BroncoSojia

R.I.P.

No odds, just straight up. It was 2 months for both of us. I foolishly thought that the Knicks were due for something to go right for them, but nope.

Lol I lost a bet.

I have to say, @Broncofan that was a great post. It touched on things I couldn’t articulate even if I wanted. I also would like to apologize to @lomaxgrUK for insinuating that he was a Elway homer. That wasn’t very fair of me.

Although I've repeatedly killed Elway for his myopic decisions, terrible hires, and half a decade worth of bad draft classes, I do see some positives. The past two draft class are looking pretty good and I like the coaching hires he's made this year. So I'm not a total pessimist, lol. I still think he bungled the CHJ situation and we're going to regret not signing some of these young players to deals before they hit FA, but agree to disagree. I think this is the year for a shot at the playoffs, (which I doubt) after which there will have to be a rebuild. Next year, most of the players I mentioned will likely be gone, along with Sanders and Wolfe. It's conceivable that we could have a question mark at every position on our defense, aside from EDGE and nickel corner. The offense is in much better shape, but that's predicated on Lock, Fant, and Sutton's development in the years to come. The issue is that I feel like we're losing talent at a faster rate than we are gaining it, especially on defense. The next two draft and FA classes are going to be critical, as well as Lock's development, for long term success.

I forgot about Shelby Harris myself. So that's CHJ, Shelby Harris, Simmons, Parks, McGovern, and Gotsis that are all going to be FAs this year. I would've liked to have seen at least half of these players locked up on deals.

We had a team option for Sanders this year that could've saved us 8 mil on the cap if we declined it. I don't know why you're bringing up 2016 in regards to the present, because right now, he's 32 and he's been injured the past two years. Parks was our most improved player last year, according to PFF. He's an ascending player that can play single high and in the box. BSN Broncos (if you follow them) had him rated pretty highly and said that he came on strong in the later part of the season. His only issue is that he kinda struggles in man coverage. He one of the very few young players with potential that we have so we need to keep him. Simmons issues is kinda the opposite of Parks, in that he gets lost in space, but is good in man coverage. Us losing those two, along with Gotsis and McGovern means we would have needs at SS/FS, two CB spots, (assuming CHJ is gone) at least one ILB spot, D-line, center, and guard. We should've offered our some of the younger guys mid-lower tier contracts, so if/when they breakout, we'd have them on decent contracts. No chance of that now since all of them will be FAs at the end of the year and because we have just about all of our money tied up in older veterans. Not resigning the few young players we have before they hit FA, tying up most of our money in older veterans, and refusing to get something in a trade for a great player that's going to leave in FA next year is myopic and shortsighted as hell, but "mortgaging the future" might be a bit strong. It's just going to make the rebuild harder in the coming years.

BTW, I would definitely rather have Amos over Jackson, and I'm sure a lot of other people would. You say you're not an apologist for Elway but you're sure sounding like it.

Sanders is 32 and coming off an Achilles injury and in 2017, he missed a bunch of games. We should not be paying a player at that age and with his injury history, 12 mil a year. Wolfe is in a similar situation. We needed to free up money to pay young players like Parks, Simmons, Gotsis, and McGovern before they hit FA. If Parks and Simmons leaves, along with CHJ, we're going to need to rebuild our entire secondary in 2020. I mean, unless you have faith in Yaidom and Kareem Jackson. (which I don't) Gotsis and McGovern leaving just adds to the growing amount of needs that we would have on this team. Just about all of the moves this offseason by Elway points to him desperately trying to make the playoffs this year at the expense of the future of the team. E.I. Bringing in or keeping older veteran players at huge salaries, (Flacco, Jackson, Wolfe, Sanders) or refusing to trade a player that's not going to be here next year because he helps you win this year. (CHJ) It's all going to blow up in his face. We're not going to make the playoffs this year and we're going to be in a worse situation talent-wise next year. Good thing we picked Lock in the 2nd or else we'd be really screwed right now.

Well, we could've cut Sanders and Wolfe this offseason and saved 16 mil on the cap. That money could've went to CHJ, or any of the players from the 2016 draft that are in the last year of their contract. (Simmons, Parks, Gotsis, and McGovern) Good GMs don't leave money tied up in old and injury prone players like that. This entire offseason (aside from Lock, which I think was a purely BPA pick) has been about Elway desperately trying to get us back to the playoffs this year at the expense of the future. This myopic view instead of just rebuilding is how teams in our situation stay constantly mediocre. Edit: and if we wanted a safety, why not sign Amos over Kareem Jackson? He's familiar with Fangio's defense, younger, and cheaper than what we paid for Jackson.

I try not to get attached to any UDFA until they prove something in the preseason and regular season. The odds are that most of them won’t even be in football after preseason is over.

I'm still pissed that we signed Kareem Jackson to such a big deal. No wonder CHJ was pissed. He's been the 2nd best player on the team for years while underpaid, and we go and sign a player that's a year older than him and not even half as good to way more money than CHJ was getting paid. Jackson also carries a 14 mil cap hit for next year. We could've used that money to re-sign CHJ to a multi year deal, while bringing in a much cheaper safety if we needed to. And now that it's pretty clear he's not coming back, we should've just traded him instead of giving him a one year raise. Now we're now going to lose him for nothing. (and we're not getting a high comp for him because we're going to need to sign a high priced CB in FA next year to replace him) BTW, screw the fans that are calling CHJ selfish and a distraction. The guy just wanted to be paid what he was worth by the team he initially gave a hometown discount to. The FO has just bungled this situation completely

Hopefully Courtland Sutton and one of the young safeties we have. (Parks or Simmons)

This is funny because the Chargers are the team that I hate in the division the most.