Where do we stand in the AFC West?

Let's take a look at the other teams in our division and where they stack up compared to us so far in the season.

San Diego Chargers (4-1)
Can anybody think of a more overrated team in the NFL at the moment? I sure as hell can't. Let's take a look at who they've beaten. Tennessee, Oakland, Pittsburgh (when Roethlisberger was doing his absolute best to throw the game) and San Fransisco. You know what, let's just give them the division already. Their front seven is brutal but they have absolutely no secondary. Their offense doesn't scare me, Rivers hasn't had to play under pressure yet and Tomlinson cannot rush against good defenses. They're frauds, pretenders, and they'll be exposed soon enough.

Kansas City Chiefs (2-3)
The Chiefs could easily sneak up on people if they can steal a game or two here before Green comes back. Their defense has finally improved after years of promises from their front office and coaching staff. Herm Edwards isn't the best gameday coach I've ever seen but he is a great presence in the lockerroom. The fact that he's been able to keep everyone on the same page after losing Green speaks volumes to that. Larry Johnson is struggling behind a weakened offensive line, and they don't have any impact wideouts but they could pose a threat if they can hang on over the next few weeks.

Oakland Raiders (0-5)
This is quite possibly the worst professional football team that I have ever seen play. They're completely undisciplined and led by probably the worst gameday coach in NFL history. They do have talent on the offensive side of the ball, excluding their horrible offensive line (Robert Gallery is one hell of a bust. They need to move him back to guard and try to hide him).

Here's the thing about Oakland now. Is beating them even enjoyable at this point? It's not even a rivalry currently, Oakland has no shot against us. I was at the game on Sunday and obviously I along with everyone at Invesco was fired up for beating the Raiders, but in hindsight it just doesn't have the affect that it did when they were decent.

A general update

Here are a few quick bullet points on things that have happened in the season so far.

- I was wrong about Javon Walker's impact. The guy is a complete beast, well worth the second round pick.

- But, I've seen way too many drops as a whole from the receiving corps, and from...

- Tony Scheffler, who was nowhere near worth a second round pick, he has athletic ability, but he cannot block and drops nearly everything thrown his way. (But has anybody noticed that he becomes a beast in your Madden franchises?)

- I absolutely hate Kenard Lang. I think he celebrates successfully brushing his teeth in the morning. You'd think the guy has never made an NFL tackle let alone gotten a sack in his career the way he dances and taunts the other team.

- On the subject of Jake Plummer: Why has Shanahan nearly eliminated the play-action bootleg from the play-calling? It's almost as if he sat down and tore out half the pages in the playbook. Let him play, let him throw, let him run the plays that he is best at. From the second half of the Baltimore game on through the Oakland game he has been looking much more confident he's running the ball more and just generally looking like the leader of the offense.



Why haven't I updated? There are a few reasons, most of you who dislike me are probably convinced it has to do with the team winning. But it has more to do with the fact that the team is playing some of the most boring football I have seen since Trent Dilfer was leading the 2000 Ravens to wins without scoring offensive touchdowns week in and week out. It's more apathy than anything. Our defense is dominant but none of what I'm seeing is getting me excited for the season

Broncos 10 Rams 18: The team is completely unprepared

Note: All post-game updates will be on Mondays this year

In a game eerily similar to last year's Week 1 loss to Miami, the Broncos once again had an inability to get the ball into the endzone on Sunday. It's only Week 1 and the season is obviously not over, but the things that we were shown in this loss give the impression that this team is not a championship contender. I'm wondering what Mike Shanahan does during training camp and the preseason instead of getting his teams mentally prepared to play. They certainly didn't look ready this week and they didn't look ready last year in the Week 1 loss to Miami.

Javon "I just dropped it" Walker, the darling of the Denver media during the preseason must have decided to dip his hands into cement before the game. He looked terrible out there. Wasn't the bash on guys like Lelie and Watts that they couldn't catch balls? Man, Javon Walker sure looked like an improvement in that regard.

As for Jake, I didn't see his first interception. The pick by Chavous was not his fault, as he threw a pass that Todd Devoe should have caught and Devoe just flat out missed it. The ball that was picked by Brown was off of a tipped ball, Jake threw into coverage but sometimes you have to do that when your team is losing. All day Jake had seemingly no pass protection and Leonard Little was running him over like he was behind the wheel of an SUV after a night at the bar. The offensive line and the wide receivers led by all-star-super-offseason-pick up Javon Walker flat out let Plummer down yesterday.

The calls for Cutler to start by his cheerleaders in the press led by Mark Kiszla who has done everything short of proposing to Jay to show his love and affection for The Gunslinger are comical at best. The geniuses at Orange Mane are just as funny and some of the more clueless clammoring for us to trade Plummer to a division rival to get rid of him. The Gunslinger is just flat out not ready for the NFL, nothing he showed in college gives us the impression that he could have done any better against the Rams than Jake did. Especially with the pass rush that was breathing down his neck all day. Cutler threw two picks to Middle Tennessee State for crying out loud. If the games were played in the weightlifting room, if you could win a game by benchpressing, I'd be all for subbing in Cutler but they're not.

The bright spot this week was clearly the play of the defense who as Bill Williamson points out were so good they managed to turn Jeff Wilkins into a fantasy god for the week. If they play half that well for the rest of the year, we'll be in fine shape for the regular season. The playoffs are once again an entirely different matter.

