Tag Archives: Denver Broncos

Romo’s Back Could Support Broncos Playoff Run (or it Could Break by August)

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Ah, the NFL offseason. Where the rumors are rampant and the desperation even more so. If your team is active in free agency and loves making big splashes, then the start of the league year is like a second Christmas. For us Broncos fans, John Elway may as well be Santa Claus, because he usually delivers an assortment of shiny new toys every March. Except last year, but hey he helped bring us a Super Bowl. How greedy are you people?

Anyway, there is one rumor that keeps coming up that I just can’t ignore. That of course is the prevailing theory that the Broncos are the front-runners to be Tony Romo’s rebound if the Cowboys file for divorce. You never know what will happen with these kinds of relationships, especially in Texas, but it seems likely that Romo and the Cowboys have reached a crossroads. The question of the day is whether or not Romo is even worth pursuing, or if at this point he is just damaged goods.

Let’s be clear on one thing: signing Peyton Manning was as good as punching an annual ticket for a first-round bye, and clearing a path to the Super Bowl. Signing Tony Romo is more like scheduling your annual eye-exam a year in advance, but then that appointment comes around and it’s not that great of a fit for you anymore. You may not have liked that joke very much (stay with me, I’m warming up), but you can at least agree with me when I say that there is a very clear difference between bringing in the Sheriff and bringing in a guy that probably dresses like one.

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’ll gave you three reasons for why signing Tony Romo would be beneficial for the Broncos, in my humble opinion, and three reasons for why it would make me extremely nervous. You with me so far? Okay, let’s do it.

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Vance Joseph Could Be the Coach We Need, and the One We Deserve

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The announcement of Vance Joseph as the next head coach of the Denver Broncos was met largely with anger and confusion. I’ve described this process as a search for the best bad option, because there was so much unknown and risk involved to truly feel good about any of the available candidates.

And yet, the more I let this marinate, the better I started to feel. If you’re still pissed off or puzzled as to why Joseph ultimately wound up being the choice, maybe this will help bring you around. If Kyle Shanahan represents the coach that Broncos fans wanted, the flashy X’s and O’s guy whose offense may catapult Atlanta to its first Super Bowl victory, then Joseph teeters at the other end of that spectrum. He’s the coach we deserve, not for his ability to coordinate a defense, but for his knack at getting players to fall in line and do whatever it takes to win. If need be, they will go down kicking and screaming, as John Elway demands.

There are coaches who are better suited as coordinators instead of running an entire team. Why can’t the same be true of men who are fit to lead the entire 53-man roster, more so than designing gameplans for one side of the ball? Is that such a crazy idea?

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Let’s Talk About Kyle Shanahan

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We at Pegboards are still saddened over the departure of Gary Kubiak. He is a great coach and an even better person, but the Broncos have no choice but to move on and neither do we. If you want more insight as to our thoughts on Kubes and his legacy here in Denver, we have written about that at length here. This article is all about the future, and the future of the Broncos could very well be centered around Kyle Shanahan.

The prodigal son some would say, and who could blame them? His dad was only the most successful head coach in Colorado sports history and the one who finally got the Broncos to the promise land (with some help from Gary Kubiak). Kyle has also made a name for himself the past two seasons as one of the more capable offensive minds in football, turning the Falcon’s into the NFL’s top offense and resurrecting Matt Ryan’s career (with no help from Gary Kubiak). Considering his ties to Denver and the Broncos’ desperate need for an overhaul on offense, it would seem to be a no-brainer that Shanahan should be far and away the top candidate for the job, right?

Well, not so fast. While there is certainly a lot to like about Kyle following in his father’s footsteps, it may not be the slam dunk that everyone seems to think it will be. Kevin and I bring back our “Let’s Talk About” series to take a closer look at Shanahan and why the Broncos may need to proceed with caution if this is really the route they want to go down.

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A Letter to Gary Kubiak

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Dear Coach Kubiak,

It’s impossible to sum up in just a few paragraphs how much you have meant to the Denver Broncos. Or at least we thought it was. Then Von Miller wrote this classy and sincere farewell to you and made us look bad. We may as well be another helpless right tackle.

Quite frankly, you deserve a lot more than a letter from a couple of fans. As far as we’re concerned, you deserve the neverending gratitude from all of Broncos Country, and free meals at Elway’s for the rest of your life. That probably still wouldn’t be enough to thank you for all that you’ve done for this franchise and this community. A letter certainly isn’t enough.

But we’re going to try and do you justice, Coach Kube. You always gave us your best, so it’s only right that you receive as much from us.

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Trevor Siemian: As Cool as the Other Side of the Pillow

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Stuart Scott would marvel over how calm and collected Trevor Siemian has been. You can call him T-Money if you’d like, or say that he’s benefited from a number of dropped interceptions and lucky breaks. Just make sure that you mention the following: he’s 3-0 as a starter for the reigning Super Bowl champions, holds a 95.9 passer rating and when the Bengals looked him dead in the eye and dared him to beat them with his arm, Trevor looked right back and said, “Hodor.”

