Does Gary Kubiak Have Soft Spot For Backup QB's?

Don't forget your history Denver Broncos fans.

NFL teams are going to chase after the ways that worked until they don't work any more. For a few seasons now, defense has been fighting the offense tooth and nail to determine the championship path of perfection. While no one in Denver is going to complain about the heart trauma we endured en route to winning the crown, no one in Denver- especially the coach- wants to risk heart or health to have a season similar to last year if we can avoid it.

The idea that any champion would prefer not to repeat the same championship journey they just traveled is somewhat unusual when you think about it, but that doesn't take into account the truth of Denver's season.

The truth was as bumpy as riding a wild Bronco promises to be. That ride is actually the same that Denver fans have always endured, fighting to get national commentators that actually want us to win while working our nationally televised games.  Usually, we are the team they pick to lose.

Denver Bronco favorite, Norris Weese,
was injured in 1979 and passed away from cancer
at age 43.  Is this the year for Norris, and Gary?

I understand.  Our history has plenty of victories laced between predictably traumatic losses as well. Some NFL fans once made a business out of betting against the Broncos while I quickly learned the necessary knowledge of never betting for them.  Not that the Broncos don't win, they just never seem to win when my money is on the line.

That is our history.

Coming up short. Getting our hearts Orange Crushed before we could Mile High Salute at the world. We are the underdogs like Norris Weese.

Do you remember Norris Weese? Weese was the player we cried for when Craig Morton's old arse was giving us a headache, and our defense too much work again. Morton's geriatric similarities to what we endured last year, with an old and less than agile Peyton Manning, had this town screaming for the backup just like we did with Weese.

Weese almost saved us in our first Superbowl from having to listen today to Dallas Cowboys fans remind us that they won that game and that they are still America's Team. Thanks to that Superbowl IT session, Weese got the starting job the next year, but a knee injury that year (1979) ended his playing career forever. Weese passed away from cancer in 1995. He was 43 years old.

Thankfully, Manning's injury (wink, wink) made way for Brock Osweiler to prove himself a capable player in the league, but he also helped to prove that he really didn't have IT either, while proving the same thing that Manning had been proving before he got too hurt to watch anymore.

Osweiler and Manning both proved that Denver's defense was other worldly.

We just about saw the backup step up and be the hero, until suddenly he started to really look like a backup again.  How that scenario played out combined with how this current QB scenario is playing out shows telling signs of what happens when your head coach has been carrying the clipboard for too damn long.

Back in his playing days, Gary Kubiak was our other Norris Weese. Fans of sports love to engage in revisionist history, but the truth is that a lot of you fans did not really like Michael Jordan the way you like him now, and John Elway had to finally win a couple of titles to avoid the same career ridicule that Manning was about to endure if last year's SB50 win didn't fix that for him too.

Elway was a high risk player for years. For some time, his passes were too hot even for his own teammates to handle.  His first coach was way too conservative and often boxed the team into such predictability that we could be diagnosed and disrupted rather easily by the opposing defense.  Elway did not always thrive in that conservative format even though he always showed signs of IT. Like Paxton Lynch, Elway was drafted in the kind of slot that makes you have to show and prove, not sit and stew.

Between 1983 when Elway arrived and 1984 when we got rid of Steve DeBerg and forced our young QB to sink or swim, Elway got benched more than once. At first it was for the more experienced DeBerg, until we got rid of him, leaving backup duties in the hands of Kubiak. 3 out of 5 of Kubiak's career starts came during those first two season of Elway and Kubiak, simply because Elway was that bad back then.

What is the difference between a legendary starter and their backup?  We don't really know because those backups serve a role to make sure we never really get to know them that well.  They are the spot duty bridge that keeps the legend afloat throughout the season so that they can be legendary when times comes to make their legend known.

