Mile High Stadium--Or it should be

Over the next three preseason games I, P.P. Dublinski will be watching the Broncos offensive line, defensive line and quarterbacks with great interest.

Orlando Franklin - Hopefully he's a good run blocker.

The Broncos haven’t done much in the way of changing personnel on offense. We lost WR Jabar Gaffney, we got WR David Anderson. We lost T Ryan Harris, we drafted T Orlando Franklin. We drafted a promising tight end, I’ll be watching for this Julius Thomas character. We signed veteran RB Willis McGahee as a power running back to complement Knowshon Moreno’s more finesse style of play.

Other than that, I don’t see a whole lot of difference on the offensive side of the football.

I don’t believe for a second that our running game will show big-time improvement this year under new head coach John Fox and returning Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy. I believe we should be a little better running the football, but I don’t see how you can get all hyped up about our rushing attack while we have the same personnel and an offensive line loaded with young, largely unproven players.

Last year, this team struggled to get two inches on the ground. The last two years that is, I threw my hat at the damn screen many a time because Josh McDaniels insisted on running the football in short yardage situations. We got stuffed time and time again. I threw my damn hat and yelled “Doesn’t he realize this hasn’t been working all year?”

Felt like a broken record last year. Couldn’t punch it in on the goal line, couldn’t get third and short if our lives depended on it. I said time and time again that it didn’t matter who we had running the football, I don’t care if it was Adrian Peterson or Peyton Hillis, they’re getting stuffed behind our offensive line. Yes, it was “offensive.” Had sea cucumbers like that Numby at the Denver Compost claiming Knowshon Moreno “Couldn’t find the holes.” What a laugh, there weren’t any holes. I’m not optimistic about our running game this year, I’d like to be proven wrong. Not much has changed personnel-wise, Fox better have one hell of a “new scheme.”

Von Miller should be a star rushing the edge.

The Broncos defensive line was 32nd against the run last year, while I am confident in our ability to rush the quarterback with Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil returning, the Broncos defense against the run needs to improve big time. I don’t see a drastic change coming in one year. Plus, we have a lot of new players up front, that Brodrick Bunkley, Ty Warren and middle linebackers Nate Irving and Joe Mays. It will be interesting to see what Von Miller can do against the run, we know he can sack the quarterback with his speed of the edge.

I’ll also keep an eye on safety Rahim Moore and the middle linebacker position, hopefully this Moore is the ballhawk we think he can be in the pros.

I keep hearing that the 2011 Broncos will “run the ball and play defense”  under coach John Fox. Yeah, we’ll be better on defense and we’ll run the ball a little better–but I don’t think we’ll even run the ball good. Adequate. Probably not good.

Which brings me to the quarterback conundrum. I believe John Fox is implementing his “boring as hell” offense with the help of his long time right hand man on offense Mike McCoy. A boring as hell offense that WR Steve Smith recently handed a glowing review:

Smith, in his 11th season with the Panthers, said the offensive philosophy of the new coaching staff has been a refreshing change following the worst season of his career. Smith said offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski is using him in innovative ways that John Fox’s staff would talk about, but never implement.

 ”I respect coach Fox and I respect the offensive coordinators that have been here. But at the same time I’m a wide receiver. Run blocking is not my forte,” Smith said Saturday following the two-hour Fan Fest at Bank of America Stadium.

I’m not liking what I’m hearing in Denver. I hear Brady Quinn is all excited. I bet there’s a reason for that, I bet the template for quarterback is to drop back and use no improvisational skills. It suits Orton. It suits Quinn. It doesn’t suit Tebow. I’d like to be wrong on this but I have a feeling that Fox now loves Cuckooman, loves that he doesn’t make mistakes in practice.

Myself, as well as many legions of Broncos fans were disappointed when Kyle Orton’s trade didn’t go down. I figured he’d be gone and we’d hand the reins to Tebow for this year. After all, we only had Orton signed for one year and everyone knows he is not the long term answer at quarterback. When the game’s on the line Cuckooman Orton will let you down. Seen it time and time again. Steady play, makes few mistakes and seems to take few chances as well. In the big games he falls short, he exhibits none of the intangibles of an elite or even above average quarterback. Poor mobility and his big play making ability is suspect on third downs and in the red zone. Everyone should know this after two years in Denver, seven years in the league. But Orton can be successful in the NFL regular season with a good running game and a very good defense. Orton could even be successful in the playoffs with a great running game and an elite top five defense.

The only problem is: Denver doesn’t have what Kyle Orton needs.

Not this year, anyways.

Forgive me if I laugh when I hear Kyle Orton will tear it up this year with a defense and an offense that can run the ball. I don’t see much that’s changed personnel-wise. Do you forget how many times this offense put up less than 17 points last year?

Managing the games–it’s not going to work. I understand the players want to win now, the coach wants to win now. The coach probably wants to implement his boring offense with Orton and run the football, play sound defense.

