Archive for February, 2011

With the NFL Combine under way, the three-headed monster of the Denver Broncos front office is hard at work.  Head Coach John Fox, General Manager Brian Xanders and Vice President of Player Operations John Elway have been in Indianapolis since Thursday, continuing the process of evaluating players for the 2011 NFL Draft.  One member of this tremendous trio is new to the process, but is no stranger to Broncos football. Though John Elway is a familiar name in the NFL, he is a rookie of sorts when it comes to his new duties.  Elway has been learning his new job [...]

After the last piece of confetti dropped onto the field at Cowboys Stadium earlier this month in celebration of the Green Bay Packers‘ victory in Super Bowl XLV, the 2010 football season officially came to an end. With no more games to draw attention from the National Football League’s ongoing labor dispute, all eyes are fixed on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players’ Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, awaiting word that a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the two sides has been reached.

If you were to put together a Mount Rushmore of the best current professional Denver athletes, who would you pick? Certainly there are a few players who are the toast of the town in their respective sports. Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, and Todd Helton make up a solid trio of beloved Rockies on the baseball diamond. Matt Duchene made the NHL All-Star game this season and is one of the brightest young stars in the sport. On the basketball court we have Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups Birdman. The Broncos have a handful of players who are fan favorites and sell jerseys around the [...]

In the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, Jimmy Stewart plays the role of the most beloved man in Bedford Falls, George Bailey. In the tear-jerking last scene, dozens of George’s family and friends rally around the down-trodden owner of the Bailey Savings and Loan. After that, he had a substantial amount of money misplaced/stolen from his institution by the evil Billionaire, Mr. Potter. The friends come pouring into his home after raising a boat-load of money to help pull him out of is quandary. This past Sunday, Invesco Field at Mile High was turned into the Bailey residence in Bedford [...]

The Broncos will be addressing the defensive side of the ball during the draft, but there’s an area on offense that needs attention and John Fox is well aware of that. “You need more than one back if you’re going to consistently run it through the season,” Fox said Thursday at the combine. “We’ll be in that process of finding more than one guy.” For the Broncos who averaged just 96.5 yards per game (as a reminder, Tim Tebow bumped the average up with his rushing yards when he started the last three game of the season), the ground game [...]

Forget Mel Gibson and Braveheart. We have Champ Bailey and Broncoheart. Coming to a field near you…

  Despite the ongoing CBA issue, the NFL Combine commenced today and will be completed on March 1. The Combine is the NFL’s version of an initial job interview. Former college players embark on their NFL journey formally with four days worth of medical exams, interviews, drills, and chalk talk.  – Their first day includes preparation for the medical exam, and X-rays. The day also includes an orientation.  – The second day includes weigh-in, medical exams and selected psychological tests. Bench pressing is often done this day.    - The third day, they have a meeting with NFL Players Association officials and some additional psychological [...]

Christmas has come early for us Broncos fans. I was just watching the NFL Network as they were scrolling the home and away match-ups for the 2011 season. Santa is shoving a big lump of…(careful now)…coal in our orange and blue stockings. I could not be happier. The NFL scheduling gurus are sending the Chicago Bears and their petulant little boy wonder quarterback Jay Cutler to Invesco Field. So Broncoholics, bring your rattles, diapers, pacifiers, signs, and anything else to the game and let him have it. Work stoppage permitting, of course. Make sure to follow Predominantly Orange on Facebook.

So here we are talking about April’s upcoming NFL draft and agonizing over who the Broncos will take with the No. 2 overall pick. Heck, we’re even struggling with whether or not we want our Broncos to trade the pick and bump our number of overall picks up from 6 to 8 or even to 9. Trust me, as a guy who has predominantly orange blood coursing through his veins, I get agita (it’s Italian for any stomach ailment with which one might be afflicted) just thinking about what the Johns are going to do at No. 2. Let us think a little [...]

And then there was light! Champ Bailey and the Broncos reached an agreement to keep the Pro Bowl corner in the Mile High City. The deal, worth $43 million over four years, practically ensures that Bailey will retire a Bronco. Bailey took a small pay cut to stay with the team during this rebuilding process. That speaks the volumes in a world where star athletes will flee “Their” city for a chance for more money or immediate success. Was that a Carmelo Anthony echo that I just heard? Bailey could have easily walked over to an immediate contender or made beaucoup [...]