In reality, the legend Manning ended up being as good as he needed to be when he needed to be good. Yet, his good was the same good that Elway displayed when he finally became a champion himself. Both versions of good involved turning around and handing the ball to the bucking Bronco out of the backfield in Terrell Davis or CJ Anderson last season.

Denver, as a franchise, might be looking to return to the way it was, but the way it was had Hall of Fame quarterbacks winning titles in the end of their careers. Similarly, both were motivated and humbled by failure and frailty, seeking to end things on a good note.  The way it is NOW has two backups types trying to do what the HOF'ers typically take care of on championship teams while keeping the heir apparent away from his inevitable throne.

Will A Game Manager Do?

Trent Dilfer was already a regular starter of the Baltimore Ravens team that he is credited for "game managing" to a championship. That team was a lot like this team though, on the list of defensive GOAT's in the NFL. Denver's defense joined that conversation after winning the Superbowl last year, giving room and rise to the possibility of a "game manager" quarterback replacing Manning to help this team win it all again.

What we should consider is the fact that the Denver Broncos tried like heck to keep Brock Osweiler for too much money, but lost him to Houston for too much money.  Would the Broncos have offered too much money if Kubiak did not think Osweiler could be groomed to be worth the money? Early report from Houston is that Osweiler probably isn't really worth the money.

In other words, Mark Sanchez is not only trying to compete against his own butt-fumbling history, he is competing with a coach who clearly has some secret Norris Weese syndrome; some love and wonderment for a backup who seems to have IT, but never really got a chance to show IT because of whatever reason backups like to use.

Is Jordan Taylor making us need a 6th receiver and one less QB?

For now, the guys that would usually be out in front are out of the way, and the only thing keeping Trevor Siemian from getting a chance to show he can lead this championship defense to another one is our collective anxiety of going into a regular season with two inexperienced quarterbacks, and that's it.

Keeping two QB's and cutting Sanchez might make room for a 6th receiver, a spot Jordan Taylor will need opened if he hopes to be the next great white receiver from Denver.

Kubiak has lauded the ability of Siemian for some time now, especially on the day that he had to explain why we needed Sanchez in the first place.

Kubiak might have named Siemian the starter when we first lost Osweiler if there had already been a book on him to go with.  He is now attempting to help Siemian write a book that Broncos fans will respect and believe in enough to stick with him until Lynch can't be held down anymore. Siemian is nursing a shoulder ding that he took while trying to stop the pick 6 that he threw against San Francisco, yet his coach has named him as the starter, not knowing if he'll even be healthy enough to play? That's all you need to know to understand that the coach has a soft spot for backups like he was.

Kubiak entered the league the exact same year that Elway did and served as his backup for 9 years in Denver. He compiled a 3-2 record in spot starter duty, and had 14 touchdowns with 16 interceptions and 1,920 yards passing. There is no easy way to say, one way or the other, what type of player Kub's would have been if given the chance because history doesn't work that way. Sanchez on the other hand has had chances more than once and seems capable at times but extremely bad at other moments.

We've seen some of his worst play in recent years (YouTube the worse if you have not), but none of it has really happened while in Denver yet.  Although we all want to hold him to account for the interception and the fumbles that happened in the first two preseason games, no one wants to hold the coach to account for not running the ball more than he passed it, like we expect he will do in the regular season.

If we want to be perfectly honest, who in the entire western hemisphere doesn't realize that Peyton Manning has retired, and the Broncos are searching for their next quarterback?

Does this guy look like he has IT, or is he more ordinary
like Kyle Orton? Is ordinary good enough for this team?

Clearly, every defensive coordinator in the league knows this, so the expectation of too many hand off's would contradict the types of things you're looking to evaluate when evaluating quarterbacks: things like throwing accuracy and pocket awareness.

Sanchez is fairly good with accuracy but pretty crappy with pocket awareness.  Running the ball a lot more will help this, but he may never get to that luxury if he can't show us how he'll react when things are off schedule; when defenses are defending us like the defending champion we are.