Lelie shipped to Atlanta

Classes just started this week, so I've been a little busy, so about the Lelie deal...

I'm curious as to exactly when the Washington Redskins became part of our farm system, but they seem to enjoy giving us draft picks.

Do I think it's dumb not getting a player who can contribute to this team in return for Lelie? Absolutely. Is this deal in reality horrible? No. Is it the best deal we could have gotten? I doubt it.

Ashley is going to make Mike Vick's job in Atlanta a whole lot easier.

Preseason Week 1: Broncos @ Detroit Lions

I'll liveblog the game until it just gets too boring to watch...

Update 1: Didn't take long for the hype of The Gunslinger to start, I'm sure we'll hear nothing but excessive praise for him all night long.

Update 2: Good coverage on the opening kickoff. What the hell was with Wilson trying to make a diving arm tackle there? Aside from the one play where Kitna was able to break containment and rushed for ten yards the Broncos haven't generated any kind of passrush on this drive at all. The corners looked to be playing well, a nice tip by Darrent Williams early on in the drive.

Update 3: How ugly is Cooper Carlisle? Could Channel 4 be doing a worse job broadcasting this game? No sound for the opening three plays and we miss the first two plays of this drive. Jake is out there throwing bee bees, he threw three pretty much perfect passes. Mike Bell kills the drive with that fumble. Very nice.

Update 4: It looks like the Broncos have absolutely no depth on the defensive line. No pass rush and they played poorly against the run on that drive too.

Update 5: THE GUNSLINGER IS IN!

Update 6: Nice pick by Foxworth.

Update 7: Cutler almost threw a pick there near the end of that drive, flinging the ball into double coverage. Other than that he's looked very good tonight. Mike Bell has looked very bad though. I can't keep watching, I'm bored to death. I'll write a wrap up after the game.

On Mike Bell

The move of Mike Bell atop the Broncos' depth chart is to me obviously meant to "send a message" to Tatum Bell and Ron Dayne. Much in the same way Mike Shanahan so effectively "sent a message" to Ashley Lelie in the early part of the offseason, and how he "sent a message" to Jake Plummer by taking The Gunslinger with the 11th overall pick.

I fail to see the logic behind continuing to make it apparent that you have no respect for the players that play under you and that you will show them absolutely no loyalty whatsoever. It would be one thing if Tatum Bell had been playing poorly and Mike Bell was somebody who had actually played a down in an NFL game, or was actually perceived to be good enough by a single scouting department to be worth a seventh round draft pick.

Shanahan obviously doesn't have confidence in Mike Bell, as evidenced by the fact that Thomas Jones' name keeps popping up in trade discussions with Chicago for Ashley Lelie.

Courtney Brown injured at camp

I heard on the Mike Rosen show this morning that he's sitting out practice today because he's hurt.

In other news the sun rises in the east, sets in west.

An inside look from Mike himself

Denver Post columnist Thomas George, has written a piece where he does everything but declare his outright love and affection for Mike Shanahan. It's filled with several moments that are just absolutely touching. Seriously, I can feel it down in my soul. But there are also parts of the article that paint a picture that seems radically at odds with reality.

In Mike Shanahan's view, he has become a part of us. We have become a part of him.

Broncos players report for Shanahan's 12th training camp as head coach here today. Twelve seasons as head coach is perpetuity in the NFL. Look around and see the churning change at the position that colors NFL camps.

We have ridden him, jabbed at him, taken him for granted more than we have applauded him. The guy has absorbed serious heat.

But Shanahan, in quieter moments, understands.

It's hard for me to understand where George gets the idea that Denver fans or the Denver media outside of Woody Paige and one or two others have been anything other than absolutely laudatory of Shanahan over the years. If the comments and email I get are any indication then the Shanahan apologists far outweigh the critics, and it seems that the number of journalists who like George line up to kiss Shanahan's feet continues to grow.

There are also a couple statements made by Shanahan in the article that are a little suprising. One where Shanahan himself goes against his apologists, and shockingly he appears to actually shoulder the blame for once.

Shanahan has studied the film at least 25 times, he said. His team was outplayed, he said. He was outcoached, he said. Give Pittsburgh credit, he said, but ...

"I study so much," he said. "I've got to be able to look into the mirror and like myself. And it's not that I do all of the time. But sometimes you have to be hard on yourself. And in the end, I'm thinking, 'We just blew an opportunity to be world champions."

I am blown away at the admission by Shanahan that he was outcoached in the AFC Championship game. There it is for you in black and white, Mike Shanahan himself admits that he did a poor coaching job in the AFC Championship game. It's a breath of fresh air to finally see Mike take some responsibility instead of blaming things on Griese, Rhodes, Robinson, Plummer or whoever happens to be the skapegoat of the month in Denver. If nothing else it's a step in the right direction, either towards a change in Shanahan's mindset or a step towards him leaving.

Read the whole article, it's interesting.

Poll results

Here are the results from the last poll asking how you thought the Broncos would fare in 2006. It doesn't surprise me that the majority of you are homers to the degree that you picked the Broncos to win 14 or more games next season. I am suprised that the next highest vote total was for the Broncos to win 5 or less games though.

A new poll is up, asking if you think that The Gunslinger ($48 million) will see action this year.

Gunslinger of the future

Everybody talked about how good Cutler was at Senior Bowl practice, why do they forget how poorly he played in the game? All the greats throw behind their receivers in the endzone. Look at his throwing motion on the pass too.