Could Winning Be Worse Than Losing For Denver?

I could use this moment to reinforce my contention that Trevor Siemian is the best of a mediocre stable of quarterbacks, but I must concede that choosing between mediocrity is highly subjective when talking QB's.

All of you Broncos fans who are still debating the value of this stable of quarterbacks should stop it, that ship has sailed. Brock Osweiler and Siemian are, at best, career backups while Paxton Lynch is fighting like hell to overcome that ankle injury (wink, wink) and prove he even belongs in the NFL.

I totally understand Lynch's fears given the toxic combination of our offensive line, crappy play-calling and over-inflated expectations of every quarterback. But even with one eye, you can see that the pirate Paxton is headed back out to sea soon. In other words, unless we commit to a full rebuild and wait for him improvement plan, that ship has sailed too.

Deciding to play Lynch in an inconsequential game because Kansas City has secured the AFC West title doesn't lessen the dangers of playing any NFL player who isn't desperately angling to display his skill and will to win. Unlike Lynch, Siemian is tough as nails and eager to play with pain as needed. If the Chiefs aren't okay with losing prior to the playoffs, this game could send Lynch back to hijacking forever, assuming our offensive line and play-calling jump ship again.

Nonetheless, if there remains any debate in the Denver quarterback conversation and you'd like to flip a coin between Siemian and Osweiler, I will save you the trouble and give you Osweiler on an ounce of durability Siemian hasn't proven to possess.

It's not really important that the Broncos fans or the coaching staff have finally sort of accepted the mediocrity of their quarterbacks even if it has helped them to start calling more of the kind of plays that gives NFL QB mediocrity a chance in hell. CJ Anderson looking like CJ Anderson should have been our primary quarterback plan from day one, but too much conversation about Jamal Charles, Devontae Booker and bringing the "juice' confused all of that.

While a fair amount of losing has shined a light, exposed our weaknesses and shown us a direction for winning, recent games still point to a coaching staff hell-bent on proving to Elway that they can bring that juice he hired them for, despite every attempt to do so leading to turnovers, losing and a bunch of excuses why they have no choice but to juice it up when down one or two scores early, as if the smart fans of Denver forgot who hired you and what he asked you to bring.

At least Vance is no longer sprinkling this rancid tasting juice he and John concocted with that excuse of no identity anymore. Someone in the GM office must have informed him the two guys that are responsible for establishing such things.

Though we seem reluctant to embrace it, the identity of this team is the identity of winning in this league. We should know it by now because Seattle set the tone when they destroyed us with it in Superbowl 48, and every team since (Denver in Superbowl 50, the Patriots in 49 & 51) either mimicked the same formula or they don't have a ring on their fingers.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots may have been forced to abandon it when coming back to win the crown last year, but even Brady and Belichick employ the run the ball and play defense approach until you make them change it. No name after no name has proven effective running for New England, and the Atlanta Falcons were clearly the team trying to win with the offense during last years Superbowl defeat to the Patriots.

Like Floyd Little and The Orange Crush D, are Terrell
Davis and great defense more symbolic of the Broncos
identity than a scrambling Elway and his rocket arm?

Despite minimal rushing attempts in way too many games this season, Denver fans have consistently watched Broncos running backs maintain a solid statistical standing (3rd in the NFL)  along with a consistent defense that tries to overcome every attempt by our juicy offense to give games away.

Interceptions dating back to our championship season two years ago have created a collective longing for the days of the No Limit Soldiers. Now, you can virtually hear a collective exclamation all across Broncos Country of "run the damn ball....please", each time the team goes three and out.

When the Broncos have won in recent years they have primarily committed to a single back approach and to running the ball twice as much as they pass. When they lose, no particular running back get's enough attempts to find a rhythm and the run to pass numbers reverse themselves. It's that simple. Elway desired something juicier than Tebow from the moment he first acquired Peyton Manning and he continues to look for better and juicier stuff like he enjoyed from his younger years when he was a young stud Californian turned Bronco trying to cheat the process with a rocket arm and coming up short in the end.

In a search for something juicier, Elway lets go of an older John Fox in a move that was mutually desired. Friendship or not, the exact same thing could be said of the Kubiak departure. Elway's current marriage to Vance Joseph came with a couple of years of courting him and with a prenuptial expectation of something that sounded to fans like a return to the run-first approach in Denver that was famous for a salute and for making household names out of anybody who took to the Broncos backfield. Why John isn't a bit wiser about the dangers of the juice only John, and maybe his ex-wife Janet, understands.

If that last paragraph was too outdated or double entendre-filled for some to follow, you can trace Denver's commitment to an identity to very recent history when we begrudgingly ran the ball behind the legendary Peyton Manning en route to a Superbowl victory. The more this team attempts to win in a way diametrically opposed to methods of a recent past, our Superbowl 50 magic starts to look more and more like the wisdom of Elway's former love, Gary Kubiak, who decided to salvage their friendship by ending the coaching relationship.

Kubiak and tons of smart fans might have left that championship season feeling towards Elway the same way the rest of us are starting to feel now. Even in victory, those skeptical fans were right to question Elway's general ability to manage tough situations, much less to be the full-fledged General Manager and VP of Operations over a proud and accomplished organization.