Siemian may not have the IT factor that wows your senses, but he does have some special stuff that makes you feel Gary Kubiak warm, or Norris Weese kind of comfortable. Without a doubt, he has the quiet hopes of the coach that, with opportunity and growth, he might do no worse than what Manning and Osweiler did last year.

Better yet, he'd like him to do just a little bit better than Manning and Osweiler did last year if he can. Kubiak's search is for someone that can keep it close enough for our defense to make plays by limiting turnovers.

I expect Siemian to get a real shot this year in part because of the backup syndrome of our head coach who has already named Siemian a starter this week even though he is not fully healthy from the hit he took. Kubiak might have squelched the questions of who will get the benefit of game 3 game planning and minutes, but he is also signaling to the entire league who he hopes will win the first game of regular season job by giving that player the inside track to prove himself Kubiak or Weese like.

I am still hopeful that Kubiak, and Broncos fans, give Sanchez a fair chance to show how he would run THIS offense and not some distorted tryout version of our offense that allows defensive opponents to not play honest.

Not that I think Sanchez offers us any real hope for victory. His reliably marginal play behind our reliably stringent defense could actually serve as a functional bridge for Siemian to be our new Norris Weese, wanted and supported by fans for several games, buying time for Lynch- the guy with IT- to get ready to take us to that next level.

Conversely, if you make Siemian the immediate starter, moving to Sanchez in the hopes of him being something dramatically better or different than his history, would be foolish to expect and hard to sell to fans without severe skepticism. Sanchez's only real value to this team is to be thrown to the wolves; to serve as a bridge to Siemian and then Lynch, which means Sanchez plays as long as we are winning. Siemian must equally serve as a bridge to Lynch who must NOT be given the job but must win the job in practice. Lynch must be given enough time to learn his role without getting shell shocked and ruined by NFL edge rushers while learning.

Not that players with IT ever experience that kind of shell shock, but they do experience injury when placed in the wrong NFL situation.

Will being a career coach /backup QB help Kub's
or cause him to have a soft spot for the wrong guy?

Unless Sanchez does something we've never seen him consistently do, and balls out like he's auditioning for his next team (which he is), Siemian is being given the first chance to also ball out and keep the rookie from seeing the field this year if he so desires.

Either way, this season promises to be another serious display of Denver's coaches making the most of whatever hand they are dealt and still yielding championship performance. We'll need a lot of luck to shine on this team and end an eery turnover trend that's been happening for over a year now.

If the Broncos are truly lucky enough to actually win another title- with butt fumble or a backup QB no less- this one will be for Kubiak the coach and for Kubiak, the clip board carrying, lifelong backup quarterback. 

And for Norris Weese.

Peyton Manning's DNA, Tainting Preseason Practice

It's that time again Denver Broncos fans.
Putting on my thinking cap for the coming season. 

I just don't really know how to get across to some of my Broncos fans how much Peyton Manning will remain in our DNA for years to come.

I understand the impact of his legacy on the NFL and how that might have played a role in the way things played out at the end. If Broncos haters want to call my team lucky because it all worked out in the end, I was of the mindset to agree with them as I look from the sideline at our coaches try to "do it again" for the lack of a better description.

Again is a bit of a reach. Neither Mark Sanchez, Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch are expected to have the mind of Peyton after so many years of experience that he had and they don't.

Actually, that is exactly what they're kinda being asked and I can show you how and why.

If Broncos Coach, Gary Kubiak, was truly beholden to his own system as being something even remotely special, why would he replace a HIGHLY successful coach in John Fox- with an unspoken mandate to do better than Fox did, and quickly because Peyton is on his way out- but relent to Manning's system just like Fox did?

We have to accept that the hybrid model that developed out of last year was not something Kubiak had any way of expecting to work.  He might have expected his ability to inspire people to have some value, but he is a play caller just like Manning, and his play calling had to constantly give way to fake defensive looks and Manning being so easily baited into audibles by them.

