I think just about every fan of a team that wasn't in the Super Bowl was watching and thinking to themselves "what does my team need to have to get to be able to play in this game?" Some teams need more than others, but I think watching that game it became pretty clear what the Broncos are missing. Quite honestly it is the same thing they've been missing for at least the last two years, and that is a dominant offensive line. Anyone who has been around football for a long period of time knows this. It is one of the basic universal rules in football: you must have a dominant line to make your running game effective, and to protect your quarterback. To put it frankly the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line flat out bullied the Patriots defensive line. They were able to open holes for the running backs, and protect Nick Foles.
Denver tried 3 different quarterbacks this year and they all had limited success at best. What is the common denominator? The offensive line. This is why I believe it is foolish at best to think that plugging in another quarterback behind the line the way it is currently constructed will have a different outcome than what we saw this past year. Should Denver go sign Kirk Cousins for what will probably be close to 30 million dollars a year, but fail to rebuild their line all you will have a QB collecting a huge paycheck with average success at best. It also will not matter who you have running the ball because they will literally have nowhere to go.
This leads me into the other thing that Philadelphia has that we don't: a power running game. The Eagles have two backs in LeGarrett Blount and Jay Ajyai who are both 225lbs+, and will run through someone. In the first quarter it might not be as successful you would expect, but come the 4th quarter when the defense starts getting worn down from tackling two guys who are that big you will start to see more and more success. As it stands now CJ Anderson and Devontae Booker are not those guys. We can talk all the we want about who is taking the snaps next year, but unless that person has a offensive line that has a element of nasty to it, and a couple of running backs who play the same way Denver will have another average year at best. It is not sexy, but this off season Denver's main priority should be to build that offensive line, and find a couple of running backs who will get the tough yards. Once they have those things in place the quarterback issue will be easier to solve. I am confident our front office knows this, and next year we will have up to 3 new starters on the offensive line who hopefully bring the nastiness we need to once again dominate the line of scrimmage."
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