From my personal Kharma-inspired view of life and sports, much of the bad luck is the byproduct of Elway's  Tim Tebow mistake, when he ironically had no choice but to manage around someone else's mediocre first-round QB pick who was also learning to play but was actually winning while doing it, unlike now. That also worked way more than Elway anticipated and Tebow earned a chance to stay in this league, at the least, to learn the game behind Manning.

With Tebow and Kubiak, Elway shunned the hoopla and results to prove he could do better.

On the surface, Superbowl 50 appeared to be Elway's fulfillment on that promise, but once again, it's beginning to feel more and more an accident with every passing day. Well, not an accident, but certainly not as much of an Elway creation as we thought at the time.

Since that Superbowl victory, a few of the players Elway determined expendable (Malik Jackson, Danny Trevathan, TJ Ward) have left some to wonder if he even recognized the elements that stirred our defense into greatness. Some of the same concern applies to his drafting of quarterbacks.When you look at his quarterbacks on paper, they all have "the look" though none have shown the 'it' factor that makes Russell Wilson or Drew Brees not need the statuesque look that Elway seems to covet.

The slight against Elway and his current coaching staff is for their passionate departure from an identity that won a ring, and for possibly putting politics over championships by rejecting Colin Kaepernick. Kharma is a ghost. Letting go of Tim Tebow and head coaches more capable than Vance Elway while deciding Kaepernick didn't deserve the same cup of coffee you gave Mark Sanchez are coming back to haunt Dove Valley and everyone who works there.

TIn fact, it might be the ghosts at Dove Valley that have apparently forced some folks on the Broncos coaching staff to start accepting their identity and return to the Tim Tebow formula for winning games, making winning much more likely regardless the competition. Control the ball and limit turnovers and Denver still has a defense able to dominate teams like the Indianapolis Colts,  the New York Jets or even a Kansas City Chiefs team that has little to nothing to play for this today. Turn the ball over and the Broncos make pathetic teams with pathetic names like the Washington Redskins look special.

If the juice John covets is actually just creative play-calling, he's actually on the right track. Denver will need something juicier than Vance Elway and his staff could muster this season if he is fortunate enough to find his voice and return to introduce himself to fans who still don't know much about him.

Assuming he is not retained, Vance at least can start trying to recapture whatever remains of his own forgotten name and reputation. If I were Vance Elway, I would take solace from the reality that this team has looked virtually the same no matter who has coached it in recent years, so it might not be the head coach causing this.

Hindsight and the tape say had they given CJ the ball another 15 times for 88 yards versus the Washington Redskins, they probably would have eliminated the passing game turnovers that turned a very winnable game against them.

From my view of things, what the Broncos are scrambling to accomplish on the field to close out this season is only solidifying how utterly incompetent they are in the front office.

Ovussly, the recent championship history did not make this
job the jewel Joseph hoped it would be.

After months of watching our new coach take to the podium and aw-shucks us into thinking he is either too nice or can't coach football, we still don't really know if he can coach when he keeps going for it on fourth down in the second quarter like a battered wife afraid any point deficit speaks to an imminent beat down.

I would call Vance Elway a wife who needed a better prenuptial lawyer, but that five-year deal doesn't kiss ass even if Vance clearly does. If he stays or goes, he'll be like Tiger Woods ex-wife, just fine.

There's really no way Vance is the main reason we have switched quarterbacks like underwear from preseason on anyway. His devotion to Elway created that mess. My biggest problem with Vance Elway comes when he is questioned about his quarterbacks. He almost never says 'I", preferring instead to describe every decision that is made as "We decided", which means "Elway made me do it" to us smart Broncos fans.

When addressing the brilliant media of a smart fan base, Kubiak often had to differentiate between decisions where he made the final call versus decisions when Elway might have felt differently. Kubiak demanded freedom from front office intrusion when he took the job and regularly shot back at reporters with the words "John understands that I have a team to coach".

In hindsight, did John understand or did he have an issue with the previous coaches he couldn't intrude upon?  Ovussly, Vance Elway and a five-year commitment to a company man coach who tows the company line kinda answers that question fo' us, doesn't it? Reports say John will announce his future with Vance after the final game ends, so we'll soon see.

Warning, Vance Elway!!!

Simply towing the company line might appear to be in the best interest of your career, but not necessarily in a town like Denver where fans are just too smart and too engaged to even endure HOF coaches for a minute too long when it's time for them to go. It's also not so smart if you are building a future resume of coaching style expectations for other teams to examine. Eventually, Vance will need to divorce himself from being John's newest love interest just to establish his own name as an NFL head coach, especially since John is treading water at GM and seems more focused on becoming an owner someday so he can do his intruding like Jerry Jones does it.

Vance would also do well to realize that John's history with coaches thus far has not been any better than his quarterback drafting skills. Smart fans of Denver are willing to give John and Vance Elway time to grow with the rebuild, but we haven't forgotten the kind of coaches John already let go of. A coach with any less a spine than our last three runs the risk of becoming like Jason Garrett or whoever is the next Jerry Jones puppet in Dallas.

