Are the Denver Broncos better or worse this year?

Joker said:

Did New England and the other 30 teams in the league NOT watch the Super Bowl?

Forget the additions and subtractions...rush Manning up the middle and get him OFF his spot, he's cooked. It IS that simple.

Seattle's Cliff Avril bull-rushed through Broncos right tackle Orlando Franklin and smashed into Manning as the Denver passer looked for Knowshon Moreno. The ball fluttered as Moreno waited for it to land in his hands, but Seattle linebacker Malcolm Smith sprinted ahead of the stationary Moreno to pick off the pass.​

Seattle Seahawks obliterate Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl 2014 | NOLA.com

OK...let me put it THIS way... the entire lineup of adversaries Denver will face this season SAW HIM GET OBLITERATED. The tape does not lie...pressure him out of his little Omaha comfort zone and he's worse than MARK SANCHEZ. Let him stand there and hurl his flutterducks untouched and he'll run out of receivers before completions. Seattle has shown the league the way, you have to be a moron team to NOT emulate them in some fashion.

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As a Patsfan moron I feel especially qualified to respond.

The problem is acquiring the talent in quantity to emulate SEA's unrelenting, energetic, from all sides pass rush.
I firmly believe that BB designs his roster to match up against his perceived playoff opponents. The youth movement along the line is expressly designed to pressure Manning. G'bye Kelly. Fast mobile disciplined rushers may also be effective against Wilson. I'd feel more comfortable if guys with the attributes some expected from Worthy and Quarels were to make the squad. Maybe they're already on it. I for one am jacked and pumped!

stinkypete said:

The Broncos roster is significantly better than in 2013. Talib + returning Chris Harris are much better than DRC. Ware is much better than Phillips + Ayers. RB is a fungible position and Moreno is above average at best, this is not a huge loss.

Defensively this team is unquestionably better. The LB corps is weak, but the rest of the defense is strong enough to mask that weakness, especially given that most Broncos games will be high scoring, pass-first games. The LB weakness should only reveal itself against elite TEs or in close games with lots of running.

Offensively, the Broncos should regress to the mean like any other team would. This does not necessarily mean a decline.

To me, the bigger question is how much can a 13-3 team realistically improve in the standings? Given the "any given Sunday" nature of the sport, injuries, lucky/unlucky bounces of the ball, scheduling quirks and the unpredictability of the strength of opponents, it is entirely possible that the Broncos fall to 12-4 despite being a better team.

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The Broncos MAY end up being a lot better. Many of their additions have big question marks. Will they get the first six games last year Talib or the Talib who played the last 10 games for the Pats last year. Harris tore his ACL in the playoffs. Is he going to be ready for this season. If they get Ware of two years ago, he is much better than Phillips and Ayers. If they get the Ware of last year, not so much.

Hey the Pats have their own question marks and some of them are very big, but I don't know if the Broncos are guaranteed to be better. And I don't care how much the defense gets better if the offense takes a major step back because when they were scoring like they did last year, their defense was irrelevant. If they score 40-50 points in a game, the Broncos defense was not even more than a footnote in the game. Teams couldn't keep up with their offense if the Broncos didn't field a defense at all.

the broncos are clearly better, peyton went into the menu, click on the rules, and then changed the rule settings so that those mean seahawks cant cheat their way to the title again!

Someone should really change the security guard at the nfl rules check point, he falls for the "oh man I gotta deliver this papa johns pizza, but they wont buzz me in, here ill leave this extra pizza with you if you just let me pass"

Classic peyton.

Here's my thoughts on the additions they made:

Secondary:

• I think TJ Ward is incredibly overrated at everything except tearing people's ACLs.
• Bradley Roby had to be the most overrated CB in all of college football last year. He had a great season as a sophomore though.
• We know Talib is good when he's healthy.

Defensive Line:

• Their defensive line is better than last year's on paper, but they also got an incredible season out of Shaun Phillips last year so there's that.
• I'm curious to see what DeMarcus Ware has left in the tank. This is also the first "true" 4-3 he's ever really played in, but he did play with his hand in the dirt a lot in Dallas' 3-4.
  
• They have no depth at DT after Knighton and Sylvester Williams. Marvin Austin was a binky of mine and if he gets his crap together he could be a great backup DT.
  
• What's interesting is their DL looks super stout against the run but probably slightly above average at rushing the passer. I guess that's where Von Miller comes in from the LB spot.

