As the Tebow bomb fell to the ground, we as fans began our off-season (I felt like our 2nd overall pick was floating in the air)  Sure, the playoffs and Super Bowl will go on (may Eagles fans suffer heart-break, no Terrible Towel success, and nothing but NFC West SB victory); but for us Broncos fans, we begin the cold winter of off-season speculation over new Head Coaches, mock drafts, free agent acquisitions, and attempts to understand all the CBA drama.  So with that in mind, I’m noting my off-season "honey do list" (hat tip to all the married folk).

1.       What we know: Bowlen, Ellis (ugh), Elway (insert week of celebratory welcome #7 home talk), Xanders (he's not going anywhere) and the hunt for a new head coach.  Power to the people for all their mocks and FA talks, but the first order of business is finding a new head coach.  Whatever role or say he might have, fact is he will have something to say about the direction of our team.  If it’s a coach only, then it might be minor, but if it’s a big wig, then he'll be listened to.  So first stop on the off-season shopping list:  Commence wild speculation over who our next head coach will be.  For my money, I want Jerry Glanville.  But that’s only because I’m not sure if he ever existed or if he was a figment of my imagination.

2.      Hot damn, we have a new head coach!  Well once this takes place, then we get to sit back and "arm-chair quarterback" all the coaching staff decisions.  I love this part because outside of the know names, this is where we fans are really in the dark and (pardon me) stupid on who’s hot and not around the league or in the college circuit (not saying they’re those of you in the know, but jimmy cricket, I just cited Jerry Glanville as our HC for crying out loud.  What the hell do I know about running back coaches, physical trainers, and the guy who squirts water into players mouth when they come off the field (I want that job!).

3.       Okay, HC in place, coaching staff rocking and rolling and now it’s (we interrupt your regularly scheduled MOCK DRAFT EXTRAVAGANZA for CBA nonsense!!!!).  Okay, for all the smart CBA fans out there, please help the rest of us navigate the stormy road ahead.  Though my kids are all past the "binky sucking" stage and are potty trained, all I can think is DON’T TAKE AWAY MY NFL!!!!   I was too young to understand the NFL strike back in the 80s, but I do know that the MLB and NHL strike killed whatever love I had for watching those games and the NBA only gets a pass because I love the hoops and can’t get enough Kobe and Wizards action (yeah, I said it! John Wall is my Tebow in basketball).   For the love of all that’s orange and blue, I think this will be a major story that makes the "unknown" even more unknown.  So mock to your heart’s content, but for  my money, I want resolution and I want resolution now before I start to throw a 2 year old tantrum! WAAAA!!!

 4.      Okay, we finally get to that glorious Combine/Mel Kiper et al mocks/MHR awesomeness and the 3 day event where we watch grown men call other grown men’s name on 3x5 cards and drink lots of beer and act like we know anything about that LG from Utah.  I love it!!!!

 5.     Phew, we’re high off of that and then we start getting even more "high" off the draft picks or we start to drink ourselves into Alphonso Smith/Richard Quinn oblivion as we "grade" the draft.   I love reading MHR during this part of the off-season! We know nothing, but we declare our inner Todd McShay from the mountain tops!  YIPPPIE!!!  I refrain from posting my draft grade until 2030!!!

6.       Oh boy, then we deal with the Sahara desert as we pine for mini-camps, training camps and pre-season games.  We wait for the MHR gurus who feed us Intel on our team.  How did Tebow look today?  Did Coach Glanville sacrifice a goat before Patrick Peterson returned an INT for TD?  Inquiring minds want to know!!!  Truth be told, us fans hate the gap period.  We have to endure golf and baseball and NBA / NHL Final that last way too long into the summer.  We have to wonder why LeBron won’t admit he’s really a 39 year old man from Dominican Republic!  Ugh!!!  Give us football!!!

 7.      Preseason football!  Yippee ki-yay, MF’er!  This is when we buy cases of good beer, we go from a team that’s 4-12 to a team that will go 13-3!!!  Love it and enjoy watching all the rooks, UFA’s and Elway sightings!  For all it’s worth, 2011 will have a different feel to it than anything we’ve experienced in quite sometime.