John and Vance need to immediately take a knee and pray together. Partially to stay together beyond one year- which will look terribly bad on both men- and partially that Kyle Sloter never turns into much of anything so Broncos fans don't have to burn John and Vance in effigy as we continue searching for a future at quarterback that isn't currently in-house.

Instead of squeezing through impossible Superbowl windows, I'm all in favor of drafting and developing offensive players who can catch a punt return or play with pain to open a Superbowl door in the near future instead of just beating these two frightened ponies called Isaiah McKenzie and Paxton Lynch to death.

Even if they finally play every player we need to know about on today, John and Vance Elway should both be held accountable for this team's lack of player development, the unwillingness to play players you trusted enough to keep after preseason, and for an overall directional stalemate.

If you follow the talk radio circuit, you realize that Elway is catching heat for sure. Yet, crap notoriously runs downhill where Vance and the coaching staff that Elway gave him currently reside.   

A GM who recognizes his own mess-ups, and isn't pressing his new coach to clean up poop he inherited would have already forced Paxton to play, bad ankle (wink, wink) or not. The accountable GM would also take to the same talk radio circuit that is lambasting him and his new coach to explain the team's direction just as he readily did when dumping Tebow for Manning or stealing coach Kubiak's Superbowl 50 credit.


Any GM who DOES NOT care to clean his own mess and chart a comforting path towards correction for his very smart fans to follow would also readily allow a coach he signed for five years to continue to play mostly veterans players, and to try and save a lost season against teams that stink and are a lot more experienced with tanking than the Broncos.

It's as if Elway doesn't realize our team stinks too and will need major free agency luck or a major draft and wait overhaul, not just another aging quarterback who will struggle mightily behind our crappy offensive line just as Peyton and everybody else has.

And for certain, we do not need another rookie quarterback unless John and Vance Elway now understand what waiting on a rookie quarterback entails. Any team unwilling to develop and wait for its young talent needs to be like the Patriots and reconsider the draft as a primary building component beyond stashing trade-bait like Jimmy Garapolo for some other desperate team.

You also will need to have Tom Brady playing quarterback for a few decades if you want drafting not to matter nearly as much. We will all soon see if Belichick can coach without a legend playing quarterback or will the Patriots be forced like so many others to accept the 'tank and rebuild' approach after Brady hangs it up?

Is Von Miller A Denver Bronco For Life? Should He Be?

I realize fellow Broncos fans might appreciate the break that winning for a couple of games had given us from those Broncos haters who love to razz us when we are down, but those teams haven't won in a long time and are enviously staring at our Superbowl 50 ring when they talk. Their emotions are not to be treated as genuine or as a reason to see winning as terribly necessary right now. The time it will take to build this back up might take longer than our most expensive players have to wait. We run a dangerous risk that emotion might slow our willingness to release, and thus acquire key assets at crucial moments.

Who we have coaching our team isn't quite as important as the question of who that coach will be asked to keep or discard going forward. Yet, if John is truly evaluating the same coach he's on the hook to pay for the next five years instead of simply evaluating his young talent and letting his coach learn, prepare yourself Broncos Country, for the fourth Broncos coach in 5 years as Elway tries to alleviate the pressure smart fans are presently mounting against him.

On the other hand, even if Vance is still John's main squeeze after he hyphenate's his name next year in a liberation statement, Vance Joseph-Elway cannot be expected to develop long-term confidence in his on-going relationship with John or in any of these players if John is forcing him to play certain guys while also looking for a new coach to love. Whenever an NFL coach has doubt about his players or questions his own job, every mistake feeds into those existing doubts and questions.

While I realize that an agile quarterback and a slot receiver are just what the doctor ordered for this busted season and team, this conversation is not about needs as much as it is about beliefs. When you believe or are very hopeful in a player, they get the number of tries that McKenzie and Lynch keep getting, which is why it is vital to give Vance a team he believes in versus a roster and a coaching staff of John's preferred people. Kenneth Faried being exiled from playing time with the much improved Denver Nuggets is a great example of what it takes at times to win.

Or just let Vance go.

Instead of finding a coach who you trust to develop your drafted players, John seems hell-bent on chasing the trophy with a couple veteran stop-gaps that can become our next Neil Smith or DeMarcus Ware. Although he passed on making Calais Campbell into that guy when he came free, Domata Peko was a home run hit for John. TJ Ward was too before he got away.

The problem with great stop gaps is that few of them play offensive line, and the wealth of edge rushers is forcing every team to draft and groom their own offensive front while they hope like hell for the right quarterback to make that draft commitment pay off. Meanwhile, GM's are often forced to change coaches when frequent stop-gap measures are employed just to make any failures in the approach point towards coaching and not the approach.

What Does Rebuilding Look Like?

For reasons that I'm not impressed with, this team is trying to save a coach with a five-year contract from getting fired. Maybe playing to win is always a better scenario than playing to gain draft positioning, but I can't help but wonder just how many of these veteran players we are currently committing to chasing wins do we already know are gone at years end?

