Denver Broncos: State of the Franchise—2009

(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

With that lanyard swinging and the hoodie dangling from his shoulders, new Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels looks like the spitting image of his mentor Bill Belichick. Perhaps he should have paid more attention to the team management talk, rather than the fashion statement conversations.

McDaniels was known for his offensive genius in engineering the highest-scoring offense in NFL history, as well as nurturing the young and inexperienced Matt Cassel into a viable starter.

Apparently, his genius applies to the playbooks and not to the management of a team.

Only weeks after his arrival in Denver, he began trying to court the Patriots for Matt Cassel. The shockwaves of Jay Cutler’s fury were felt in the media for a month and then some, until he was finally traded to Chicago.

Now, McDaniels will once again get to prove his ability as a coordinator in an offense that lacks a franchise quarterback, a stable offensive line, and a consistent/proven running back.

The Offense

According to Josh McDaniels, Kyle Orton is the No. 1 quarterback as of right now, but that job is still up for grabs to lifetime pine-rider Chris Simms.

“I promise you this: the best quarterback we have on our roster will be starting on September 13th in Cincinatti. I don’t know who that’s going to be, but as of right now that’s Kyle," said McDaniels recently.

Orton was a statistical surprise in Chicago for the first seven weeks of the 2008 season (prior to his knee injury), completing an average of 62.2% of his passes and throwing for 1,669 yards. On that pace, he would have gone over 3,500 yards with no viable No .1 receiving option.

Now, with McDaniels’ offensive wizardry and a more distinguished group of targets, Orton hopes to have even more success.

He will need to get good, or even great, protection from the offensive line to survive. Though Jay Cutler was only sacked 11 times last year, he is a much more mobile quarterback than Orton, whose mobility may even be decreased following the knee injury.

In terms of the running game, they still managed to produce respectable numbers despite being near the bottom of the league in total rushing attempts, a product of their pass-happy offense last year.

At an average of 4.8 yards per carry and with 15 total rushing touchdowns, the Broncos produced a legitimate running game even through inconsistency at the position. They started five different running backs over the course of last season, and by the end of the season they had placed six on injured reserve.

After taking Knowshon Moreno in the first round of the 2009 draft and picking up former Patriots running back Lamont Jordan, McDaniels has addressed the strength and durability issue at running back.

But did they do too much with their running game and not enough anywhere else?

Though many of their running backs were injured last season, they failed to address more pressing issues on defense.

One of the Broncos many offensive strengths last season was their line. Their list of starters last season possesses unheralded (and unknown) names like Ben Hamilton, Chris Kuper, Ryan Harris, and Ryan Clady. Their center, Casey Wiegmann, was one of three Pro Bowlers from last season’s offensive squad. The other two were Brandon Marshall, and of course, Jay Cutler.

How did McDaniels choose to address this? They took a few late-round fliers on Iowa guard Seth Olsen, who has potential no doubt, but is hardly the type of guy who can be stuck in the starting line-up on day one.

Perhaps he’s hoping that he can develop the talent much like New England did with their offensive line, only one of whom was a first-round draft pick (Logan Mankins).

I would anticipate a spread-based attack from the Denver Broncos, and I would expect McDaniels to employ a lot of the offensive strategies he used in New England; a lot of short dump passes and slants to Eddie Royal, a speedy Kevin Faulk-like running back in Moreno, who has experience in a pro-style offense and can catch passes out of the backfield.

The Defense

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