When trying to locate the cause of Denver’s poor effort, look no farther than the defensive front seven. The biggest culprit up front was Ryan McBean (-3.7), who opened the season as Denver’s starting DRE but lost his job to Kevin Vickerson. Inexplicably, McBean played almost the entire second half and heavily in the first — much to the pleasure of Oakland RBs.

To give up 59 points, though, you must have failure at multiple levels of the defense. LB Mario Haggan "did his part" with his worst ever PFF-grade (-4.8) after grading negatively in all three major defensive ratings (run defense, pass rush, pass coverage.) Haggan gave up a 19-yard strike to FB Marcel Reece in two targets, but was far worse in defending the run. Usually quick off the snap and frequently in opposing backfields, Haggan found himself tied up by Raider blockers early and often and was usually unable to disengage to make a play. He especially struggled with Oakland’s interior offensive lineman.

If there is any silver lining at all in Denver’s loss, perhaps it is the solid performance handed in by rookie RT Zane Beadles (+1.4). Often discussed here for his negative performances, Beadles was the only lineman for Denver not to allow a sack. While certainly not having a great game, or even convincingly above-average, Beadles did look a lot more comfortable out there.

This is pretty cool to actually be able to see -- they have translated some of it lower in the comments if you can't read the text very clearly.

Here's the top 10 running backs in tackles broken in 2009:
1. Chris Johnson, Tennessee, 61
2. Ray Rice, Baltimore, 57
3. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, 56.
4. Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville, 52
5. Steven Jackson, St. Louis, 50
6. Jonathan Stewart, Carolina, 46
7. DeAngelo Williams, Carolina, 40
7. Rashard Mendenhall, Pittsburgh, 40
9. Fred Jackson, Buffalo, 35
10. Knowshon Moreno, Denver, 33
A broken tackle, as defined by Football Outsiders, is either a play in which the defender has the ballcarrier wrapped up -- or a play in which the ballcarrier fakes a defender out of his jock. Subjective, but you get the point. It's a good measure of hard runners and elusive runners, at the same time.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/05/02/offseason/2.html#ixzz0msVvGbkN

This article is from an agent explaining some of what rookies should do and not do at camp this weekend.

Broncos press release about the 19 CFAs brought on board

The PDF is from the Broncos for the media for release. Lots of information about the draft, our picks, our pick history in the document. If you don't want to use the link above, you can get it from the Denver Broncos website at: http://www.denverbroncos.com

"I know looking from the outside it's hard to understand what's going on, especially when you lose players the caliber we've lost in the past couple of years, but it is the ultimate team sport," Graham said. "Not one player is going to win the Super Bowl for us."

Orton's talk is in the list -- I really like everything he says. Just seems like a super class act and I hope he can improve even more on last year.

Pouncey visiting several teams, including us

I don't plan on creating a Denver Post acct to view the article, but it doesn't seem too flattering.
In an extensive article on McDaniels, the Denver Post reports that the former New England Patriots offensive coordinator and star quarterback Tom Brady didn't exchange a word of conversation for three weeks during his first year coaching the Pro Bowl passer.

Good read -- has a link to the video interview in the corner

The Trial is back on track to start next month

Really fun read -- surprised no one here got quoted =)

We won't have to listen to Sandy Clough on our drive home anymore, he has been moved to 7pm!