McDaniels Forced To Make Adjustments Without The Luxury Of Tom Brady

Although Mike Shanahan will not be pacing the Invesco Field sidelines this season, don’t be surprised to see new Bronco head coach Josh McDaniels take a page from Shanahan’s play book.

Shanahan was known for his uncanny ability to plug various running backs into his system with great success. Most notably was Super Bowl MVP and all-time Bronco leading rusher Terrell Davis and most recently was the undrafted Mike Bell out of Arizona.

McDaniels is the former offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots where he came from a pass happy offense, which was largely a part of having the luxury of Tom Brady leading the offense. McDaniels will be forced to make some play calling and system changes this fall as a man named Kyle Orton will take the reigns of the offensive unit­‑ not Tom Brady.

If McDaniels expects to ride the arm of Orton or Simms the way he did Brady, he will ride his way to another missed playoff appearance for the Broncos.

Instead, McDaniels must rely on former Georgiastandout and rookie Knowshon Moreno to literally carry the load for the Bronco’s offense. The Broncos selected Moreno with their first pick (12th overall) in the first round of the NFL Draft.

The highly touted rookie encountered a slight disappointment at the NFL Combine where he was clocked at 4.61 in the 40-yard-dash, but the Denver front office saw enough from Moreno at Georgia to select him with their first pick in the draft.

The team received some unwelcomed news this week when running back J.J. Arrington failed his team physical and was released. The release of Arrington puts even more pressure on the shoulders of Moreno. Moreno should get 25-30 touches a game if the Broncos expect to remain competitive in games.

Morenowill be the go-to-guy for the Bronco offense, but don’t expect McDaniels to stray from his throw-first offensive system too much, even with an inept quarterback behind center.

Orton’s dismal statistical numbers will improve this season with added weapons lining up at receiver. Orton’s woeful numbers were a direct correlation of some lackluster talent that surrounded him in Chicago. Look for Orton to find a consistent target in Brandon Stokley and a deep-threat in Brandon Marshall.

With time Moreno will become the next great Bronco running back, but Moreno does come with some question marks. The two biggest being if Moreno can be an every down, bruiser type back with his smaller build and the latter being if he has the breakaway speed to be a big-time threat at the next level.

McDaniels and his staff will quickly find out if Moreno is up to the task of carrying the offensive burden as they should implement numerous running plays geared around Moreno early in the year.