.
But no matter who calls the defensive shots in '08 many Broncos players and those outside the team who study such things, like opposing offensive coordinators, say the Broncos defense lacks an identity and doesnt have things it can always fall back on to get out of difficult spots.
For some teams it's a pass rush package or a coverage look.
In baseball it's called the out pitch and the Broncos defense, having played what looked on video to be a hybrid of Bates' and defensive coordinator Bob Slowik's schemes from their past, doesn't have one.
If Shanahan were to replace Bates by promoting Slowik an immediate change may come in the blitz packages. In his last season as a coordinator 2004 in Green Bay Slowik rushed at least five players on 40 percent of pass plays early in that season and had rushed at least five on 29 percent of pass plays overall by the season's end.
He rushed at least six on just over 10 percent of pass plays for the year as well.
With Bailey and Dre' Bly facing the ball in man coverage most of the time anyway in what Slowik has called "a vision technique'' the transition could be one the Broncos could make.
The issue would be for the Broncos to decide their direction. They dialed back the blitz packages in 2006 after the Steelers had defeated the Broncos in the AFC Championship the previous January and Larry Coyer got fired when the Broncos weren't happy with the defensive finish that year as well.
The next step
In many ways this season for Jay Cutler was just about dealing with being the Broncos starting quarterback everything from the attention in and around town to veteran players coming to him and asking both he and Williams to be more vocal, more out front in leading a team while '08 will be about the next move on the developmental curve.
About cutting down interceptions, about more accuracy in the scoring zone, about being what the Broncos want him to be when Shanahan says things like "I think we got one heck of a quarterback for the future.''
The growing demand for efficiency among the league's passers seven topped 4,000 yards this season, a league record has tilted expectations some, but Cutler's 88.1 passer rating in this, his first full season as a starter, is something to build on.
John Elway didn't top 83.4 until his 11th year in the league. No, passer rating doesn't measure it all missing the impact of improvisation, overcoming in-game adversity or leading an offense to wins but it does measure how a passer plays in the mechanical side of the game.
Cutler is ahead of the curve there and how he adapts to the rest of the equation will determine how far the Broncos go with him behind center.
The red (faced) zone
If the Broncos are to recover from back-to-back playoff misses, they have to find a way to be more efficient on both sides of the ball in the scoring zone.
They surrendered 409 points overall, most in the Shanahan era and the most by the team overall since 1967. Their 31 sacks were also the third-lowest total since the start of the '95 season.
They don't force enough turnovers and don't force quarterbacks to play off schedule enough.
Offensively they converted just nine third-down plays just one of those by rushing inside their opponents' 20-yard line and were 0-fer on third-and-2, third-and-3, third-and-4 or third-and-5 plays combined inside the red zone.
Which means if they didn't score a touchdown quickly they couldn't grind it out and get one.
ROOKIE REPORT
DE Jarvis Moss First round, 17th overall
Finished season on injured reserve after fracturing his leg in practice in October. He was on track for plenty of playing time until he injured a knee in training camp. Never seemed to re-gain his pre-injury confidence before then suffering the season-ending injury, but Broncos expect a bigger, stronger Moss to have an impact in '08.
DE Tim Crowder Second round, 56th overall
Played in 13 games at both end and tackle. Finished second on the team with four sacks and had a 50-yard fumble return for a touchdown. Broncos want more, though, since Crowder did not have a sack after Nov. 19.
T Ryan Harris Third round, 70th overall
Played in 11 games on special teams and would be a consideration at left tackle if Matt Lepsis elects to retire. The Broncos believe he could left and right tackle spots as well as guard.
DT Marcus Thomas Fourth round, 121st overall
Played in 16 games, started five. The Broncos like his potential, but want more impact. He finished the year without a sack or a forced fumble.
RB Selvin Young Undrafted
Finished as the team's leading rusher with 729 yards with an eye-catching 5.2yards per carry. If he has a quality offseason gets a little stronger without sacrificing his quickness in traffic will compete for the top job in '08.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/31/legwold-offseason-tweaking-ready-begin/
LEGWOLD: Offseason tweaking ready to begin
By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News
Originally published 03:40 p.m., December 31, 2007
Updated 03:40 p.m., December 31, 2007
Twelve teams in the NFL started the postseason wheels spinning Monday. Twelve teams started breaking it all down to get ready for one-and-done games that everybody in the vocational world of football wants to play.
