2011 NFL Draft Team Needs: Denver Broncos

DT by far the biggest need.

Since we also need a new SS and SAM but after the release of Bannan and J. Williams I guess that pushes DT to the top.

DT needs to be addressed, we have pretty much no one there and its been a need here for years. I’m pretty sure though that Fields is still on the team

LB is definitly #2. Beyond DJ, Woodyard is an ST/role player, and Haggan has been bounced around by some bad 4-3 teams, so I question how good he’ll be in a 4-3 again. Joe Mays is slightly intriguing but we gotta remember he was traded by the Eagles, who were pretty thin at LB, for JJ Arrington, a TC body.

S is third for me as well, I think Dawk has another decent year left, but Hill hasn’t been too good in Denver.

It will be interesting to see how the Broncos address these. DT should be addressed as early as possible, but with LB and S, I don’t think anyone is too fond of either class. They said they want to go heavy BPA, but that will probably mean forgoing LB and S early unless a good LB falls to 46.

For secondary needs, I’m not worried about our DE’s. Doom we all know, but Ayers has played very well against the run and Fox said he projected him as a starting LE in Carolina. We also have Hunter who provided pretty good depth at DE and who I think will be a good rotational guy. Beyond that we could address DE, but this team has so many needs it may be in there best interest to go elsewhere.

RT, I agree Harris has been hurt, but I think they’ll regsign him when the lockouts over. He’s a very good RT when healthy, and he excelled in the ZBS, which we are going back to. I wouldn’t be mad if we drafted one but I don’t see the point in letting Harris walk.

I would also throw in TE there, especially with Graham cut. Neither Quinn nor Gronkowski has ever started a game, and both of their play has been questionable. If Rudolph is available in the 2nd or a guy like Stocker in the 3rd, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went in that direction.

Whew, a lot to talk about with Bronco needs. They have some young talent sprinkled around the O, but when you get to the D its pretty scary.

Perfect order. Although don’t be surprised to see Dumervil among the leaders in sacks. A lot of his sacks in the 3-4 came on 3rd down with his hand in the ground.

Your assessment of the roster as expressed by the ordered and tiered list of team needs is both spot on and completely separate from your shots at McDaniels’ beaten corpse, so why go there? If McDaniels can be excoriated for “strip[ing] the team of four of its best offensive players”, then how come none of those positions are considered primary or even secondary needs going into the 2011 draft??? Josh also allegedly “inherited a talented roster and managed to completely deconstruct it piece by piece”, but who exactly did he dump that he didn’t at least adequately replace?

Orton is Cutler’s roughly age and has outperformed him for years now. If you doubt that, please compare their numbers as Bears and their numbers as Broncos to each other, and you’ll see that Kyle comes out on top; if you’re not a fan of stats, then watch their film and explain to me why Jay consistently does less with more/better tools. Denver also traded Marshall, but they picked up the best wide receiver named Brandon (Lloyd) in the NFL last season to replace him. Both former Broncos signed ludicrous… er, I mean “lucrative” extensions, saw their production tail of significantly in their new uniforms and have considerable off-the-field baggage along for the ride. Oh, and those two deals also netted the Broncos five high value draft picks (two firsts, two seconds and a third) as well. I assume the other two offensive “stars” that we lost are Scheffler and Hillis. While I grant that Peyton was a significant loss that wasn’t compensated at all, no one really saw his instant success in Cleveland coming and he did tapper off as the season progressed. Moreover, I’m not sure we missed Tony’s average 37 catches, 455 yards and 3 TD per season all that much, seeing as Knowshon Moreno provided the passing game that kind of firepower as Orton’s 4th favorite target.

Maybe it’s the other guys on Shanahan’s last team that caught the imagination of people who stick to this meme; do names like Jamie Winborn, Marquand Manuel, Nate Webster, Dre Bly, Boss Bailey, Karl Paymah, Ebenezer Ekuban, Josh Bell, John Engelberger, Marlon McCree, Kenny Peterson, Josh Barrett and Dewayne Robertson really resonate that much? Perhaps it was Mike’s triumphant return to the NFL – with the harmonious and victorious rapid ascent of the Washington Redskins last season – that fuels this fire.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but this just bugs me to no end. It’s enough to say that the Broncos are in disarray thanks to five years of decay fueled by a front office that fell asleep at the wheel (all the way on up to Pat Bowlen) while resting on their laurels and head coaches who used their unchecked power to focus solely on developing their very own dream offensive units, regardless of the cost. My apologies for potential highjacking a portion of your comments here with this rant, but I guess I just can’t let it slide anymore.

This team has holes everywhere, seriously. Although DT is their biggest need by far they should just plan on going BPA almost regardless of position. Thats the only way to even begin to put back the pieces of a decent ball club. If the Raiders put up like 500 yards on the ground on this squad in 2010, they could very well give up 1200 rushing within just the AFC west in 2011