We don’t have the personnel to manage games. Plus, I see the big picture. I see a quarterback who is gone after this year in free agency. I imagine his big target Brandon Lloyd joining him.  I see a team that won’t be able to manage the games with a sub-par running game and a questionable defense. We were 4 and 12 last year. No one on our schedule is a gimme to win. We don’t have the team or the personnel to control the clock and game manage. Not yet anyways. What if this year ends with John Fox lauding Orton, that he manged to get 7 and 9 with him… If that’s the case–what do we tell our players next year? Is it time to start from scratch? Isn’t it usually a three year plan to get into playoff contention? Forgive me if I’d like to start on that plan now with a possible rookie quarterback of the future–or a high draft pick next year.

I have a feeling the “quarterback competition” has already been handed to Cuckooman Orton no matter what goes down in these preseason games. He probably fits Fox’s template of what he wants out of his quarterback in his boring scheme. I’d love to be wrong on this by the way. Back in January, I figured Fox would spearhead the defense and leave the offense alone.

The future is Orton.

Brady Quinn and Kyle Orton probably fit his template. This is disappointing to me and I’m sure it must be to the majority of fans who wanted to get on with the future this year. I wanted the Broncos to do what Steve Young wisely stated: build an offense around Tebow and play to his strengths. That’s something the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t do for Steve Young and they were idiotic enough to ship his ass out of there.

I keep hearing Orton will start but “if things get bad” this season then we’ll see what we have in Tebow?

Wasn’t that last year?

Didn’t we do that last year?

Sorry Robert Ayers,  but the fans have every right to boo this Cuckooman and the decision to start him. You’re lucky the first preseason game is in Dallas. I have nothing against Kyle Orton the person. Hell, I like him better than Jay Huckdort Cutler. Nothing against Orton the person, but his time in Denver is done. Or it should be. He’s gone after this year anyways and myself and many others I’m sure are sick of Kyle Orton the player. Sick of his play on the field. He’s not the long term answer. Put in the kid, give him every chance to succeed and see what we have. Bench Orton if you have to.

Unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to get another year of Orton starting.

Fire up the Sunday ticket subscriptions.

Now ever since the botched trade, Tim Tebow seems to have a bug up his ass.

Throwing balls into the ground, not looking good in practice. Yeah, this new offense might suck, it may not be tailored to what he can do best, yes he probably thought the job was his–that the staff would go in his direction instead of a boring one–but that’s that and this is now. If he does have a bug up his ass, he needs to get rid of it now. I have a feeling he’s just not a good practice player–he may never be good at that.

People are saying “Tebow better win the job from Orton in these preseason games.”

It’s not a safe bet that he will outplay Orton, and he doesn’t have to. Tebow doesn’t have to play lights out, he doesn’t have to play exceptionally great in these preseason games.

He only has to play well.

He only has to do the job he did last year where he moved the offense down the field multiple times and scored points. That’s all he needs to do. I have a feeling he can and will–practice be damned. Some guys aren’t good at scripted practices. Some guys aren’t that great staying in the pocket either, you know, guys like John Elway and Michael Vick. It took Elway years to become a very good pocket passer. Think of all his big plays–most were running and gunning.

Orton will be Orton. He will probably waver between good and just OK the entire preseason. I don’t see him doing terrible out there. The job is probably his anyways, no matter.

If Tebow plays well, if he does a good job then he can stick it to the coaches and the front office: The case can be made (mostly by the fans in the stands) that Tebow should be out there starting. Every time Orton falters in the regular season–don’t expect kindness.

If Tebow doesn’t play well and if he looks like total crap? Well, then he’s down the river on a $&ithouse door baby. That’s what this mess has come down to. Can you believe that? One week he’s about to be the face of the franchise– it was almost the beginning of a new exciting era at quarterback–instead it’s the third year of Orton’s Bizzaro World and Tebow “might not be in our future plans.” I have little doubt that coach Fox decided to go gung ho with Orton, gung ho with his vanilla scheme. The players seem to be all in as well–at least that’s what we hear.

If Tebow plays well enough in these upcoming preseason games, then I don’t care what Fox wants, and I don’t care what the veteran players want. Especially Brandon Lloyd who will be a free agent. I’ll be rooting for the kid as this image of a golden armed Orton comes crashing to the ground–soon enough behind a team that isn’t good enough to manage games. Tebow just has to wait for Orton to be Orton during the season and that will happen.

I’ll tell you something, if Orton falters during the season to the extent we bench him and Tebow comes in and starts putting up points? I will demand an apology and or resignation from someone high the organization. I’ll send a thousand letters if I have to. Make a hundred phone calls that I will videotape–it won’t be pretty.

Finally Brady Quinn, well I’m not too excited about what Brady Quinn can do. He’s had a lot of chances to show what he can do in actual games and I’ve never been too impressed. That said, if he plays very well I’d rather him start than Orton. At least he’s closer to a rookie and more interesting. You can see how much faith I have in Kyle Orton, Eh? I’d like to know why I or anyone should have much faith in him winning more games, based on the last two years and the current state of the team.