"And we're not one of them,'' said safety John Lynch. "If you play in this league, you have to hate that.''
While the Broncos could certainly see it coming down the tracks for weeks, the offseason officially began Monday with the requisite number of trash bags, cardboard boxes and piles of papers being pulled out of the lockers.
Players were looked over and went their separate ways. And that was that, a 7-9 goes into the books of team history as the second consecutive playoff miss for a group that has openly talked of its playoff worthiness during both of them.
"We just need to tweak the areas that need to be tweaked,'' said Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley.
The tweaking will commence, as it always does, with the annual review of the team's roster.
In Mike Shanahan's Broncos tenure that has meant the defensive coaches look at the offensive players and the offensive coaches look at the defensive players. Lists are made, compared and the players are eventually, after all of the discussion, placed in order.
Top to bottom.
Bottom to top.
And the plan, the organization of the wants and needs, will begin to take shape.
That is the talent side of the equation and while the Broncos players consistently talked about the "talent'' that was around them this season, the simple truth is they were not talented enough to overcome their circumstances enough to keep playing into the next month.
They didn't win enough games to make the postseason. Injuries are a factor, but it would be difficult to argue that a team, like the Colts for example, didn't lose as many key players to injury this season as the Broncos did.
Yet the Colts still won a division that also included both of the AFC's Wild Card teams.
So the Broncos clearly have a talent hurdle, but some others as well.
This from Rod Smith in recent days about a missing "professionalism'' around the Broncos:
"And what I mean by that there's a certain way you've got to go about handling your business, there's a way you go about doing it. You can be a talented person and that's all fine and good, your stats could look great, but if you go about it the wrong way it's all for nothing.''
This has been the underlying theme all season from the Broncos' most veteran eyes in the locker room. One of the same mistakes being made over and over, one of things discussed during the week that were not remembered in the game at the end of the week, one of too many people with eyes on other things besides going about winning in the right way, one of basic frustration about the way things went.
Put it all together and that is a large to-do list. Does it take major upheaval on the roster? Or more accountability? Or a change in parts of the coaching staff?
Likely it will be all of the above in some fashion.
That's because 12 teams were in the playoff business Monday and the Broncos could only press their noses against the glass, because they didn't do what they had to do to get inside.
At 7-9 the Broncos have suffered through just the second losing season in Mike Shanahan's time as head coach.
They expected far more, got far less.
It is why most in and around the team expect changes and plenty of them to repair what did and didn't happen in '07 as the team moves to '08.
OFFENSIVE MVP
What a difference 142 days, 102 catches and 1,325 yards makes.
On Aug. 10 an exasperated Shanahan cornered wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who had not practiced in the first 11 days of training camp because of a thigh injury, in the team's conditioning complex and told him to get on the field.
Fight through the pain was Shanahan's message, that the tests said the muscle was healed, that working through it was "just part of it.''
Marshall went as far as to say; "if it was up to me, I wouldn't have (practiced), but coach wanted me to."
Fast forward through a breakout season's worth of games and Shanahan was talking about Marshall's "maturity'' Sunday night and the potential for him to be "the top guy.''
Marshall has already promised to work with quarterback Jay Cutler, who also gets a significant nod here as well, in the offseason to build on the potential he has now shown.
Smith has said: "(Marshall) should do this every year, and he can, it's up to him. He has to put in the time to be one of those guys who does it year after year after year. You don't want to have one year like this and then come back with 25 catches. That means youre not there yet.''
But in a year when Marshall was the only Broncos wide receiver to play in every game, he went from complimentary player to the front of the line.
The Broncos hope he can now stay there.
DEFENSIVE MVP
Defense is not always a numbers game.
And defensive end Elvis Dumervil's 12.5 sacks are certainly worthy of note and consideration here. And linebacker D.J. Williams' selfless move to three different linebacker spots in the last three seasons that may have hampered some short-term progress in his game should not be under-valued.
He has never complained, even as plenty of heat for the team's defensive failings was tossed his way even as he was one of the league leaders in tackles he finished with 170, 70 more than the next Broncos player.
But cornerback Champ Bailey simply, consistently, affects more of what opposing offenses do than any player the Broncos have on the field defensively.
He tackles better than any cornerback in the league, better than almost any who have been in the league at the position. He studies, he plays beginning to end and he affects play despite the fact most offenses don't even bother to look his way.