Linebackers:
Their linebackers kinda suck, aside from Von Miller who isn't a "true" LB anyway. He exists solely to rush the passer because their DL is more built to stop the run first.

Offense:

• Regardless of stats, their offense will still be fantastic. I don't know if it will be as good as last year's statistically because what they did last year requires luck as well, but they will still move the ball at will against any but the best defenses.
  
• Sanders was a great pickup, he will thrive in that offense. I think he's a better Z than Y receiver though and I don't expect him to hold up if he's supposed to fill Welker's routes.
  
• Cody Lattimer has the possibility of being the Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Joker said:

Seattle Seahawks obliterate Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl 2014 | NOLA.com

OK...let me put it THIS way... the entire lineup of adversaries Denver will face this season SAW HIM GET OBLITERATED. The tape does not lie...pressure him out of his little Omaha comfort zone and he's worse than MARK SANCHEZ. Let him stand there and hurl his flutterducks untouched and he'll run out of receivers before completions. Seattle has shown the league the way, you have to be a moron team to NOT emulate them in some fashion.

Click to expand...

Seattle is a special team, defensively. There was/is more speed on that defense than any team since the 2000 Ravens. The secondary of the 2013 Seahawks was faster to the ball and point of contact than the 2000 Ravens.

Watching them blow out the Broncos, and replicating what they did are two very different things.

Joker said:

Did New England and the other 30 teams in the league NOT watch the Super Bowl?

.......................................
OK...let me put it THIS way... the entire lineup of adversaries Denver will face this season SAW HIM GET OBLITERATED. The tape does not lie...pressure him out of his little Omaha comfort zone and he's worse than MARK SANCHEZ. Let him stand there and hurl his flutterducks untouched and he'll run out of receivers before completions. Seattle has shown the league the way, you have to be a moron team to NOT emulate them in some fashion.

Click to expand...

So you're saying that Manning is the modern version of Drew Bledsoe? I can agree with that. Drew's biggest problem was not having an O-Line that could consistently protect him and he was far too often running for his life. Added to that, Drew was also famous for trying to drill home a pass into hard coverage where the better course of action would have been to throw it away, punt, and live for another set of downs. Again, Manning is not unlike that.

I'm going to go slightly off-tangent here and say that while these comparisons between this year's team and last year's, etc, are fun and entertaining, I really don't see the value to them except from a fan's point of view.

Each year's team is a different beast than the one that came before it, even the many that came before it. They might have some familiar names, wear the same laundry, same emblems, etc, but each is an entity unto itself. I find it hard to judge whether it is "better" r "worse" than previous incarnations due to all the variables in place.

It's not just the additions and subtractions to the roster. It's also additions & subtractions to the coaching staff. The front office. Improvements (or devolutions) of the stadium.

Each season will have 3 constant opponents for 6 games, the teams in their own division, but THOSE teams are also constantly changing. Each season brings a different division to play against. Different road trips. Different weather situations. Players get sick, injured, cut, etc.

In short, the only real way to judge the team is at the end of the year, when the dust settles. How it fared in it's environment. How well it did against it's opponents, on the road, (potentially) in the playoffs, etc. Only one team will have a truly successful season. The rest will have degrees of suckage.

Historians will tell you that the only honest, objective way to judge a people or a person is within the environment, the time(s), in which they lived. Anything else is like putting your thumb on the scale because it skews the true result. It's the same with each team's season. We can only honestly judge it after the season is over.

Having said that, it IS a fun exercise and it certainly helps all of us tamp down the dancing trunk monkey on our backs as we wait for the season to begin.

I would think they'll improve significantly on the defensive side of the ball and perhaps regress slightly on offense.

Didn't the Broncos have one of the best o-lines in the league last year?

Why would there be any question marks about it going into 2014?

Also, I won't be surprised if Talib gets injured once again this year

VrabelJr said:

Here's my thoughts on the additions they made:

Secondary:

• I think TJ Ward is incredibly overrated at everything except tearing people's ACLs.
• Bradley Roby had to be the most overrated CB in all of college football last year. He had a great season as a sophomore though.
• We know Talib is good when he's healthy.

Defensive Line:

• Their defensive line is better than last year's on paper, but they also got an incredible season out of Shaun Phillips last year so there's that.
• I'm curious to see what DeMarcus Ware has left in the tank. This is also the first "true" 4-3 he's ever really played in, but he did play with his hand in the dirt a lot in Dallas' 3-4.
  
