Apparently Denver wants to run the ball or something
Denver was 17th in rushing attempts and 17th in yards last year, with 1718 total. That doesn't sound bad until you realize that Denver was TRYING to run the ball, in fact built their offense around rushing, and still couldn't be consistent enough to be a chain-moving offense. They had 85 rushing first downs. The 1997 Broncos had 138, and 135 in 1998 as well. The Houston Texans in Kubiak's playoff years had 114 and 131.
For better or worse, Kubiak wants to run other teams to death. For this team, that's going to be better - nobody wants Sanchez or Lynch having to carry the offense around. The team still threw for almost 4000 yards and ranked higher in passing yards and attempts than in rushing. The passing game is going to have to be there, but the rushing attack in a Kubiak offense needs to carry the water as a top-5 unit, and Denver was nowhere close last year.
Injuries were part of the problem, but shoddy play was definitely another. Denver was 17th in adjusted line yards, and 23rd when it came to getting stuffed in short yardage or tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Some of that was running into a stacked box because Manning couldn't take the top off the defense any more and teams wanted to make Oz feel the pressure as a player with almost no playing time before this year.
Well we're still going to be running into a stacked box this year with Sanchez, and Lynch - whenever he sees the field - is still going to be green as pistachio ice cream. That problem won't change for a minute, so the Broncos need to be able to move people and make holes anyway.
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Hello free agency! I see we had seen enough of our woeful tackle situation that we replaced both tackles (even though we have one coming back from injury in Sambrailo). Sambrailo is supposed to fight for the right tackle spot but slide in at guard if he can't beat out Stephenson. Regardless, that's a vast improvement on Schofield, and if something happens to either tackle Sambrailo is available to move out to the position and our new draftpick McGovern can step up inside.
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Hello draft! I see we decided to take a top-4 running back in this draft in Devontae Booker who runs like he was born for the one-cut, zone read system that we use. He can pass protect, get YAC, make decisive cuts, has great hands out of the backfield, and his weakness (lack of top-end speed) is one we don't really care about as a grind-em up offense. He's an older back, but we had Mike Anderson - we don't care as much about that. He'll keep his QB clean and get his own jersey dirty, and we need both of those things.
We added an incredibly strong tackle-turned-guard (Mcgovern, who was second at the combine in the bench press and one of the strongest men in college football) who can also get to the second level and has good footwork for an interior lineman. He needs some work on pass protection, especially since he's changing positions, but as a combination of Man-Ram's strength and something close to Beadles's movement skills it has the potential to be as good for us as Chris Kuper was.
And then we took a fullback who throws weight around like a lineman (he was out-bench-pressed by just 2 DL, 3 OL and zero LBs) and likes cracking heads in the hole - but can also run well and catch the ball when asked. Tyler Polumbus was on the radio explaining that Kubiak NEEDS a fullback to make the running game work the way he wants. He has that package now.
And most-impressively to me, Elway did it all on day 3, getting more potential impact players on Days 1 and 2 in other areas. If we can rebuild our running attack with good players without having to use prime picks to do it that's an incredible shift of leverage with those picks.
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Two real tackles, stronger interior players, more depth and a true fullback to help a strengthened running back core? Yeah, we're definitely waist-deep into the the Post-Manning Broncos plan now.
It's not going to be a splashy aerial attack, but we know that when Kubes was hired. After getting pounded by Seattle's physical play, Elway has set out to one-up them in that department. He has a Super Bowl trophy to show how well he learned that lesson, and is looking for another while he replaces a Hall of Famer at QB.
That's a high degree of difficulty maneuver - but I don't put anything past Elway at this point. He's building for the long-term while we win right now. Let's see if we can pound the rock like we mean it this year. Made TD and Griffith proud.
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Originally Posted by BroncoWave