 8.      Lord Football returns and we commence what we do best: telling those front office weenies, coaches, and players how to do it best!  Because at the end of the day, what makes sports and football so damn awesome is US: the obnoxious, know-it-all fan who devotes more energy, tears and money than any gifted Tebow, Elway, name your favorite athlete will ever know. Seriously, we fans rock!  For all the Tebow/Elway passion, nobody and I mean nobody brings more passion to sports than fans do!  So like the Hobbits we are, let's drink, sing songs about our team and get ready for what will be yet another crazy and fun and always debatable Broncos off-season!!!  We are beautiful!!!

 9.     Oh yeah, in between that, mulch my wife’s garden, take out the trash, repaint the living room, etc…

 10.   Go Broncos!!!

I made this comment to BSrout's earlier fanpost and at his request I'm reposting it here. 

In response to his question on how the MSM views our team in their power rankings, I responded this way:

the mindset of the MSM is as follows: hope that Denver folds during their upcoming stretch of better opponents. If that happens, then they can celebrate that they were right and that Denver is a pretender. I think the real issue for us fans, is that we’re evaluating the Broncos in the short-term and long-term, whereas the MSM is only looking for their next sound byte.

The Short-Term (the trees before us)

For us, the short-term is this: wow! our team is playing sound, fundemental football. We’re, in my opinion, ahead of schedule as far as implementing two news schemes (offensive and defense) and our team culture is already apparant (team first, aggressive, and tougher). This bodes well for us in the short-term, as it gives us fans the belief that we can truly compete for the division crown and get into the playoffs this year.  I think fans always have high-hopes each season (at least us Broncos fans!), but deep within us lies a "Zappa" who has been teased before with fast starts only to see our team fade down the stretch.  But when we start to see that "times are achanging" we start to take notice and--at least for me--get that old time feeling of being a perrenially good team again.  That leads me to the long-term view we, as fans, have....

The Long-Term (the forest)

As I stated in the other post, it's the long-term that has me even more excited!!!  I also think this is what the MSM fails to see the most.  McD and company are building something on par with the elite franchises (NE, Pitt, Indy, NYG), where we can compete for the playoffs/Super Bowl every year.  In a lot of ways, this season is all FUN for me, because I don’t have grand visions of Super Bowl this season. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be thrilled if we put together a Cinderella run, but for me, this year is all about improvement and building a new culture. Next year and the years that follow are when I started getting jacked up as we should be able to field perinial playoff teams!  As Guru and many others have pointed out, we have a great mix of young and rising stars (Doom, Moreno, Royal, Clady, The Phonz, Ayers etc), seasoned vets (Bailey, Dawkins, etc), previously untapped potential (Fields, Haggan, Reid, etc), and steady eddies who might not be "great" but who bring all the right "stuff" to build team chemistry (A. Davis, Orton, Buck, Goodman, etc). 

The MSM

But back to BShrout's post, I really don’t care where they rank us (part of being a Broncos fan is being disrespected by the media.  I wear it as a badge of honor!)  What I do care about, however, is where we stand in our division and conference.  I care about us staying healthy and winning the turn-over battle, beating the crap out our division and the continued emergence of Kyle Orton’s neckbeard and the superpowers therein!

Go Broncos!

Hey BGN, Broncos fan here asking for your help.  The gang over at MHR is doing a mock draft and I was slotted to make your 28th overall pick (I live in PA and my son's an Eagles fan so go easy on me).  I was hoping you could provide some insight as to who the Eagles may select with this pick, or who you think the Eagles should pick.  Being that this is your second pick in the first round, a lot depends on who you grab at #21, but a quick survey of some mock drafts seems to indicate that taking OT is the wise move here. Thoughts appreciated!

Bye bye TO

via media.star-telegram.com

I was going to Fan Post the other day to remind the MHR bar that just because we've gone through some mild chaos the past few days, we're not the only NFL team with "issues".... Exhibit A.  Dallas did what many around the league expected them to--release TO.  For me, this is an attempt by JJ to improve the team's chemistry.  I think they had to make this move, but I can tell you I'm not sold on Roy Williams being a true #1 WR.  Tough times ahead for the Cowgirls.  Can't say I'm not happy about that!

