Won't be long now.

All the pundits who've been predicting three or four wins for the Broncos, all the experts who've been labeling Josh McDaniels "clueless" and "in over his head" and all the blabbering twerps who've claimed the Broncos are the laughingstock of the league, they're about to smell the coffee. And it will be a bitter smell. A rude awakening. Electro-convulsive shock therapy. We're not talking some shaving cream in the hand while a feather tickles the nose. We're talking a half-frozen watermelon spiked on a sleeping man's jewels.

But the realization will dawn shyly at first. There will be denials. They'll dismiss the first series as a fluke and a product of the preseason. The Niners just had a hard time dusting off the cobwebs, they'll say. But how will they explain away the next series, when San Francisco can't complete a pass of more than 3 yards? What will they say when the Niners have no answer for the Broncos' three-man weave and Jabar Gaffney just 360 dunked it over the goal post? What will they say when it's the start of the second quarter and a Bronco pass still hasn't hit the ground?

Make no mistake: They'll deny and deny and deny. It's just the preseason, they'll say. The preseason is irrelevant. The Broncos overprepared. They took it much more seriously than San Francisco.

What they fail to understand is, Josh McDaniels has fooled them all. He's smarter than they are. He's already forgotten more about football than they'll ever know. And he's about to uncork the bottle and free the genie.

And then, as the preseason progresses, a seed of doubt will germinate in their otherwise barren little brains. It whispers, "Is it p...p...possible I was wr..wr...wrong?"

That question will be answered against Cincinnati. That's when McDaniels spikes the watermelon. That's when John Clayton makes like a two-by-four snapped by a kung-fu chop, as the cold realization hits, "I don't know what I'm talking about and never have." And as delicious as that will be, the expression on Jamie Dukes' face will be even more exquisite when the Broncos strip away his delusions and he admits, "Mother was right: I'm a complete fool."

It won't be long now.

To their credit, many denizens of MHR have been able to maintain their positivity despite the uncertainty surrounding this offseason. My responses to this optimism have ranged from acceptance to sardonicism.

One of popular MHR positions that I've often questioned has been the near-universal praise of Josh McDaniels' selection of Mike Nolan as the Broncos' Defensive Coordinator.

Given what I knew about Nolan, I couldn't understand the optimism. I thought it was another example of the 13-3 crowd believing that Pat Bowlen's money was magic and that once Nolan cashed his first check, he'd magically transform into Buddy Ryan.

But the fact was, aside from being familiar with his resume, I'd never really taken the time to study Nolan's track record as a Defensive Coordinator.

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Since the last poll on the Brandon Marshall situation was conducted, it's been reported that Marshall is officially skipping the team's mandatory minicamp in an effort to force the Broncos to renegotiate his contract. Given this new development, I thought it'd be interesting to see where people stand on the matter.

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In Jon Tollerud's post, "Are We Supportive or Blind?", we got a bit off-topic and I suggested that the Broncos' Zone-Blocking scheme was limited near the goal line. Slow White Guy pointed me to a site that compiles interesting statistics that seemed to disprove my theory.

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When I was in college, I used to work at Ball Aerospace in Boulder as a janitor so I could eat more than ramen. The engineers there used to keep signs on their cubicles that read, "Screw reality; Think positive."

I always thought that was an interesting perspective and I could never tell tell if they were being ironic.

I believe that many of MHR's denizens tend toward optimism - at least as far as the Broncos are concerned.

Normally, I'm a positive person. But I worry about the upcoming Bronco season. Not about the offense. But about the defense, specifically the front seven.

Consider the group that I'm projecting as the starters (granted, it's May):

NT: Ron Fields - Couldn't start for the 49ers last season.

DE: Ryan McBean - Played in one game for the Steelers last season. Spent 3/4 of the season on the Steelers' practice squad. Having said that, I kind of like McBean. But we can't expect miracles, right? Last time I checked, the Steelers weren't too shabby at evaluating talent.

DE: Kenny Peterson - Folks here seem excited about this kid. I'm not sure why. I watched every Broncos game last season and can't remember him making a single play. But my memory isn't what it used to be. Is it fair to say, he's no Richard Seymour?

OLB: Elvis Dumervil - Converting from 4-3 DE. Learning a new position.

MLB: DJ Williams - Learning his fourth position in 6 seasons.

MLB: Andra Davis - The Browns were comfortable letting him leave in free agency.

OLB: Robert Ayers - A rookie.

Tons of question marks. And I know I took the most negative perspective on each of these players. I didn't do it to tick anyone off, but I just hadn't seen anyone else point out that most of these players are unproven.

Originally, I intended this to be a comment on the schedule post, but my fingers got loose, so I decided to start a new one.

I know we have no choice but to trust that Mr. Bowlen made the right choice in firing Shanahan, hiring McDaniels and then firing the Goodmans. Now we have to trust that McDaniels is making the right choices.

And I'm happy to do it. I thought it was time for a change and have been thus far impressed by Coach McDaniels. But Rome wasn't built in a day.

Given my concerns about the front seven, this is the way I forecast the upcoming season's results:

@ Bengals - W - (1-0)

Browns - W - (2-0)

@ Raiders - L - (2-1)

Cowboys - W - (3-1)

Patriots - L (3-2)

@ Chargers - L - (3-3)

@ Ravens - L - (3-4)

Steelers - L - (3-5)

@ Redskins - W - (4-5)

Chargers - W - (5-5)

Giants - L - (5-6)

@ Chiefs - W - (6-6)

@ Colts - L - (6-7)

Raiders - W - (7-7)

@ Eagles - L - (7-8)

Chiefs - W -(8-8)

I guess I don't believe that the Giants, Colts and Ravens are going to fade as much as some here do. And I'd feel more confident about the Bengals and Redskins games if they were at home.

Wow, this schedule presents several challenges.