The result?

An epic number of interceptions that horrified the ball control coach to the extent of shutting down his Hall of Fame QB in the 4th quarter of the Superbowl from throwing in the red zone.  By the end, Kubiak no longer trusted Manning to not turn the ball over, nor did we.

Enter the new year, and the quarterbacks are mostly brand new except for one who was an internal witness to the ass chewing that Manning often got as a result of so much carelessness with the football- ass chewing that almost had Manning watching Osweiler throughout his final Superbowl chase.  Siemian might be in the lead of the QB race in training camp, but that's mostly because he has had a year of understanding what pisses dad off the most and how to avoid doing that list of things.

Things that Sanchez was famous for prior to arriving in Denver.  The hopes must have been that our coaching staff could do things others have not been able to achieve with Sanchez, or that he had been out of a job as a starter for long enough to learn from his mistakes and change his stripes a bit.

Our excellent defense should be expected to make plays from time to time, yet the natural apprehension from a guy with a tainted history is unavoidable.  Sanchez is not Manning, and does not have the resume that would allow you to relax in the face of ball control issues like we tried to do with Manning. We've seen Manning burn defenses over and over and over again, so the expectation of more was never always, even as we crossed the finish line needing cardiac resuscitation.

Now all of that is gone and the only hope we have for resurrecting Manning's magical parts is Siemian who saw it or Kubiak who taught it.

In a recent practice, one in which the offense had seen enough days of havoc from our vaunted defense, the head coach decided to switch out the names of some plays so that the defense could not keep jumping the routes.

The result?

The defense was burned over and over and over again. In fact, one burn never got to happen because Chris Harris Jr. reached out and grabbed Emmanuel Sanders to avoid the embarrassment.

The result?

A rather big fight that caused both players to be sent to the showers and a whole lot of media types to question who was mostly in the wrong on this one, Harris Jr. or Sanders.  My first thought was to side with the media that saw Sanders respond in a way that was a bit demonstrative considering Harris Jr. is a teammate. In deeper thought, Harris Jr. was burned in practice from the Peyton Manning switch up, the same as some of his other teammates had been burned before him, but he chose to respond in a way that could have injured Sanders if you think about it.

There really was nothing to be gained from grabbing your own teammate except the avoidance of embarrassment. Embarrassment that probably never would have happened  so naturally if Coach Kubiak had not spent time with Peyton.

The adjustment was a Peyton adjustment, bottom line. So is the trend that is developing of players staying later for more work after the coaches have already released them from practice for the day.  At first it was only Demarius Thomas and some injured guys.  Soon Sanders joined as did a flock of other seagulls. Now, the stay late's are a bit staggering in numbers.

That is all Manning, pure and simple.

Even the fact that Sanchez is being derided for making interceptions in practice, while Siemian is being asked to take chances- or burn them like Peyton would, versus stay with the safe check down pass and hand off audibles (the Kubiak offense) that keep the turnovers at a minimum- is all Manning's fault.

Sadly, Sanchez is not only going to be a victim of his own poor history with turnovers, he is going to be a victim of the unquenchable feeling of luck that a few Cowboys fans I know, and Gary Kubiak, will never shake after winning it all despite so many damn turnovers.

...and Manning. Sanchez is an indirect victim of Manning's blood mixed up inside of ours. We would have never won without Manning. Yes, he is like Sea Salt to Kubiak's Mrs. Dash, and the Superbowl game probably got over salted some as it relates to whose ingredients got used the most. Manning is now a necessary ingredient- in moderation- and one you don't easily dismiss after trying it out for a while.

Sanchez, Siemian, Kubiak, Elway and everyone who calls themselves a Bronco, will carry the DNA of Manning in our system simply because we actually won directly from that sprinkle of whatever it is that he does.  If the Elway way or the Mile High Salute teams could be revived exactly as they were originally comprised, Kubiak would not have been fired in Houston and would not have acquiesced to Manning when coming here to replace Fox.