Including our desperate fight to actually come back and beat the Washington Redskins, I've felt a certain kind of way as I watched teams like the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Jets leave the field as the draft winners while my Broncos walked off celebrating the score. Those teams have bottom-dwelled long enough to understand the impact of one or two wins in actual or potential selections- assuming you decide to trade back for additional picks- while the Broncos are more worried that losing too much could tick off Aqib Talib and have him slapping people upside the head like he did when last season soured.

When Talib himself is on the record saying he doubts he'll be retained, it leads me to feel like Denver might be proving a lot of things by focusing on winning to close out the season, but forward thinking is not one of them. Could winning actually be worse than losing for the Denver Broncos? Winning without finding out what you have for the future is a loss of a different kind if you ask me.

I could create a list of all the young players on the ship has sailed list versus the guys who can't get off the bench to find out, but Kyle Sloter is gone and I've already talked too much about Lynch and McKenzie. The rest of the rookies have been on the bench for so long I would need Google to remind me of their names. But that's the problem with every regime change. The blossoming talents like Jordan Taylor get's lost in the shuffle of a new coach trying to determine his established talent first.

If the same five-year contract coach who decided to make Trevor Siemian fight for a job he had already earned is now fighting for his own job, it's because Elway has made it that way. In doing so, John has also accidentally forced his coaching staff into benefitting from the lack of intrusion that Kubiak demanded and should be inherent to their job description, not just a by-product of a busted year.

Broncos Country is still curious about DeAngelo Henderson, Jake Butt and a few other young players that I'm Googling right now. Simply announcing Lynch as the starter proves to me that John realizes our curiosity too. He might also realize that now is NOT the time to totally step away from desperately needed analysis of future players even if he failed to see that then (upon the hiring of a first-year head coach) was NOT the time to get overly involved. On either note, Elway has played it wrong. The same bad mistakes that started during the Superbowl 50 season linger but are no longer being drowned out by the cheers of a fanbase who used to have a lot to cheer about. Now they are selling off their tickets fast and cheap.

Winning when your season is an utter bust is a feel-good bonus that makes players and fans of bad teams sleep a bit easier at night. Beyond that, several former bottom dwellers have risen to the top of the current NFL mountain by embracing the reality that winning can be initially counter-productive to the rebuilding process, a process that most winning organizations struggle to embrace.   I am not saying that our rookies and younger players shouldn't fight like hell to try to win the game if given a chance to show their value. I am saying that at some point amidst a busted season they should be asked to try.

WE DON'T REBUILD, WE RELOAD? BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!!

Not every organization seeks when to tank the season and rebuild, however, every organization that needs to do it had better find an opportune moment to capitalize on its arrival as opportunities to tank and rebuild can be fleeting and hard to recognize, especially for teams like the Broncos who appear unaccustomed to the practice and will probably retain the bulk of this team and reload it instead of using key pieces to acquire the pieces they need to rebuild it.

I get it. Winning is almost always better than losing, and no brand new coach wants to learn about their team while losing games. But timing in life is everything, and there really is only one thing to learn from reacting too late. It's called hindsight. Armchair quarterbacks and opinionated pundits like myself rely on hindsight, regularly. NFL coaches and former quarterbacks who become GM/VP's should avoid it like the plague.

Does Beating The Patriots Justify That Superbowl Window Or Is John Elway Just Making Us Sick?

I might be tired of caring about the good fortunes of my own team. No, I am not like those who wrote off the Broncos for firing Art Shell and currently rep the Raiders, but potentially like that, because Elway seems to hate Colin Kaepernick and Kaep's cause more than he likes winning. Soon, John will be forced to quick-chop another black head off just to avoid the loss of his own.

I would like to make this article about some concern for the impending premature scapegoat removal of a first-year black coach because I am truly concerned that Vance Joseph never had a chance in hell to pull off the El-way that sucks, versus the Kubiak way that won a crown. But, to be honest, actually giving a damn about Vance would require knowing for certain that he can actually coach.

I do not.

Besides, I am a Broncos fan first and foremost. I understand how touchy criticism of my Orange and Blue can get. This is not my Donna Brazile denunciation of the Democrats, however, my malaise with my own ballclub made me unconcerned with uncovering a reason why the Denver Broncos could beat the Philadelphia Eagles a week ago, even if I was hoping like hell desperation would be that reason.

Now, the Broncos are truly desperate enough to beat every team except that Philly club, which includes the New England Patriots on Sunday,  although they must overcome the best quarterback to ever lace them up if they are to get it done.

Yes, I said it. I don't care who your favorite quarterback of all-time is. I don't really care that Brady's not my favorite or that he's a long time nemesis of my beloved Broncos.


He's the best to do it, and he's still doing it the best.

This week, however, Brady's resume is beside the point. Denver fans may find comfort that Brady hasn't won much in Denver, but that too should be of little consolation to a struggling team that shouldn't be counting on history to fix their problems. The hope to win is quickly clouding the view of who we really are and where we are heading if we don't look introspectively.

As we fans force feed this team down our own throats simply because we love them too much to leave them when times get tough, the truth is simply the truth. To viewing eyes and opposing defenses, these Broncos taste like a recognizably predictable flavor. You can't quite say what it is, but it is super sour and kind of bitter, and several coaching changes has yet to sweeten the flavor of this offense, even the year when they won it all.