• They have no depth at DT after Knighton and Sylvester Williams. Marvin Austin was a binky of mine and if he gets his crap together he could be a great backup DT.
  
• What's interesting is their DL looks super stout against the run but probably slightly above average at rushing the passer. I guess that's where Von Miller comes in from the LB spot.

Linebackers:
Their linebackers kinda suck, aside from Von Miller who isn't a "true" LB anyway. He exists solely to rush the passer because their DL is more built to stop the run first.

Offense:

• Regardless of stats, their offense will still be fantastic. I don't know if it will be as good as last year's statistically because what they did last year requires luck as well, but they will still move the ball at will against any but the best defenses.
  
• Sanders was a great pickup, he will thrive in that offense. I think he's a better Z than Y receiver though and I don't expect him to hold up if he's supposed to fill Welker's routes.
  
• Cody Lattimer has the possibility of being the Offensive Rookie of the Year.

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Peyton might get Sanders killed before the quarter pole.

NFL Network did a segment which predicted Peyton throwing at least 50 TD again this year. Interesting prediction with the schedule the Broncos have...

sb1 said:

NFL Network did a segment which predicted Peyton throwing at least 50 TD again this year. Interesting prediction with the schedule the Broncos have...

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Total Ducks?

ThatllMoveTheChains!!! said:

Total Ducks?

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I'll go on the record now as believing that Satan Manning will have a higher number of of INT's this year than last. I'm looking at the schedule, looking at his WR's and mostly looking at his history.

He's due for a seriously close TD/INT ration.

Rob0729 said:

I never said that the Broncos should be discounted. I just think their moves have been overrated. It seems that the media and people around the country think the Broncos built a defense that will rival the Seahawks' (ok, a bit of an exaggeration, but not much).

I don't think the Broncos will be as good as last year just because it is doubtful their offense can be as good as it was last year. I expect them to have a top offense, but I don't expect it to be a historic offense.

Even if their defense gets significantly better, I don't think it will make up for the decline on offense. When they were scoring like they were last year, their defense was almost irrelevant in most games. If you can be up by three or four scores in the first half, you can afford to have an average defense and still win by three TDs.

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You have to remember - when comparing this year's edition of the Broncos to last year's, you're comparing apples to oranges.

Last year's "historic" offense teed off against a long line of tomato cans. Oh, they were good, but they weren't that good! The difference in the opposition's quality this year should be telling. At least watch their first 4 games (Colts, Chiefs, @ Seahawks, Cardinals). This should tell us something.

In their favor, they do have 3 of their first 4 at home, but they have a 3-game on the road toughie in early November that starts with New England, so that could be another defining moment for that team.

If the Patriots had beaten Miami in the second game last year (like they should have), they end up hosting the Broncos, they end up beating the Broncos, and then take their chances against the 'Hawks.

In that come-from-behind win earlier in the season, the Broncos , in scoring the game's first 24 points, had short fields for all except one of their scores. The second half was a public pants-down spanking of their "Super Bowl defense". That's when I really started to wonder about the Broncos' invincibility.

And I've really got to wonder about Talib and his hips. He's only played as many as 15 games in a season once, and he ain't getting any younger.

Although Welker's role has diminished with this team, he can still be said to be Manning's security blanket in times of stress. Gone the first 4 games, he's now become something of a liability what with the ever-present danger of getting cold ****ed again, maybe for the last time.

So, we'll see...

the only way they can be better is by winning the SB they will not have the same stats as last year. IMO the whole AFC will be much better this year so it will not be a easy road to the playoffs

Patriotic Fervor said:

You have to remember - when comparing this year's edition of the Broncos to last year's, you're comparing apples to oranges.

Last year's "historic" offense teed off against a long line of tomato cans. Oh, they were good, but they weren't that good! The difference in the opposition's quality this year should be telling. At least watch their first 4 games (Colts, Chiefs, @ Seahawks, Cardinals). This should tell us something.
...

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This is one reason why I'm proud of that 16-0 banner even if not all Pats fans are. 16-0 is obviously impressive but it's even more impressive when it includes 6-0 against playoff teams (4 of them on the road) and 7-0 against teams with winning records. That deserves a freaking banner. I doubt we'll ever see a team do that again.

Last year's Broncos went 3-3 against playoff teams.