We won just as much because of Manning as we did in spite of him Broncos fans. Nothing is really going to take that infusion of salt out of our necessary ingredients for another crown.  Our team was partially crafted by the success of the Seattle Seahawks who gave us the pain and focus from our 5th loss in the final game of the year. Similarly, future teams will be crafted by the ground control, killer defense approach that won our title last year.  None of those teams who witnessed our success last year, will erase the feeling of fear caused by an aged and slightly injured quarterback, that still made defenses play perfect, or else.

Teams don't fear the Broncos this year because they don't have any reason- except our defense- which can only produce so many points in a game and probably can't duplicate last year's timely miracles, over and over and over again.

You know who agrees with them the most?

Kubiak, which is evidenced this preseason in each of his quarterbacks looking to sprinkle a dash of Manning on the situation where possible- to spice things up- versus repeating ground and pound mastery as was common to the Kubiak way that we all used to know.

After winning with Manning, Kubiak will never be the same coach, and that's a good thing.  He will always understand that predictability of the legendary teams is only moot when you can actually win one on one battles at every position on the field, which isn't easy against Khalil Mack.  That generation of smash mouth football "NO MATTER WHAT" existed long enough to have a reasonable counter approach.  Solid man defense if you have the talent, or 8 in the box if you don't and dare Sanchez, Siemian or even old man Manning to beat you with his arm- over and over and over again.

Call It The Maniak Offense

What we won with last year was a genuine amalgamation of two great NFL minds. That kind of stuff doesn't shake itself off when the new year comes around, or stay quiet when you need to prepare for a new season to top the last one. Inevitably, Kubiak had to ask himself why- as a coach- did HIS system never work all by itself?  What role did Manning truly play in making Kubiak a championship coach finally?

Whether he came here and pre-planned this conversion with himself or not, Kubiak is now a caretaker of the book of Manning as it relates to the work ethic of the team leaders, the attention to detail of the entire team. But mostly he is now a lead disciple of run, run, run, Omaha, run, Omaha.

....or whatever the audible name's are for today.

You see, Manning was more than just famous for extra film study. Plenty of players do plenty of that. What set Manning apart from other quarterbacks was his diligence to study himself.  To search out his own flaws and to listen to his calls that were captured on tape just to determine if it was necessary to change the name of the call so that other teams had no keys on him.

Manning would do exactly what Kubiak did the other day that caused the now famous fight between Harris Jr. and Sanders.

I won't blasphemously call Manning Jesus or anything that edgy, but his career will be like the reading of a new doctrine, one that will be studied for years to come and one that someone will eventually have the audacity to try and duplicate in some shape or fashion.

The greatest likelihood is that player will come from Denver seeing as how we were so fortunate to successfully experience the final days of Manning's ministry first hand.

From several tell tell signs in Broncos training camp, his ministry lives on.
 

My Brother Troy Brewer: The Only Real Broncos Fan

I tried really hard to write some cool post about the upcoming season and the prospects for a team that is fresh off of winning a Superbowl, but much like last year, nobody has Denver coming out on top again except my brother Troy.

That's right.  Unless your name is Troy E. Brewer (aka., TC from the MOB), you did not expect this team to win Superbowl 50 until 20 minutes after it was over and the truth was no longer refutable.  Those of you who think ANY Superbowl champ is just lucky are still in a state of shock over it all, and the new season is just around the corner.


Only my brother Troy had the Broncos winning it all, but truth be told, he has Denver going undefeated almost every year, which usually has him sounding like that boy who cried wolf.

Like that boy, eventually Troy was right too. While we never got the rest of the story about that wolf crying boy, if my brother Troy is an accurate example, I would imagine that many of the villagers went back to being skeptical about the boys claims. No, they didn't alter the wolf sighting system one bit as the boy continued in his unique role of being the ONLY ONE WATCHING out for wolves. Skepticism, however, does not die so easily.

