First off, congratulations to Floyd Little, for his entry into the NFL Hall of Fame, representing the Broncos with dignity, acuity and palpability. And or authenticity.

With the recent rash of injuries there’s cries of “Woe is me,” ‘The sky is falling,” “What did we do to deserve this?”

The only thing that gives me concern right now is the offensive line.

These rookies in the interior line need to gel, and I’m hopeful as hell that Ryan Clady can get back in there by at least the third game. Hell, a hobbled Clady is two, three times what we got in his place right now from what I’ve been hearing.

You got this weasel John Clayton, look at that weasel. Look at that head. You ever seen a head like that? What a joke, what a disgrace. You got this pencil neck weasel Clayton saying the Broncos will not overcome their injuries and they’ll be in last place in the AFC West. He predicts 6 wins, 8 at the most for Kansas City, so you can just imagine what he thinks of Denver.

Look at that Thing

Part of the joke is him bemoaning the loss of Tony Scheffler, stating this Scheffler was a huge part of our offense–what a moronic joke that is. A guy we hardly threw to? A guy that couldn’t stay on the field? Not to mention a guy of exceedingly poor character? Then he says we downgraded Orton because he don’t have Marshall to throw to anymore.

I’m not worried one bit about the loss of Marshall or Scheffler. Not one bit. We will spread Marshall’s production around, our wide receiving corps are capable. Eddie Royal had a sophomore jinx, something many players go through. Not to mention the large, talented rookie receivers we drafted, nobody knows just how they will factor in just yet, but this genius Clayton knows, he seems to think they’re both still in crutches on the sideline.

That pencil necked loser Clayton, some senior analyst he is. What was it, a 3 and 13 prediction for the Broncos last year? The same prediction this year I bet if he has the Chiefs winning 6 games and the Broncos last in the division, unbelievable this clown. What was it that Schlereth said recently about working at ESPN, knowledge an inch deep and a mile wide over there? Sounds about right.

You got some people sounding ready to throw in the towel over the loss of Dumervil. Like I said it’s bad, but it’s not as devastating as it seems. We’ve got solid players at all positions on defense, and we’ve upgraded that defensive line, and what if that line is performing? We should have a hell of a rotation on that line this year. What if that line is actually pushing the pile backwards for once? Collapsing the pocket for once? How many years has it been since we could collapse the pocket on a quarterback with any consistency?

What if this Ayers gets 7 sacks and is stout as hell against the run?

Sacks? We need Ayers and some other guy...

I’m not getting my hopes up for Moss, but if he performs that’s great. Would like nothing more to see him succeed, but the thing about Moss is that I never saw any flashes, nor any moves. Unlike Robert Ayers who I believed will be a player for us. Also we got that Mario Haggan who didn’t perform too badly last year. If we have guys stepping up and getting a few sacks instead of one getting 17 we’ll be OK on defense.

Last I checked, it’s 11 guys on defense, yes no one will fill Dumervil’s golden pass rushing shoes but they don’t have to in order for us to field a successful defense. A successful defense that should be better against the run this year with a beefed up defensive line. You remember that LB Andra Davis being all excited when we got Jamal Anderson and Justin Bannan, eh? Well how about we run Wesley Woodyard through those holes? Darrel Reid, Haggan, we’ve got guys that are capable, they’re not superstars but they should be capable of getting the job done.

So I’m not panicking about the Broncos, even with this rash of ridiculous injuries. These sea cucumbers can yell “we should’ve drafted Orakpo,” and scurry off into their fetid holes all they want. Not me, I’m confident about our defense, not so much about the offense, not out of the gate anyways.

The main question marks for the Broncos are on offense–and it ain’t the quarterback. We’ll see what they bring to the table, I’m most interested in the second and third preseason games, not so much the first one or the fourth. It will be interesting to see who belongs at wide receiver, who belongs at running back besides Buckhalter and Moreno. Whether or not we can run the football with consistency will be big.

The offensive line is in question, and with so many new players on the line and new starters at wide receiver the Broncos offense could struggle out of the gate, it could even be pretty dismal at first. Clady’s loss especially hurts, could even hamper this Timmy Teebs Wildcat thing we’ll be trying out. The new linemen, the new receivers could take time to get going.

But I’d take a slow start and a strong finish any day over last year’s fast start that disintegrated into a dingleberry debacle in the ass-end of the season.

The Broncos released safety Herana-Daze Jones and signed tight end Jeb Putzier. Putzier was a pretty sure handed receiver for Jake Plummer in the Broncos 2004-2005 seasons.

The Rocky Mountain News has a few words with the returning Jeb Putzier, and posts some injury updates:

Champ Bailey is practicing but will not run full speed until Saturday.

Linebacker D.J. Williams has returned to practice after missing 5 games with a sprained knee and will be evaluated under a watchful eye.

Running back Selvin Young has started to practice fully, but Mike Shanahan states Young’s conditioning or “football shape” is a concern after missing so many games.

Safety Marlon McCree is set to return. Receiver Brandon Stokley should play Sunday.

Spencer Larsen didn’t practice yesterday with a groin injury. Linebacker Mario Haggan practiced after a knee injury last Sunday.

RMN also points out Jay Cutler needs only 321 yards to reach 4,000 passing yards.

Yahoo Sports serves up an AP article focusing on the emergence of undrafted Linebacker Wesley Woodyard. Our own Horvil Tiki awarded Woodyard a Tiki Torch award for excellence in execution during last Sunday’s game against the Chiefs.

DenverBroncos.com has the transcripts of Jay Cutler and Mike Shanahan’s Wednesday press conference.