Other teams that are dealing with plenty of drama (this always makes me feel better about our situation)....

Eagles - Still can't get their hands on a real #1 or even #2 WR (DeSean is a slot receiver IMO).  They also let their heart and soul walk away (Weapon X) and have done little in the FA market.

Redskins - Sure they made the biggest splash in FA with the signing of Haynesworth, but at what cost?  Haynesworth ($41 million in guarantees), MeHall ($22.5 million in guarantees), and Dockery ($8.2 million guaranteed)...  And what will the final result be? I think we all know the answer to that....

Cardinals - Almost lost Warner to a divisional rival and they still have to deal with Boldin's contract.

Add any others that stand out to you in the comments...But you get the idea.  Harry Truman famously said many moons ago, "It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours."  Things didn't go smoothly this weekend and for many that caused a great deal of angst.  But just look around the league and you'll see there are plenty of other teams with their own "depression" going on...

via www.midweek.com

Let the Good Times Roll!

Pat Bowlen is on fire right now.  He's "ecstatic" with the hiring of Head Coach, Josh McDaniels and Defensive Coordinator, Mike Nolan.  And I for one don't blame him.  He's been on quite the emotional roller coaster having made a difficult decision to fire legendary coach and friend, Mike Shanahan and then turnaround and hire a new HC and DC.  You have to imagine he wants to retreat to the confines of his office and let the kids run the store while he watches from on high.  Well, Mr Bowlen, not so fast!  There's one more piece of buisness you need to attend to, one more thing for the Broncos organization to consider and embrace over the off-season -- new defensive players uniforms! 

Our Uniforms are So 90's

As you can see in Exhibit A, the Broncos uniform has evolved considerably from 1960 to the present.  I for one appreciated the bold uniform change in 1997 and firmly believe it allowed us to win back-to-back Super Bowls (dodges rock thrown by TD. Romo spits in my face).

However, the time has come once again to "upgrade" our uniforms to something that captures the essence of this decade (think Apple, economic depression, Call of Duty), the change in leadership (Shanny - tired, McD - wired) and the need to return to our roots (too much blue, need more orange).  To the last point, I'm seriously not kidding.  How am I supposed to teach my children about the Orange Crush with little to no orange?  My kids hate being lied to, Pat.  They think daddy is full of it because of your current uniforms.  It's time for a change, stat!

Exhibit A

via endzonesportscharities.org

More Orange & Broncos!

I think returning to an orange uniform is the easy part.  The hard part is getting more Broncos into the uniform.  Yes, the Broncos stencil-like logo is fine, if you're into to decapitated horse heads.  But I for one want to see the bucking bronco in all its glory! Again, remember the kids, Pat.  Most can't do simple addition and subtraction without a calculator and you expect them to know what a bronco is?  I try to tell them it's a horse that acts like Nate Webster when he loses his helmet, but they still don't seem to quite get it. Bottom line, we need more bronco!!!!   Feel free to refer Exhibit B, the "liger", or C, Ride Big Bronco, for inspiration.

Exhibit B

via www.liloia.com

Exhibit C

via farm3.static.flickr.com

My Final Appeal

via web.njit.edu

Aside from reminding you about the kids, Pat, that's about all I have to say on the matter.  I've included a MHR poll to help you get a feel for how devoted Broncos fans feel about the matter.  I think you'll find that winning another Super Bowl takes more than talented players and coaches, it takes wicked ass cool uniforms.  If you want to get Mile High rocking again, then get our boys some new battle fatigues! 

For a serious walk down Broncos uniform memory lane, check out this site.

via lnx.ginevra2000.it 

As if we needed another HC fanpost...it appears the Broncos organization is inching closer to appointing an heir to replace Shanahan. Here are the big take-aways from the Denver Post article.

Bowlen is superstious and will go with 7 candidates. No Stoops (thank baby Jesus!)

The Broncos' next head coach will come from one of the seven identified candidates, according to the source. The six who have been interviewed, in order of appearance before the Broncos' search committee, were New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, Broncos offensive coordinator Rick Dennison, Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, who was at the team's Dove Valley headquarters Wednesday.

Bowlen may have tipped his hand and we may be ushering in the Spags/Morris/Fraiser era...