When wolves or wild Broncos ransack the village, they briefly grab attention but can't hold it captive for some reason.  Maybe it's the pompous skepticism of once great men, like those 49'ers or Cowboys who think they control things they haven't even touched in the modern era of civilization or sports. These Broncos have seen the mountain top and understand the climb. They've built a team perfectly capable of finishing this expedition again. Yet, even in the face of strong reasons to believe, people form opinions that they would rather not stand down from until they have little choice.

Because the Broncos have lost more Bowl's than they've won, we all have choice and opinions about them.  Maybe America prefers 4-12 or 8-8 and a playoff loss? Denver may never be America's new team, but can we acknowledge the recent history of success of the Broncos organization, or must we excuse their full throttled control of national news every year since Tim Tebow played, as luck or something else?

Not that any team would choose to willingly let go of a moniker so bodacious as America's Team. Disregard, if you can, that large parts of America never watched America's Team win for America since their last championship predates the Internet. Nonetheless, Dem Boys insist themselves to be "America's Team" even while most of America is Google searching pictures of when Dallas was a perennial winner instead of a putting any real championship hope in a scrambling Tony Romo who is one injury away from being the excuse for 4-12 again.

As Dallas fans insist that America could care less about those destructive Broncos because they are waiting on Dem Boys to return to championship form, keep in mind that few teams in the NFL have won as many games, division and conference titles- or championships- as the Broncos have since America's Team last won a title. New England has reason to stake a claim over the NFL since they've won 4 titles (1 more than Denver) after 1995 (the last Cowboy championship).

That's right.  You 20 year olds who play Madden football video games don't really know John Madden or the days when Dallas actually won championships.

Maybe even the Steelers should drape their curtain over Dallas with 2 championship wins in this century and the most of all time. Both Steelers and Cheaters fans are among the skeptics unwilling to acknowledge that a wild bucking Bronco could crash the village again, running away with the valuables as they've done on 3 out of 4 attempts post '96.

3 Superbowl victories don't outweigh the distrust that friends and foe alike have developed from the Denver Broncos 5 losses, forgetting that 8 times now Troy was right- the wolf was truly at the gate of the village. One more appearance will establish Denver as the wolf to fear the most giving the Broncos the record for most times having stormed the village.

Our skeptical Broncos fans enjoyed winning a title.  Sort of.  What they don't enjoy is being the laughing stock of Superbowl losing appearances, or the anxiety of it happening again.  Elway removed some of that stigma when he could play, but Manning brought it back in spades while falling short in every season as a Bronco including last year's Superbowl victory in which he barely did enough to not hurt the defense or shame his family name. In an odd way, it felt like Elway had done it again for this team, especially to the anxiety filled whose emotional instability proves their level of confidence and their true opinions about the potential outcome.

People don't enjoy being wrong in their opinions even when their opinion spells doom to their own team. Essentially, that amounts to most people being happy to never or rarely play for a title instead of being the Buffalo Bills or the Minnesota Vikings, or the Denver Broncos, whose losses have become fodder for ridicule and humorous memes.

Actually, Cowboys fans seem perfectly fine with being wrong because they keep creating those memes to discredit winning teams while longing for the day they get to meme their first playoff win since they haven't had one during the era of meme's.

I expressed my own opinions of doom against the air force Broncos, not the ground control team that won the Superbowl. I also proudly boasted when my opinions bore fruit. Actually, the Manning air force refused to simply die and go away while that ground control team never remained around long enough for anyone to know if they would show up when it mattered the most. So, even I had to wonder which team would be there in the end. In hindsight, uncertainty might have been a major key to our Superbowl victory.

In hindsight, Troy wasn't selling wolf tickets about the Broncos. He always expected his team would show up when it mattered. To believe his team could win every game has never meant that they couldn't be challenged, it only meant that they were perfectly capable of meeting every challenge, be that injury or free agency.