He may not have reached his level of '06 when he should have been the league's defensive player of the year, but he is still the best at what he does and promises more.
"I can be better,'' Bailey said. "I want to be better. I want to find ways to make plays and have an impact.''
BREAK IT DOWN
The rumblings have already started in the Broncos complex that assistant head coach/defense Jim Bates could reach some kind of settlement on the two years remaining on his contract and part ways with the team if his meetings with Shanahan in the coming days dont go well.
But no matter who calls the defensive shots in '08 many Broncos players and those outside the team who study such things, like opposing offensive coordinators, say the Broncos defense lacks an identity and doesnt have things it can always fall back on to get out of difficult spots.
For some teams it's a pass rush package or a coverage look.
In baseball it's called the out pitch and the Broncos defense, having played what looked on video to be a hybrid of Bates' and defensive coordinator Bob Slowik's schemes from their past, doesn't have one.
If Shanahan were to replace Bates by promoting Slowik an immediate change may come in the blitz packages. In his last season as a coordinator 2004 in Green Bay Slowik rushed at least five players on 40 percent of pass plays early in that season and had rushed at least five on 29 percent of pass plays overall by the season's end.
He rushed at least six on just over 10 percent of pass plays for the year as well.
With Bailey and Dre' Bly facing the ball in man coverage most of the time anyway in what Slowik has called "a vision technique'' the transition could be one the Broncos could make.
The issue would be for the Broncos to decide their direction. They dialed back the blitz packages in 2006 after the Steelers had defeated the Broncos in the AFC Championship the previous January and Larry Coyer got fired when the Broncos weren't happy with the defensive finish that year as well.
The next step
In many ways this season for Jay Cutler was just about dealing with being the Broncos starting quarterback everything from the attention in and around town to veteran players coming to him and asking both he and Williams to be more vocal, more out front in leading a team while '08 will be about the next move on the developmental curve.
About cutting down interceptions, about more accuracy in the scoring zone, about being what the Broncos want him to be when Shanahan says things like "I think we got one heck of a quarterback for the future.''
The growing demand for efficiency among the league's passers seven topped 4,000 yards this season, a league record has tilted expectations some, but Cutler's 88.1 passer rating in this, his first full season as a starter, is something to build on.
John Elway didn't top 83.4 until his 11th year in the league. No, passer rating doesn't measure it all missing the impact of improvisation, overcoming in-game adversity or leading an offense to wins but it does measure how a passer plays in the mechanical side of the game.
Cutler is ahead of the curve there and how he adapts to the rest of the equation will determine how far the Broncos go with him behind center.
The red (faced) zone
If the Broncos are to recover from back-to-back playoff misses, they have to find a way to be more efficient on both sides of the ball in the scoring zone.
They surrendered 409 points overall, most in the Shanahan era and the most by the team overall since 1967. Their 31 sacks were also the third-lowest total since the start of the '95 season.
They don't force enough turnovers and don't force quarterbacks to play off schedule enough.
Offensively they converted just nine third-down plays just one of those by rushing inside their opponents' 20-yard line and were 0-fer on third-and-2, third-and-3, third-and-4 or third-and-5 plays combined inside the red zone.
Which means if they didn't score a touchdown quickly they couldn't grind it out and get one.
ROOKIE REPORT
DE Jarvis Moss First round, 17th overall
Finished season on injured reserve after fracturing his leg in practice in October. He was on track for plenty of playing time until he injured a knee in training camp. Never seemed to re-gain his pre-injury confidence before then suffering the season-ending injury, but Broncos expect a bigger, stronger Moss to have an impact in '08.
DE Tim Crowder Second round, 56th overall
Played in 13 games at both end and tackle. Finished second on the team with four sacks and had a 50-yard fumble return for a touchdown. Broncos want more, though, since Crowder did not have a sack after Nov. 19.
T Ryan Harris Third round, 70th overall
Played in 11 games on special teams and would be a consideration at left tackle if Matt Lepsis elects to retire. The Broncos believe he could left and right tackle spots as well as guard.
DT Marcus Thomas Fourth round, 121st overall
Played in 16 games, started five. The Broncos like his potential, but want more impact. He finished the year without a sack or a forced fumble.
RB Selvin Young Undrafted
Finished as the team's leading rusher with 729 yards with an eye-catching 5.2yards per carry. If he has a quality offseason gets a little stronger without sacrificing his quickness in traffic will compete for the top job in '08.