Bronco Madness Update:
Vote in our brand new Bronco Madness Fan Poll! The question: Who was the best coaching hire or promotion?
Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles has been rumored to be on the trade block, and Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that the Broncos have been showing interest in trading for the Eagles star Quarterback.
“Multiple teams have called Eagles to inquire about their three QBs. The conversation, and speculation, will heat up in early March,” Schefter tweeted. Les Bowen though, a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, following that tweet reported that it was the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland Browns, and of course the Denver Broncos who gave the Eagles a ring.
I guess the off-season has officially started, because the Broncos have made their first relevant acquisition of the off-season. This afternoon, it was announced that the Broncos were signing running back Bruce Hall, formerly of the Buffalo Bills.
This is the first major sign of newly hired Broncos running back coach Eric Studesville bringing over his influence to the running back squad. He was previously the coach for the Bills where he coached Hall since 2008 when he was an undrafted free agent out of Mississippi.
Today will be remembered as a battle between Quarterbacks. As you know, Super Bowl XLIV in Southern Florida will feature two Quarterbacks: Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts and Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints.
Peyton Manning has been here before. Actually, there is about nowhere Peyton Manning hasn’t found himself in the NFL. He has the all-time record for most MVP Awards, and is likely to have the all-time record for every single passing category by his retirement.
It’s been 35 years since the Broncos first great player Floyd Little retired from football, before the days of Broncos glory. Now, so many years later, the Bronco will finally be enshrined in Canton, Ohio as only the 3rd Bronco to have done so.
He ended his career with 6,323 yards on the ground, over 1,600 carries and 43 career touchdowns. Through the air he received for over 2,000 yards adding brand new dimensions to the Broncos offense. He made a name for himself not only carving defenses up as a running back and receiver but at the same time changing special teams as one of the first great return men.
It looks like Shannon Sharpe will have to wait another year to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Sharpe was one of the final 10 modern-era finalists but when the list was slimmed down to a final 5 plus the 2 senior candidates, he was passed over.
This is a horrible injustice in my opinion. Sharpe retired as the number one Tight End in almost every single statistic, only to be passed last year by Tony Gonzales. The truth is, it is just a shame that Sharpe has not been inducted yet.
Tonight at 7:20 p.m Eastern Time, the NFL Pro Bowl will be played. This will be the first ever time in NFL history where the NFL will be played not only in the same city as the Super Bowl, but it will be played the week in between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.
While the Broncos of course will not be participating in the Super Bowl, 5 Broncos will play in the NFL Pro Bowl, and 4 of them will start. The 5 players are WR Brandon Marshall, LT Ryan Clady, LB Elvis Dumervil, S Brian Dawkins and CB Champ Bailey.
It was announced today that Broncos coach Don Martindale was promoted to Defensive Coordinator as the replacement to Miami Defensive Coordinator, Mike Nolan. Broncos head coach, Josh McDaniels had this to say of the hiring:
Dean Pees, two days ago announced that he was going to coach Linebackers in Baltimore, and because he was the only other serious candidate for the job, Martindale’s promotion seemed inevitable. That said, it was an excellent choice by the Broncos staff, one that will keep players happy after the uncertainty of Mike Nolan’s leave. Josh McDaniels had this to say of the hiring:
For a few months we’ve had our pre-season mock draft on our Draft Central page. Now we have released our first off-season mock draft. You can view the updates over at Draft Central or you can see it here at this post. We will also update it throughout the off-season while adding new rounds. Here it is:
1. St. Louis Rams: Jimmy Clausen, QB, Notre Dame. The Rams have been consistently one of the worst teams in recent memory and this is their 3rd straight year among the top 2 picks. The reason is that while they have slightly improved the trenches, they need a Quarterback to win and they need one desperately. Clausen, while I don’t think he is as talented as Bradford, is a decent QB and will be drafted higher.
The Broncos have made their fair share of changes in the coaching staff recently, all with the exception of hiring a new Defensive Coordinator. While two of them were already known, they just announced two new ones that we had not yet heard of. According to denverbroncos.com:
“The Denver Broncos on Saturday announced several changes to their coaching staff, including the hiring of Bob Ligashesky as tight ends coach and Eric Studesville as running backs coach.”
“The club also moved Clancy Barone to offensive line coach and named Bob Wylie assistant offensive line coach. Ben McDaniels was promoted to quarterbacks coach, a position previously held by Mike McCoy, who will continue to serve as offensive coordinator.”
Harry Coleman, S, LSU
Strengths: Fast for a Safety … Is excellent in pursuit … Solid tackler … Contributes a lot to the run game … Good size with long arms … Very fit …Can hit hard … Special teams potential … Active with a strong motor … Has a scary on-field demeanor, quiet off field.
Initially, while it was rumored that Dean Pees, the former Defensive Coordinator of the New England Patriots was going to fill Mike Nolans’ shoes as Defensive Coordinator in Denver, it seems that Josh McDaniels has gravitated away from Pees.
Instead, The Denver Post is reporting that Don Martindale, the Broncos current Linebackers coach, is right now the favorite for taking over Defensive coaching duties. He had been my choice from beginning, but got a big boost when Broncos Linebacker Andra Davis announced that he wanted Martindale to take the job. It was followed by a storm of support, and rumors of interest by Josh McDaniels.
Yesterday, the Broncos announced their hiring of Bob Wylie as the Offensive Line coach, after Rick Dennisons’ leave to the Houston Texans.
Surprisingly, his hiring has come out of nowhere. Wylie previously was the assistant coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. C0lorado sports fans might know him from when he coached Offensive Line at Colorado State earlier in his career.
Trent Williams, OT, Oklahoma
Strengths: Perfectly good size for the position … Very athletic … Excellent footwork … Has a nice knee bend … Very instinctive … Can mirror well, and counter opponents moves … Very good lateral movement … Has the best balance of any Offensive Tackle in the class … Moves quickly on the edge … Has long arms.
I am not very happy with Mike Nolan leaving the Broncos for the Dolphins. I think it was blatant tampering by Miami and the NFL needs to seriously investigate into what happened with him. Mike Nolan was a great coach, who improved our defense on so many levels that Broncos fans should always hold a great appreciation for.
But we saw something last year, that was alarming to me as well as many others. Nolan couldn’t seem to adjust his defense throughout the season. Teams were finding ways to beat us, which was a large reason that we had such a big collapse later in the year. Nolan was great, but may have had only limited abilities in what he could do here.
Yesterday, it was announced that Broncos Defensive Coordinator Mike Nolan was resigning from the team. Today, it was announced that he would be joining the Miami Dolphins as theirs, which likely sparked his resignation in the first place.
We wish Mike Nolan the best of luck in Miami, but we should say this: Letting him go is not good for the Broncos at all. In fact, this is a huge step backward for this defense. The new defensive coordinator will have very big shoes to fill.