If we are honest and don't just assume Donna and I are doing this for the money, we'd admit that more than half of Broncos nation exited a Superbowl 50 victory with a happy smirk because they were upset with the decision to return to a putridly playing Peyton Manning over bumbling Brock Osweiler.  When a Brock loving John Elway lost his last coach, and when Denver lost Brock, I believe it was seeded in that moment of decision.

While most of that remains a rumor, it was proven the moment Elway brought in Vance Joseph and the new coach's first declaration to the world was that he could put some more JUICE into this offense- a code word for Kubiak's juice wasn't either plentiful or sweet enough even if it proved to be the right flavor for success.

Other than the Offensive coordinator, Mike McCoy and former Offensive coordinator turned QB coach, Bill Musgrave, most of the coaches beneath Joseph are carry-overs that were already in the fold. How a former defensive coordinator could be expected to sweeten the juice on offense as a first-year coach seemed odd until you realized the plethora of offensive coaches that Elway would provide- or force-feed- to compensate for the inexperience of his head guy.

As I look at my own beloved team, I can't help but wonder does Joseph really have control of the offense with McCoy, Musgrave, and Elway in the building? Does Elway ever call McCoy to share his own view of things or is Joseph always the go-between as he deserves to be? Most importantly, who makes the final call on plays now with so many offensive minds and a head coach who questions his own team's identity?

Half the season is over, and it appears that not allowing the new head coach to put his fingerprint on the offense has him describing his own team as identity-free as if we are a juice without sugar.  It also seems that Elway's hand-picking of Joseph was a weird move intended to fulfill Elway's own  Superbowl windowed view of things instead of hiring a coach he trusted enough to bring an outsiders view of things and chart a way forward on his own merit and ability.

Elway wears his own championship rings thanks to the "do whatever it takes" mantra of Pat Bowlen. But he is not Pat Bowlen even if he wants to buy our team one day and pretend to be Pat while interfering like Jerry. I am not saying that Elway can never become another Pat Bowlen, but even Bowlen came to be through the trials and errors of trying and failing to get it done amidst the constant internal tug-o-war of when to be hands-on or hands-off. In essence, Bowlen needed the exact same thing that Elway and our young'ish quarterbacks require. Time to develop.

Nothing.  I repeat. NOTHING is more unhealthy to the development of a young quarterback, a young coach or a rebuilding organization than the draft of an open Superbowl Window.

It should go without saying that every team is fighting to be the best they can be every year. Undoubtedly, each team hopes their best equals Superbowl championships when the season is done, whether they say it through unspoken drive or display it through Superbowl window mistakes.

As a folk hero among Broncos nation, we might have taken more comfort in the presence of Elway than we had any right to do. Afterall, he is nearly as unproven as an executive himself, evidenced by these mediocre quarterbacks he hired to help push the Broncos through that Superbowl window of his. At the risk of sounding like a revisionist, I am more and more inclined to agree with those who consider our Superbowl 50 success somewhat lucky, including Elway himself who encouraged Kubiak to do it in a juicier way. Whether that Superbowl victory meant Elway deserved a new contract and a bigger role within the organization is a subject under official review right now. In hindsight, Elway might have only had a toe on the line while Kubiak had his entire foot in that game and gameplan.

Now, the Broncos appear to be stuck with a former legendary quarterback GM who displays a ravenous view of the future and a short view of the past, a past that included Elway himself being doubted by the Broncos faithful as a young player, and ridiculed as a seasoned veteran who never won the big one by himself. To this day, some believe John's HOF friend and former teammate, Terrell Davis, deserves more credit for the rings on John's fingers than John does.

The hiring of a first-year coach to juice an offense beyond that of a Superbowl winning, well-tenured coach and friend in Gary Kubiak, was the first sign I needed that Vance Joseph was merely a hole-filler with the specific assignment of making Elway look right instead of looking interested in saving his own job or building on the salvage worthy parts and pieces of this team to create a new and improved Superbowl winning model. I doubt that Joseph felt as confident as he sounded about the idea of picking a quarterback mid-way through the preseason instead of appointing the previous starter and making the other quarterbacks beat him out like you do at every other position on the football field.

Is Osweiler just another sign that Elway thinks his team can still
win it all? Is John missing on a chance to play Pax?

If I was Elway, I would have made the mediocre first-round draft pick, Paxton Lynch play so that we know by now instead of forcing last year's mediocre starter and team captain, Trevor Siemian to publicly prove himself better than Lynch. To put either of these mediocre quarterbacks through a process that questions your trust of them leaves you, in the end, with a couple of mediocre quarterbacks absent the trust of the coach and GM to help their confidence a bit. John was clearly forcing his new coach to not act in his own best interest, all the while making savvy Broncos fans question the intelligence and integrity of the new head coach.


This article is not about beating a dead bronco or kicking the horse when it's down because my Broncos are not deceased yet, just on life support, and nobody kicks hospitalized animals. But I will remind everyone that the GM and VP of Operations- who I called a Bitch in a preseason article- has chosen to pretend himself Bowlen and verbally commit to chasing after the crown each and every year instead of closing that Superbowl window and his mouth and Just Win Baby before we lose another wave of fans to the Raiders, rebuilding or his politics which we shouldn't even know about since we never knew Pat's.