 Most of us knew Brandon Marshall has been taking over for Danny Trevathan for a couple of seasons, starting right at the point of Trevathan's knee injury two years ago, and is actually the leader of the defense that made Trevathan and his rebuilt knee expendable. Troy, on the other hand, probably watched and remembers Marshall from college or earlier, and likely expected him to become the player he is now. He probably even told us so, but no one really listened to him before. Like many fans, Troy occasionally over estimates the efficacy of his own draftees, but he was Mel Kuyper before Mel knew we needed him. His love for this team and the acquired talent exists because he knows and follows the players much closer than most. Always has.

When Troy got a new football helmet as a toddler, I recall him jumping out of our brother's bathtub to go try out his Floyd Little moves in the front lawn.

No, he did not put his clothes on first.  Just the helmet.

Has he been picking the Broncos to go undefeated since Floyd Little ran on our fields inspiring a streaking football fanatic toddler?  Why yes he has.  At least in his heart.

The rest of us Broncos fans need to acknowledge that John Elway, and his cast of characters wearing Orange and Blue, shocked everyone but Troy.

Fully loaded teams rarely repeat, so the history doesn't point to any new reason for the Broncos to win with Butt Fumble Sanchez or some first year dude as their new quarterback. Although most skeptics will tell you that they are not picking the Superbowl 50 winners to do a darn thing this year either- since Superbowl winners don't usually lose a quarterback or two en route to a repeat- most peoples expectations are exactly the same as they were last year, mainly because we all hated being so wrong about Elway, Coach Gary Kubiak and the Broncos before.


NOBODY BELIEVES IN THE DENVER BRONCOS....... 
                                                                 
                                                      ..........QUITE LIKE TROY

This is my bro Troy.  Don't disrespect his big head.  Maybe
that's where all of the football knowledge is stored. #DB4L

They proved EVERYONE but Troy to be either totally wrong or thoroughly skeptical. We ALL doubted everything he told us the Broncos could do up until the final buzzer proved us wrong and him right. We could relent and acknowledge that we had no clue, while Elway and Troy did, but who does that?

I will.

I will stand down from my measured mediocrity predictions of this year and last, because it is only rooted in my lingering doubt of a team that shocked us and defied our expectations to begin with. They couldn't even finish the last game with anything predictable except defense. Yet they won, and they continue to chisel and form this defense under the watchful hands of a coaching staff that's only had one year to put it's fingerprint on things, but still molded this team to the top of the heap.

For this team to take a big step backwards means the coaching staff had no clue and didn't pull off
miracles by marrying two opposing offensive concepts into one. Stepping back means they'll have a harder time without Manning forcing the entire offense to learn said two concepts. The evidence says otherwise. The evidence says that Denver will be cleaning up their offensive approach and clarify everyone's role more than they did en route to winning it all.

So Today I join Troy, the driver of the real Broncos bandwagon. Not with that annual undefeated wolf crying prediction, but with the full fledged, genuine endorsement of this team and its championship belief of themselves. Given the history and the results, my Denver Broncos are as likely as a Patriot, and much more likely than Dem Boys to steal another one from the Steelers and come out on top again.

If the Cowboys fans can actually justify their optimism after 4-12 and a failed offensive line that they hope can keep Romo upright and make lanes for a rookie runner, why should Broncos fans be more worried?.

Pulling off the impossible with minimal expectation removes the need not worry, because you've already completed the impossible. To the average NFL fan, the only thing more implausible than last season will be Denver's even more unexpected repeat. When you hop on the proper bandwagon, you don't worry either because you discover that to true champions, the unexpected suddenly becomes beyond plausible. It's expected. This team won because they couldn't imagine losing, kinda like Troy, the Real Broncos Fan.

So drive on big bro.  Until further notice, you and Elway are the only people who seem to understand this football business, and you both have me and this team convinced of our prospects for the season ahead.