In my previous post I outlined what I think the Broncos should do with the draft, and QB situation next year. The idea was to draft McGlinchey from Notre Dame to play left tackle, and move Garrett Bolles to right tackle giving us a great young pair of offensive tackles. Move Ron Leary back to left, and either sign a guard, or keep Connor McGovern at right guard. There are other ways that the Broncos can rebuild this line that are just as intriguing as drafting McGlinchey and moving Bolles, and I will outline one of those plans in this post.
In what is becoming a year in and year out issue, Denver needs to rebuild its offensive line. Nate Solder, a left tackle from New England, has Colorado ties as he went to Buena Vista high school, and then went to the University of Colorado to play football. He will be a free agent this year, and Denver should absolutely make a run at signing him. Signing Solder would also make Bolles move to right tackle, so again you basically "kill two birds with one stone". Assuming we get Solder, and move Bolles we still have an issue at guard. John Elway will then have a decision to make at pick 5, and that is do we draft Quentin Nelson from Notre Dame? Or do we pick the best player available? For this scenario I am going to go with taking the best player available. That might be a guard, running back, or even a QB. Then in round 2 or round 3 we can draft Will Hernandez who is a guard from UTEP who played under the new offensive line coach we had while he was in college. I watched a lot of the senior bowl practices, and Will Hernandez absolutely created some distance between himself and the other guards there. He is big, physical, and is mobile for his size. He could step right in and start at right guard, and would be an instant upgrade to what we have now (I say that only because the sample size we have of Connor McGovern). This would make the starting offensive line next year look like this: Nate Solder at left tackle, Ron Leary at left guard, Matt Paradis at Center, Will Hernandez at right guard, and Garrett Bolles at right tackle. This would give us a offensive line that is capable of being able to take over a game, and give us the freedom at pick 5 to either take a player like Barkley from Penn State if he is still available, or maybe we could trade back and draft Roquan Smith at inside linebacker, or whichever one of the top QBs that are on the board. Everyone loves having options, and going this route would give Denver some pretty appealing options.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Fixing the QB issue means fixing the offensive line
The offseason has begun! Those of us who are Broncos fans are not used to being done with the football season this early. With that said, the Broncos have a lot of work to do to get back on top. In this post I will outline the direction I think the Broncos to go, and give names of players that should be retained, drafted, and signed.
As it stands Denver really has 3 main jobs, fixing QB situation, get more explosive on offense, and try and keep the defense performing at the high level we are used to seeing. The QB situation was supposed to be fixed when we drafted Paxton Lynch; sadly he is not the player we thought he was when he was drafted, and in my opinion started his last game as a Bronco. Paxton Lynch couldn't beat out Trevor Siemien for the position 2 years in a row, and I think he's shown that he is simply not the future of this franchise as we once thought. The problem we have at QB cannot be fixed just by signing a QB. The first thing the Broncos need to do is continue to try and build their offensive line. Drafting Garret Bolles, and signing Ron Leary to come in and play guard was a nice start, but we saw this year this offensive line is still pretty far off from being able to control the line of scrimmage with any consistency. Bronco fans witnessed all the QBs on the roster struggle with the amount of pressure they got, so to think adding another QB without fixing the line will solve the problem is simply foolish.
With the Broncos having the 5th pick in the draft I would do one of two things if I was the GM of the team. My first thought is to draft the left tackle from Notre Dame Mike McGlinchey and moving Bolles to right tackle. Drafting McGlinchey and moving Bolles would give us very young talented offensive tackles that we can build around. The other option I would look into is to trade the 5th pick to another team in the top 10, get another draft pick, and then draft either Quentin Nelson, a guard from Notre Dame, or Connor Williams the left tackle from the University of Texas.
After the draft our current left guard Max Garcia needs to be cut, and Ron Leary needs to be put back in the position he made a name for himself from. From there if the Broncos decide to draft a tackle they will need to sign a veteran right guard to come in and solidify the middle of the line, or if the draft the guard from Notre Dame they will need to sign another veteran offensive tackle to fix the line enough for any QB to succeed. If the line is fixed we can then confidently move forward with getting a QB here.
