Bronco Madness

Here is new member of the Bronco Madness staff, Ian Henson’s first article. Hope you all enjoy it!

We’ve all got one in our family and kids if you’re younger, the person to whom I referring to is most likely who you call your “Crazy Uncle,” or in maybe a slightly more disturbing way even, your “Crazy Aunt.” If you’re not a child, then you know the one; not a bad kid, just dumb luck, bad social scene maybe, immature decisions, no foresight. Our team, the Broncos, luckily, only has one right now, at least that’s all I know about- but I’ve heard stories about a certain linebacker, who’s just a little too comfortable taunting the gorillas in the Denver zoo.

So we’ve got Brandon Marshall, everyone’s talking about him, it’s disgusting to us bloggers that it’s even news, but just as much our fault. Let’s look at our worst case scenario, suspension, for his upcoming September DUI case. Remember Adam Jones, for whatever reason just couldn’t seem to stay off of the police blotter, whether it be in Tennesse, Las Vegas or wherever else.  Granted, no matter how bad a specific gossip site would like Marshall to look, if it were a contest, Brandon couldn’t even shine the former Pacman’s shoes.  I’m not expecting that even without a conviction, the NFL will push back a decision on Brandon until October. Also keep in mind, the NFL suspended Adam Jones, even prior to his conviction.

Which puts the Broncos in a situation eerily familiar to last season, when Javon Walker went down and (at the time) there really wasn’t a clear successor. Let me flash back, to the beginning of the article a bit and tell you a story, I had a former boss who used to duel over the cost of all of his employees. He would spend hours thinking if he really needed someone. Whether they were invaluable to the companies success, if they weren’t they were gone within a month, either by quitting, getting fired or just over worked to the point where they were forced to submit to a less paying position.

He had this term he used to use, when he would call someone into his office, it was cute, he’d say, “Get me a little pregnant,” creepy right? What he meant was that you’re going to have to work a lot harder. Basically produce more for your hours so that he’s getting something for free, because he’s already paying you for your job, now he wants you to do more.

Back to this part of the article; Marshall emerged last season, not just as Jay Cutler’s “go to” guy (I’ll still argue that’s Tony Scheffler anyway), he came out of the woodwork and had fans in awe saying things like, “My God, they can’t tackle him!” Didn’t even need a deep bomb with him, give him the ball three yards off the line of scrimmage, he may run for 70 yards to gain 15, but we knew he would get that 15…

So I’ve been evaluating Marshall, pretending to be my old boss, he has two options, he can get himself together or keep where he is, either way he’s got to get us a little pregnant. As I mentioned earlier, losing Marshall, we would be in a similar situation to last season. I might even venture out to say that we would be in a better situation than last year. Though I’m well aware Darrell Jackson and Keary Colbert do not have a lot of fans from their former teams, in fact to hear it from those fans these guys are downright bad. However, like Mike Shanahan has stated Ed McCaffrey wasn’t exactly the key signing in our free agency that year either.

Darrell Jackson is one season removed from being the reason I won my Fantasy Football league in 2006, oh and he gained over 1,000 yards. Keary Colbert, is pure potential, both men suffered from poor passing games last year. We’ve also still got a humble guy named Brandon Stokley, whom, if he’s able to play pure slot this season may just have a career year. Not to mention Samie Parker and someone who’s been impressing coaches as a receiver since he was drafted in rookie Eddie Royal.

Oh and don’t get me started on quarterbacks in their third year in Shanahan’s system… Back to wide outs, when Eddie Royal’s at the bottom of our depth chart at receiver (he’s not even really at the bottom), the future’s looking so bright, I might have to wear my sunglasses at night. So even if Colbert does under perform, as long as Stokley, Jackson and Parker play at the level they’ve been at for years, not to mention the addition of Royal- we might not be too bad off. Even without Marshall at all.

See what I did there?