The Broncos' new head coach will be encouraged to keep six assistant coaches left over from Shanahan's staff. According to two NFL sources, the Broncos have sent termination notices to the league office for all assistants except Dennison, Jeremy Bates (quarterbacks), Jedd Fisch (receivers), Bobby Turner (running backs), Bill Johnson (defensive line) and Rich Tuten (strength and conditioning).

Bowlen and his gang of merry men will be eating a lot of doughnuts and coffee over the next few days as they try and make the right hiring decision.  I for one think the Magic 8 Ball will be working overtime.

The search committee will spend the next two or three days thoroughly discussing each candidate. By Monday, the committee will bring back one to three finalists for a second interview or present an offer to the top choice.

 

 Well, I think we're all looking forward to next Monday when we can all celebrate or bemoan our new head coach. 

Raheem Morris may not be the Bucs defensive coordinator next season after all.

The Denver Broncos have asked permission to interview Morris for their head coaching job.

The Broncos fired coach Mike Shanahan on Tuesday after 14 seasons. Morris will interview with Broncos owner Pat Bowlen on Monday in Denver.

Morris, 32, was named the Bucs defensive coordinator for 2009 on Christmas Day, succeeding Monte Kiffin, who is joining his son Lane at Tennessee.

But Morris is considered a rising star in the coaching ranks and is a protege of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

The Bucs cannot block Morris or any assistant coach from interviewing for a head coaching job.

Kiffin had nothing but praise for Morris upon leaving the Bucs

This interview selection makes me excited. I had high hopes for Morris becoming our DC (he received the lowest amounts of votes in my DC poll), but would be just as happy to see him or someone like him brought in. I know the big names everyone keeps dropping, but I'm inclined to go more of the Mike Tomlin route. Now I know people will say this interview satisfies the Rooney rule, which it does, but I have a feeling Mr. Bowlen isn't one to go through the motions. It's still early in the process, but I wonder if this implies that Bates could have a future with the team as OC...

On a side note, I will continue to drop Charlie Strong name (Florida Gators DC) as a coach I'd love to see on our staff in any capacity.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/bucs/2009/01/broncos-to-inte.html

So here I am watching a pretty darn good game between two teams that have caused our Broncos much pain in the past decade. As I watched the Jaguars, I couldn't help but think that Jack Del Rio could be fired following the season. AND...if that indeed did happen and 'ol Jack didn't get a head coaching gig (hard to believe, but it could happen), would we jump the gun, fire Slo and hire Jack?  I'm not qualified to assess his "defensive coordinator" prowess (I know his defense coordinator abilities helped him get the job in Jax after serving as Carolina's D-Coord.), but I think I'd welcome his hard-nose attitude more. Anyway, here's a Thursday night poll for your consideration and enjoyment.

Disclaimer: This post is more for fun. I know many want to give Slowik another shot. 

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, the road to San Diego and the Broncos' playoff hopes is sometimes clouded by unrealistic expectations. HT asked us to look down the road to our season ending game against San Diego and determine if the Broncos would be sitting pretty with a playoff spot secure or scrambling for our playoff lives in an epic battle against the hated Bolts.

So I asked myself, what the Chargers must do to catch us (barring a complete collapse on our part)?

Da Bolts – 3-5 (2 GB).

Kansas City Chiefs (W, should win)
@ Pittsburgh Steelers (critical game)
Indianapolis Colts (critical game)
Atlanta Falcons (W, should win, will be tough)
Oakland Raiders (W, should destroy)
@ Kansas City Chiefs (W, should win)
@ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (critical game)
Denver Broncos

I’ll give the Chargers 4 wins hands down. That gets them to 7-5. If they manage to sweep the 3 tougher opponents (we’re in trouble b/c they’re playing really well), they’ll be 10-5 going into our end of season match up. If that’s the case, our team will be on red alert. I’d love to see us lose only 1 game before we play SD, but I don’t see that, especially as we continue to lose players to injury. However, I think SD will stumble down the stretch and can easily go 2-1 or even 1-2 against those tough opponents (if they lose all 3, yeah us!). Those latter records put them at 9-6 (makes our game against them meaningful) or 8-7 (could still make our game meaningful). Why? Keep reading…