What we do need to know is how Elway intends to make this team better. Spending millions on diva receivers and then trying to justify those millions- as if the opposing defense can't diagnose your plan based on payroll alone- is a formula for success that doesn't comport with the reality of the NFL in which teams rarely win the crown with so much money dedicated to wide-outs.

Check the history books. If a big name receiver does have a ring, it is almost never when they also had the high-end paycheck too. The truth is, receivers take pay cuts to play for champions or they get cut from champions for the sake of more depth on the roster. Soon enough- which I hope soon means now- the Broncos will not be able to justify the money they are spending on Demarius Thomas,
Emmanual Sanders or maybe even Von Miller if they are being realistic about what it will take to win again. Soon enough, they too will admit that just one of these valued players could be the additional draft pick- or 10- that fixes this problem.

I said all of that to say this.

I'm concerned that beating the Patriots will only make Broncos nation think we are actually still in the hunt. I get it. Making the playoffs and exiting early could still be a dream for a season that started great but looks to be headed towards something much worse than even last year's near miss of the playoffs. In the wildest dreams of  John Elway, these players and many fans, this season remains wide open, just like our Superbowl window. 

Sure, dreams do come true. But so do nightmares if you stay asleep too long. Wake up Elway and Broncos fans. It's time to shut that damn window.

It's Time We Admit It Broncos Fans. Elway's A Bitch!

Word on the street is Osweiler might be available soon. Might
Elway be getting a chance to prove he can actually pick QB's? 

Before I act like high draft picks aren't bestowed certain amounts of space to develop, or that Denver isn't in a unique predicament with a once-in-a-lifetime defense that is ready to win now, I have dwelled on those excuses for long enough, and they are NOT taking away the visual evidence that continues to say- PAXTON LYNCH WAS A MISTAKE.

In the effort to remain fair, I've even conceded to those who've insisted that it is just too soon to really tell if Lynch can play. What I can not concede to is this farce of a quarterback battle in Denver that was designed for, and by, the General Manager and Executive VP of operations, John Elway. Despite the reality that every preseason is a preamble to the regular season- complete with many dozens of new prospects at every position- the Broncos felt they needed to formally announce that the quarterback position was uniquely up for grabs, unlike the rest.

Entering the new year with a repetitious chant of this being a 50-50 battle for the quarterback job was a message to the guy who finished as last years starter. That message was unnecessary because it was inherent to the fact that any 2nd year 1st round selection would probably be pushed to justify the selection. Seeing what we have in Lynch had to be part of the expectations of hiring when Elway selected Vance Joseph to lead this team, but Elway should have also realized that Joseph was beloved by his previous players for an obvious inability to bullshit very well.

While Joseph stammered through multiple press conferences over the course of this competition trying to convince Broncos fans that he was the only reason why things were being done this way, Joseph fell off script in the final announcement of the team's starter by accidentally saying; "he (Paxton Lynch) is just not ready yet".

No one really took that statement for much of anything when it was stated- except Trevor Siemian. To the ears of this team's current starting quarterback, those words mean you are simply here to keep the seat warm until Paxton Lynch can finally satisfy the emotion that must have led to Elway taking the leap of faith on him last year during the draft. In hindsight, his name is way cooler than his game.

In hindsight, Elway was likely lured into reaching because word had it that Dallas was also interested in Lynch. As a highly rated arm-chair quarterback, I personally think Jerry Jones would have easily given a 2nd and 3rd round versus the 2nd and 4th round pick that he reportedly offer to get at Lynch, if he was truly interested in getting Lynch as his quarterback of the future.

Whether Jones realized Dak Prescott was that quarterback is pure speculation at this point....kinda like the notion that Lynch can actually play quarterback in the NFL.

Coach Joseph can try to convince Broncos Nation that he is thrilled to have two quarterbacks out of this battle, but he can't erase the fact that he actually said that one of them is not ready yet. That may not seem like much of a statement, but it doesn't acknowledge the reality that anything- including sickness, accidents or on-field injuries- would force this team to insert a player that is admittedly, not ready yet.

Would a week or two, or three, be enough to get him ready, or was the suggestion by Joseph that "who knows what he will look like in week 6 or 7" a hidden statement about how far away from ready Lynch really is? Does practicing with the 2's offer enough motivation for Lynch to actually get the work in and get better, or will he stagnate from depression as he appeared to do last year when he got beat out for the job as well?

I'm hopeful that Lynch is not a waste of a pick, but not more than I'm hopeful for Siemian, who has already justified his draft slot and then some. Siemian has performed and improved at the rate that we are hoping and praying for Lynch to perform and improve at, yet we keep looking for a quarterback.

I am not at all convinced that our brand new coach is fully bought into the process of diminishing the confidence of the offensive player who needs it the most while continually posturing as a team waiting on somebody else. Nobody needs to be told about the hopes that teams place in their 1st round draft picks. GM's keep or lose jobs all of the time from making or missing on 1st round draft selections. The smartest ones move on sooner than later.