Obviously every Bronco fans first choice is signing Kirk Cousins, and I have to say I agree. If there is a way to get him here I am hopeful that Elway and the rest of the front office will do whatever is necessary to do so. Cousins will be very expensive though, so if you sign him you better know he is your guy because his cap number is going to be huge. If the Broncos do not want to break the bank to get a QB there are still a couple veteran QBs that could fill the starting QB role for us. Both players I would consider to come in and play QB are on the Vikings right now with the first being Case Keenum, and the other being Teddy Bridgewater. I view Keenum is a guy who is a game manager that will not make mistakes, but not be overly special either. If you sign Keenum you are getting a guy who can make all the throws, but will not ever be considered "special", or capable putting a team on his shoulders and taking them to the promised land. Teddy Bridgewater is a guy I think can still be a "special" player, and I think he gives us a better chance to win. Other options include Josh Mccown, Sam Bradford, and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Once the line is fixed, and we have a QB we need to surround him with better players. They have absolutely no explosive playmakers on offense outside of Emmanuel Sanders, and that is something that needs to be fixed. They do not have a running back that is a threat to score everytime he touches the ball, and they do not have a tight end who can open up the middle of the field. Last year they drafted DeAngelo Henderson at running back, and Jake Butt to play tight end, but Butt never was able to get on the field, and Henderson was a healthy scratch for most of the year. Henderson is intriguing as the first time he touched the ball on a real offensive play he was able to break a big run and score. However we really didn't get to see much of him this season so we really do not know what we have with him yet. Signing a QB should be the top priority, but they need to fix the other issues around the offense, or the next QB will end up looking the same as the 3 we tried this year!
As it stands Denver really has 3 main jobs, fixing QB situation, get more explosive on offense, and try and keep the defense performing at the high level we are used to seeing. The QB situation was supposed to be fixed when we drafted Paxton Lynch; sadly he is not the player we thought he was when he was drafted, and in my opinion started his last game as a Bronco. Paxton Lynch couldn't beat out Trevor Siemien for the position 2 years in a row, and I think he's shown that he is simply not the future of this franchise as we once thought. The problem we have at QB cannot be fixed just by signing a QB. The first thing the Broncos need to do is continue to try and build their offensive line. Drafting Garret Bolles, and signing Ron Leary to come in and play guard was a nice start, but we saw this year this offensive line is still pretty far off from being able to control the line of scrimmage with any consistency. Bronco fans witnessed all the QBs on the roster struggle with the amount of pressure they got, so to think adding another QB without fixing the line will solve the problem is simply foolish.
With the Broncos having the 5th pick in the draft I would do one of two things if I was the GM of the team. My first thought is to draft the left tackle from Notre Dame Mike McGlinchey and moving Bolles to right tackle. Drafting McGlinchey and moving Bolles would give us very young talented offensive tackles that we can build around. The other option I would look into is to trade the 5th pick to another team in the top 10, get another draft pick, and then draft either Quentin Nelson, a guard from Notre Dame, or Connor Williams the left tackle from the University of Texas.
After the draft our current left guard Max Garcia needs to be cut, and Ron Leary needs to be put back in the position he made a name for himself from. From there if the Broncos decide to draft a tackle they will need to sign a veteran right guard to come in and solidify the middle of the line, or if the draft the guard from Notre Dame they will need to sign another veteran offensive tackle to fix the line enough for any QB to succeed. If the line is fixed we can then confidently move forward with getting a QB here.
Obviously every Bronco fans first choice is signing Kirk Cousins, and I have to say I agree. If there is a way to get him here I am hopeful that Elway and the rest of the front office will do whatever is necessary to do so. Cousins will be very expensive though, so if you sign him you better know he is your guy because his cap number is going to be huge. If the Broncos do not want to break the bank to get a QB there are still a couple veteran QBs that could fill the starting QB role for us. Both players I would consider to come in and play QB are on the Vikings right now with the first being Case Keenum, and the other being Teddy Bridgewater. I view Keenum is a guy who is a game manager that will not make mistakes, but not be overly special either. If you sign Keenum you are getting a guy who can make all the throws, but will not ever be considered "special", or capable putting a team on his shoulders and taking them to the promised land. Teddy Bridgewater is a guy I think can still be a "special" player, and I think he gives us a better chance to win. Other options include Josh Mccown, Sam Bradford, and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Once the line is fixed, and we have a QB we need to surround him with better players. They have absolutely no explosive playmakers on offense outside of Emmanuel Sanders, and that is something that needs to be fixed. They do not have a running back that is a threat to score everytime he touches the ball, and they do not have a tight end who can open up the middle of the field. Last year they drafted DeAngelo Henderson at running back, and Jake Butt to play tight end, but Butt never was able to get on the field, and Henderson was a healthy scratch for most of the year. Henderson is intriguing as the first time he touched the ball on a real offensive play he was able to break a big run and score. However we really didn't get to see much of him this season so we really do not know what we have with him yet. Signing a QB should be the top priority, but they need to fix the other issues around the offense, or the next QB will end up looking the same as the 3 we tried this year!
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