Broncos – 5-4

@ Atlanta Falcons (critical game)
Oakland Raiders (W, should destroy)
@ New York Jets (critical game)
Kansas City Chiefs (W, should win. revenge game, to boot)
@ Carolina Panthers (critical game)
Buffalo Bills (critical game)
@ San Diego Chargers (critical game)

Man, unless your drinking some serious kool-aid, you’ll notice how brutal our end of season schedule is. The Panthers, Bills and Chargers will be vying for playoff positions. I cannot, in good conscious, give us easy wins over any team other than KC and OAK. That brings us to 7-4. We really need to go at least 2-2 in those 4 tougher games before we play SD (the ATL game next week is critical for us and would make me feel better about our chances). Two wins puts us at 9-6 before the SD game. I think this is our best case scenario. That being said, I can seriously see us going 1-3 or even 0-4 against our tougher opponents.

I know we’re not supposed to think that way, and some may accuse me of not keeping the faith, but our team has been decimated by injuries and we pretty much have to shoot our way out of the AFC West bar to stand a chance. And by shoot our way out, I mean Cutler will rack up loads of yards/TDs, and sadly, load of INTs (I’m surprised more people haven’t made the Favre comparison yet. Oh wait, people will have that chance when we play the Jets).

So, can we do it? Sure. Will it be so easy that we can rest our players against SD? I seriously doubt that. Hell, if that’s the case, that means we played great down the stretch and SD imploded. Still, I hate the mindset that is fearful of playing another team. Let’s hope we get to be the team that knocks SD out of the playoff picture while we win the division. That’s the kind of game that we can build on going into next season. Next season you say? Keep reading…

Just because I say this doesn’t mean I'm not rooting my ass off that we don’t “go...all...the...way!” But right now we’re barely a playoff contender (thank you parity), have lost more players at key positions than most teams (seriously, we can’t afford to lose anymore players), a team that plays with a reckless abandon that drives me to drink in jubilation and despair, and have a very difficult schedule down the stretch. I want us to get into the playoffs. I want our young players to taste it so that they’ll work even harder in the offseason. But just because I want some it, doesn’t mean it will happen. If our team makes the playoffs this year, it will be because they earned it. GO BRONCOS!

Hopefully my Fan Post headline caught your attention, but my post is serious (well not really) and loads of fun. So, our beloved Broncos had the week off to relax from the rigors of NFL, or as Chris Carter likes to say, the National Football League. Many of you probably watched the game in your market or--for those special people with the Sunday ticket--watched the Red Zone channel (greatest invention ever!) and caught a little bit of every game. Without the Broncos on, you could freely watch other teams without looking forward to the Broncos game or thinking about the game after a win or loss.

So...with all this free time to devote to other teams, did you find yourself coveting another team's players, secretly wishing we had Justin Tuck or Chris Cooley? I'm going to make a confession, I did. In fact--gasp! don't tell Shanny--I covet players every week. I close my eyes and imagine Brandon Jacobs is wearing the blue and orange and running all over Chargers, Chiefs and Raiders. I think of creative ways to kidnap Justin Tuck (yes, that's two mentions already), and swap him out for Jarvis Moss. I thumb through safeties and wonder, "hmm...I wonder if Nick Collins wants to play for us, or perhaps Oshiomogho Atogwe."  I sometimes feel guilty, but I rationalize my behavior and tell myself, "it's okay to look, just don't touch." And so I continue to sport Broncos gear, watch Broncos games over everything else, and spend ample time drinking at the MHR bar (seriously, if that existed!) to ease my guilty conscious. But the guilt is too heavy now. I had to share my secret... And so I ask, is anyone else in MHR land cheating on the Broncos? If so, with whom?

So, I've got to ask, how many of you are doomed to honey-do's, other commitments, etc during our bye week. Historically, my wife targets this date as "her" day.  This give and take arrangement has kept my marriage going strong (translation: wife remains happy, bcfunk lives to fight another day!).  So tomorrow, it's off to the outlets (what's up with outlet shopping and women?), birthday parties, and general non-football related activities. At least I can listen to the radio.  So, what steals away your time during our bye week?