Justified or not, Elway has way more job security than he deserves and ten times that of Coach Joseph. For Elway to toss this spineless decision-making process into the lap of his new coach without standing beside him to help fans understand WHY is frankly a bitch move.

Joseph would not have slipped up and gone off-script by saying Siemian is not ready YET if he were not so damn honest, and if the front office wasn't still pushing to prove they can really pick 'em.

If we hadn't been forced to listen to a world leader tell us things we obviously shouldn't believe, I might be less inclined to hold the Broncos to task for all of this. But Siemian had to do a press conference and probably listened to the words of his coach's press conference as he prepared to do his own. To hear that he won the job because Lynch isn't ready yet kinda means Siemian himself wasn't quite good enough to be what the team wants right now either, or they would have emphatically called him the winner of the job and not just the quarterback who is- by default- ready. If I was Siemian, I could not easily believe that the Broncos were invested in my future as a starter in this league.

Correction. Siemian should not believe that Elway is invested in his future as a starter in the NFL. As for Joseph? He picked the right player and instantly sounded like a coach ready to back his guy- bitch be damned.

Denver's Paxton Problem Worse Than Imagined

The problem with Paxton is not his really high draft slot, which in hindsight was too high compared to the quality of talent that went much lower than the first round last season. It's not even the high expectations that come along with high draft slots because, no matter the draft slot, Paxton has to justify his reason to stay in Denver just as every draftee or free agent must do given the history of the good Broncos QB's we've seen in the past. Broncos fans could also find a problem with the slow development if they hadn't drafted him with the expectation of him taking two or three years to develop.

We knew it would take time to
mature, but is Paxton digressing?

As a Broncos fan, I would love to see a problem with such a high draft choice getting beat out by a lower drafted player, but that happens all the time at other positions on the field and no one seems to care that the lower drafted player is doing so well except to take brownie points for finding the proverbial diamond in the rough when low draft picks work out.

In fact, the draft is such a crap shoot that very few General Managers get held to account for the overall quality of the high draft options as much as they are expected to add talent overall. John has had some winners, especially on defense, but in the grand scheme of things, John Elway has not done a great job when it comes to drafting quarterbacks unless you count Trevor Siemian and Brock Osweiler as potential successes. I would say that the jury is still out on both QB's and on Elway as a world class GM too.

So, the problem with Paxton could be an overly sympathetic boss who needs him to work out just to justify that huge contract Elway just got from the Denver Broncos, yet finding quality draft picks and free agent acquisitions can be cyclical. Elway's recent cycle of building this team resulted in a championship victory for Denver. It didn't quite happen from the quarterback position like Elway could be hoping for right now, but it happened, and the cache you build from winning is worth a new contract and a delay of the ridicule you probably deserve.

I am not certain that Elway is really great at picking players, nor do I think his penchant for holding a grudge is helpful to Colin Kaepernick or my Broncos. I won't complain if it turns into another title for us, but I also won't consider my Broncos to be the beneficiary of great leadership if we win either. In fact, the Broncos are shaping up to be the kind of team that other teams will call lucky again if they are fortunate to overcome the quarterback fiasco and finish on top.

All of that being said, none of the Elway stuff is the problem with this team aside from the problem it might become if Siemian can't be just a little better than he was last season when he came one game short of the playoffs. If the Broncos are dedicated to making use of a healthy CJ Anderson as a leader of this team and a lead option of the offense, Siemian will be better by default, and so will this team.

So, nothing about last night's preseason game against the Chicago Bears will prove to be a really big problem except one thing.

Paxton is not only not good enough to beat Siemian for the starting job, he is really not looking good enough to be a viable option at backup either. In a league where concussion protocols are supposed to limit the number of plays that players see on the field, guys who get injured easily are not in a great position to endure a season without missing games. Like it or not, Siemian is good at playing with pain but horrible at avoiding the kind of plays that cause it.

What the Broncos are stuck in the middle of deciding right now is the balancing act between the amount of plays it will take to get Siemian ready to play well enough to limit hits, versus getting Paxton enough nurturing to make him a reasonable choice in the event something does happen to Siemian. As it stands, Paxton is not a good choice to play, period. Which also means he is hardly a great person to be backing up Siemian, who is mostly winning this job because his competition stinks.

Meanwhile, the quarterback that ends up winning this job will not have the confidence of Elway or the Denver community, and, absent a championship victory, will always be the guy that Elway is looking to upgrade from because only a championship can overcome this lack of support and indecision over two players

The combination of Paxton being mediocre and Elway being too stubborn to admit when it's time to go another direction are kind of the same problem; a problem that could reveal itself in the event of a Siemian injury. To the credit of Elway and the coaching staff, that is really the only problem I could uncover after last night, and a lot of luck could leave the Broncos main problem stuck on the bench.

Broncos Must Answer, "What's In A Name?"

The name Dak sounds a lot like Pax. Is there a chance that the Broncos accidentally chose the wrong dude just because the names were sort of similar?  Could John Elway comfortably believe that Siemian or Lynch can take over a  job with two Hall of Fame shadows cast all over it? Doesn't Father John always have faith that the right quarterback- young, old or somewhere in between- is always the right answer to victory, or has he been transformed by our Hall of Fame defense? Will the new coach be encouraged to take a chance on a no-name upstart in Trevor Siemian, or roll the dice on the name, Paxton Lynch, who was recognizable enough to warrant a first-round draft selection?

