What’s different in Denver?

By Os Davis  |   Monday, September 15, 2008  |  Comments( 10 )

Denver Broncos
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Though two games hardly a season make and the Denver Broncos hardly have anything wrapped up with 88.2 percent of their contests left to play, something profound has happened to this 7-9 team of 2007 that many (ahem) reckoned for a sub-.500 level in '08.

Sure, the Broncos eked out the win against the San Diego Chargers maybe even courtesy of a bad call Bolts fans will be burning about for years; sure, the Broncos were 2-0 at this point last year. Yet in 2007, Denver stole those two wins against a pair of subpar teams: the Buffalo Bills and the Oakland Raiders. Ostensibly much improved over last year’s mess, Oakland rolled over for the smoking by Denver, while the Bronco offense torched the former prospective AFC favorites/No. 2 fantasy defense.

So what gives?

Commentary: Two weeks ago, a certain RealFootball365.com writer who shall remain nameless stated in a, let’s say, less-than-accurate prediction of Week 1's Monday night flying circus: “If someone can explain exactly how last year’s unimpressive, disappointing Broncos are this year’s playoff threat after doing little more in the offseason than signing Dylan Gandy and releasing Travis Henry, please do.”

Guess it’s time to attempt that explanation with the Broncos suddenly stunningly looking like the best of the West.

The receivers. Eddie Royal for Javon Walker: What kind of a net gain was this? And who’da thunk it? The second-rounder from Virginia Tech, unknown and unranked back in spring when fantasy football tip magazines were heading to press, has already become the fantasy sensation of 2007. Royal completes a mean foursome for Jay Cutler in Brandon Stokely, Darrell Jackson and the ridiculous Brandon Marshall. (Eighteen receptions against San Diego? Six more touches than freaking LaDainian Tomlinson in the game? Wouldn’t you, like, triple-team him at some point? Guess not.) The only question regarding whether Selvin Young will get to that Denver-automatic milestone of 1,000 yards rushing would seem to solely depend on whether his quarterback makes enough pass attempts. Speaking of that guy ...

Remember the Michael Jordan egomercial/supposed motion picture Space Jam? In it, malevolent aliens had sucked the talent out of a quartet of NBA ballers, thereby turning them utterly incompetent on the floor (well, except for Shawn Bradley, who merely stayed that way). That’s my new theory on Jay Cutler: At some point in the offseason, he siphoned off, in space vampire fashion, the talent of a number of his golden-boy contemporaries, including Alex Smith, Vince Young, Matt Leinart, and Troy Smith to feed his own skills. Do you have a better theory for the sudden across-the-board uptick in Cutler’s play? Maybe it’s just the...

Team psychiatrist. The 2007 Broncos were a bizarre puzzle, a seeming offensive machine which habitually stalled in the red zone. At 346.3 yards per game, the 11th-best Broncos were in a league with the Seattle Seahawks and Cleveland Browns; at exactly 20 points per game, the team wallowed near the Raiders. This season? In two games, Denver is a most excellent 7-for-9 within the red zone and how about that two-point conversion dagger, eh? Mike Shanahan finally has this offense playing out of its mind. Or maybe in its mind for the first time, helped by ...

A nice infusion of youth, but not too much. So the statement above about the Broncs’ dead-lame offseason was hyperbole; Shanahan & Co. also rid the team of oldsters Jason Elam, Sam Adams, and John Lynch, while taking on Royal, Ryan Clady and Peyton Hillis, who may get to show more of his stuff soon if they every stop passing. And guys like Ryan Harris, Selvin Young, Elvis Dumervil and Tony Scheffler are all 25 years old or younger, all products of the Shanahan system, and are all coming into their own right about now. Nice scouting or maybe just a touch of ...

The Costanza theory. Why go for the two-pointer and the win? If your instinct has proven to be wrong, the opposite would be correct. So order up the chicken salad on rye and pencil in the Broncos for the playoffs

Fantasy Football Impact: Because the not-so-mighty, barely fighting Os Holes are already declaring this season a washout, we’re looking forward to the 2008 draft. Barring a return to the old conservative ways of taking RBs in the first two rounds, Cutler may well be a top eight pick next year. For now, he’s a no-brainer: Start him throughout the year. Also Marshall. And maybe Royal and Young against weaker opponents.

Fan Pulse: Off the charts. If this were a literal pulse, it would appear as though the whole of Bronco Nation has just done about 150 laps in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The Mile High Club (great name, that) is geeked enough about the San Diego win to take on a new slogan: “Where we love Denver Bronco football, and we aren’t afraid to go for two!”
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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