Actually, he said, “Okay.” Then he did just that. And to think, there were all these haters out there who didn’t think Siemian could step up and win a game when he had to, including this idiot: “Trevor Siemian is the best bad option at quarterback. The least defective of a group of misfit toys.”

Oh yeah. That was me. Nothing like a nice helping of crow for breakfast on a Monday morning.

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Trevor Siemian is the Best Bad Option

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Bryan Cranston will forever be known as Hal and Heisenberg to his fans, but I always enjoyed his role in Argo and mostly for that one scene. I envisioned meetings that John Elway and Gary Kubiak had about the quarterbacks this summer playing out very similarly to the ones our government had on how to deal with the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Elway: “You’re really going to start Trevor Siemian?”

Kubiak: “You gave me Sanchez and two guys who have never started a game. There are only bad options, it’s just about finding the best one.”

Elway: “And you don’t have a better bad idea than this?”

Kubiak: “This is the best bad idea I have, sir. By far.”

I’m sure I’m paraphrasing a tad, but yeah, I bet those meetings were pretty similar. That’s because the Broncos don’t currently have any good options at quarterback. Mark Sanchez continues to be haunted by the mistakes that have doomed his career, which may even cost him a spot on the roster. Paxton Lynch looked very much like a rookie against the Rams, missing open receivers and letting the defense rattle him. That leaves Trevor Siemian, the lesser of three evils. The least defective of a group of misfit toys.

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The Hall of Shame

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When it was Randy Grandishar’s turn to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, the committee said, “Sorry, you’re not what we’re looking for.” When Steve Atwater and Karl Mecklenburg deserved to be honored, the committee sent them away. And when Terrell Davis was a semi-finalist and needed to be told yes just one more time to make it where he belongs, the committee shook their heads.

I don’t like to believe in conspiracies and Broncos players being slighted by the Pro Football Hall of Fame is nothing new. However, when Pat Bowlen wasn’t put forward as a finalist by the Senior Committee, I say that something stinks. When Jerry Jones received that spot instead, then there is something very wrong with what the NFL considers to be Hall of Fame-worthy.

Will Mr. B make it in eventually? Sure, but his exclusion in favor of Jerry for next year’s class calls into question the legitimacy of this entire process.

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Broncos Aren’t Backing Down

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The rumors of a decline for the defending champs was greatly exaggerated. The only thing in decline is the media’s ability to accurately predict what the Broncos are going to do. Maybe stop guessing that this team will fail? Crazy, I know. For those of you saying that it was only the Bears, well that’s what good teams do to bad teams. They pummel them in all three phases of the game en route to a 22-0 win. And how about Cody Latimer and Kapri Bibbs showing up big? That’s what we need to see from those guys at this point, and while one preseason game won’t secure anyone anything, it’s a good start. Hopefully they can keep it up.

Here are three other thoughts I had about last night’s game.

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Now or Never for Kapri Bibbs

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One of my favorite Terrell Davis moments came during his rookie season. TD was struggling to crack the running back rotation in training camp and it looked like he was ready to pack it in. As luck would have it, the Broncos were in Japan for a game against the 49ers and Davis couldn’t arrange a flight back to the United States. He wound up staying, played in the game and delivered a crushing hit on special teams that would change his fortunes forever.

Davis caught the attention of the coaching staff with that play and started getting more carries at running back. The rest is history. I love that story because a guy that no one was expecting much from literally forced his way into the starting lineup, and that brings us to Kapri Bibbs.

After running all over the NCAA in 2013, Bibbs was picked up by the Broncos and has spent the last two years trying to make the final roster. There’s no doubt that he’s talented, but that one signature play that will turn heads and prove his worth has eluded him thus far. And time is running out.

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The Curious Case of Cody Latimer

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The annual training camp hype surrounding Cody Latimer has become a running gag of sorts between Kevin, myself and our buddy Ryan. We marvel at how the media comes away impressed with Latimer’s performance during these flag football practices despite the fact that he has accomplished a whole lot of nothing his first two years in the league. In fact, Ryan is so fed up with it that he actually wished death upon the guy. Then he promptly took it back, criticized the media for overhyping Latimer and then before I knew it, Kevin was faced with the horrifying prospect of losing all of his top Pokemon in Pokemon Go for a Magikarp named Cody Latimer.

Yep, things escalate quickly when Cody Latimer’s name gets brought up.

All kidding aside, it’s a rather baffling scenario to say the least. I have no doubt that Latimer makes some big plays in practice and by all accounts he’s a good person, but you know who else possessed those qualities? Kyle Orton. You know who Kyle Orton was benched for? Tim Tebow. I don’t care that it’s a different position because the same principal applies. Orton never performed when it mattered in games that counted and that’s the reason that Latimer has drawn the ire of Broncos fans everywhere, including Ryan.

To borrow a quote from Jon Gruden, having potential just means that he hasn’t done anything yet. When’s he going to do it already? Incidentally, “When’s he going to do it already” is a question that pretty much every girl I’ve dated has asked me, but that’s neither here nor there. Moving on.

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