All of that has something to do with the questions that the Denver Broncos must answer as they ready themselves to make the best use of 10 draft selections. Mostly, the names that wear the jerseys- or the ones that select them for that matter- are part of an ever moving turnstile of people. Sooner or later, we will tire of Elway and we will hope that the organization is ready to find the next best name to replace him when that day comes along. His name and every name will always be insignificant compared to the name that's is emblazoned on the front of the jersey.

WHO ARE THE DENVER BRONCOS?!!

What perpetually haunts the Broncos, and every team working to fix the flaws that kept them from winning it all last year, is the reality that every single team in the NFL runs some variation of the EXACT SAME PLAYS, they just disguise the formation and name them something different so as to confuse the opposing defense each week.

In other words, unless you confuse, confound and overcome the opposing defense in an NFL game, defense still reigns supreme.  The defense has reigned supreme since the day the game was created, and few teams without Tom Brady and/or some semblance of a defense have ever finished the season as the one on top. In fact, most teams will always be known for one side of the ball or the other, and usually, it is the team that makes the last defensive stop that will win the Superbowl.

When Manning first arrived in Denver, a team with a defense good enough to win a playoff game with Tim Tebow at the helm was suddenly scapegoated into being the problem as Manning lit up the skies trying to win it all from the wrong side of the ball. Not only did it not work, eventually the Broncos went back towards fortifying that Tebow flattering defense and climbed to the top of the mountain while simultaneously exhibiting some of the ugliest offense in team history.

There!! McCaffrey in a Broncos uniform.
Now get the heck over it because he'll
be gone Broncos fans.

As it stands, we are who the stats say we are, and a defensive juggernaut is not something to be taken for granted. Tonight, (The NFL draft starts on Thursday 4/27, with the Browns officially going on the clock at 8 p.m. ET.)  the Broncos must decide if they will continue to win the game of football with a once and a lifetime defense, or by creating this elusive illusion of balance that never materializes into a crown with those teams that score the ball in a fast a furious way.

You simply can't keep a good defense good without keeping them rested as well. That calls for ball control, wise play calling and a willingness to punt the ball away instead of taking needless chances that result in turnovers, field-position and points for the other team.

As much as each of us Broncos fans would love to see Christian McCaffrey in a Denver Broncos uniform, he is a luxury pick that would ignore the needs at linebacker- needs that were exposed by Kyle Shanahan and the Atlanta Falcons and later exploited by every team that followed. Selecting McCaffrey potentially neglects the struggles of the offensive line as well, but I'm not sure I would reach into the first round to try and fix that flaw.

From my perspective, the issue at linebacker is real while the issues from the O-line are a little tainted by a few seasons of unspectacular play at quarterback caused by the desperate desire to be spectacular at quarterback as a compliment to our dominating on defense.  In other words, the Broncos have pressed way too hard to not be normal on offense while missing the value of normal as it relates to ball control, Time Of Possession and the freshness of our Pro Bowl laden defense. If the Broncos had always shown a stronger commitment towards using the run game, they would already be well advanced at recognizing and beating teams that load up the box to stop the run.

Flashy or Gritty?

As it stands, we have two receivers fighting to be the leader of a team that doesn't really have one right now. Their mere ability to vie for team leadership speaks to the black hole at quarterback and the unwillingness to unequivocally hand that duty over to Von Miller, Aqib Talib and the defense. Any aggressive move to get McCaffrey (or an offensive lineman for that matter) is a sign that says the Broncos are hoping to increase point production and not simply lengthen TOP, Time Of Possession while minimizing turnovers, aka., normal offense.

Critics of the team fail to see that this current offensive line came one game and two inexperienced quarterbacks away from returning to the playoffs last year. Not that the team looked to be a threat even if they had made it in, but the defense is and always will be something that gives Denver a chance to win every game. Unless of course, we fail to draft quality players to compete against the current Pro Bowl players who eventually become too pricey to keep around.

If Denver drafts McCaffrey, he instantly becomes the luxury item that might get overly used simply to justify the reach they must make to draft him. McCaffrey would be marked by other teams as a result of the Broncos desire to justify their selection of him, and he will be instantly forced into a position of pressure not really fair to someone who's father did so much while wearing Orange and Blue.

While I am not that worried about Christian's ability to live up to the hype of his promise, I am concerned about unreasonable draft behavior and that the Broncos and fans might be abandoning the reason for our recent championship for the sake of one player, a player who would never be so desperately desired by Denver fans if his last name were Edwards or Jones.

Nearly every reason that folks in Denver want "The Name" McCaffrey in a Broncos uniform again is selfish and self-serving to the point of concern for me. Whether we look for "some more juice" to our offense as new head coach, Vance Joseph, promised, or we trust the juice we already have (C.J. Anderson and those receivers) to play in a juicier manner, this team needs to understand its identity, and ours is defense. Chasing for the juice has a real potential of getting messy quick.

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.