2023 off-season thread

[lomaxgrUK]

I really liked Calvin in 2021; there's quite a few posts prior to last year where I really wanted him to win that RT job.

But he didn't play well last year in 6 or 7 starts. He just seemed to make so many mental errors that you didn't see in 2021, and soon as you start to think to much at that position, you are doomed.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if he managed to turn it around in New England. He's definitely got the physical gifts.

As for Cam Fleming - as others have said, we needed a vet backup, and he has experience. If we're relying on him to play extensively at some point, then, well, we know how that goes.

[broncos67]

On 5/23/2023 at 9:32 PM, broncosfan_101 said:

Cam Fleming back. Pretty shocking considering there’s no chance he plays unless there’s an injury. I like it a lot.

Yeah that's a fantastic depth signing. Happy to see it. Lancaster on the DL isn't a terrible signing either. Unsure he'll start but he'll certainly play quite a bit.

[broncos67]

Fully expecting we'll be targeting either a veteran OLB or Dalvin Cook. I think the OLB is more likely but I wouldn't be at all shocked to trade for Cook. Payton wants to lean on the run game.

On the flip side, there's some good OLB options. Ngakoue, Floyd, Ingram are all options for us.

[AKRNA]

10 hours ago, lomaxgrUK said:

I really liked Calvin in 2021; there's quite a few posts prior to last year where I really wanted him to win that RT job.

But he didn't play well last year in 6 or 7 starts. He just seemed to make so many mental errors that you didn't see in 2021, and soon as you start to think to much at that position, you are doomed.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if he managed to turn it around in New England. He's definitely got the physical gifts.

As for Cam Fleming - as others have said, we needed a vet backup, and he has experience. If we're relying on him to play extensively at some point, then, well, we know how that goes.

IMO Calvins drop off was all about coaching or the lack thereof. For all but the last two games we had the worst OL coach in the NFL. A huge drop from Munchak/Kuper.

[broncosfan_101]

9 hours ago, broncos67 said:

Fully expecting we'll be targeting either a veteran OLB or Dalvin Cook. I think the OLB is more likely but I wouldn't be at all shocked to trade for Cook. Payton wants to lean on the run game.

On the flip side, there's some good OLB options. Ngakoue, Floyd, Ingram are all options for us.

Dalvin would suck up every penny of cap space we’ve got left. I wonder if we could restructure him so we could also help the DL/edge spots.

 

Just realized that none of Kareem, Fleming, or Lancaster are included in the $9.6M cap space number I looked at. Even with a restructure, it might be tough to get him in.

Edited May 25, 2023 by broncosfan_101

[lomaxgrUK]

12 hours ago, AKRNA said:

IMO Calvins drop off was all about coaching or the lack thereof. For all but the last two games we had the worst OL coach in the NFL. A huge drop from Munchak/Kuper.

I don't think it's right to just absolve Calvin of all the blame. Coaching or not, the guy was misexecuting at a level that the player has to take a large proportion of the blame.

Mental errors are hard to diagnose without knowing the playcalls/audibles; that said, there were far too many to just put it down to Coaching.

[paul-mac]

@AKRNA - you don’t get to blame all of last year’s issues on the coaching while simultaneously saying we can’t be a playoff team this year. Which is it?

 

 

My hopium copium is that last year’s disaster was entirely a function of Hackett and his inexperienced staff and that we have the roster to win 10+ games with a much better coaching staff. 

[AKRNA]

11 hours ago, paul-mac said:

@AKRNA - you don’t get to blame all of last year’s issues on the coaching while simultaneously saying we can’t be a playoff team this year. Which is it?

 

 

My hopium copium is that last year’s disaster was entirely a function of Hackett and his inexperienced staff and that we have the roster to win 10+ games with a much better coaching staff. 

Well, that's good because I haven't.  Coaching on the offensive side of the ball was pretty bad though. Combine that with a talent limited roster at say OL, injuries, etc., a QB that can't play from the pocket and you're a 5-12 team.

Not sure where you're getting the idea we've got a much better staff. I mean, we just replace Ejiro with VJ. It looks to me like Sean had a hard time filling all ths spots. Not surprising really when you consider our GM just fired entire staffs in consecutive years. Not sure I've ever seen that before.

I may be wrong but I don't think we've got the staff, personnel or attitude to compete for several years at least. Consider we've lost 5 premium picks in the last two drafts and have some serious cap challenges and Seans job doesn't look to easy.

 

 

 

[broncos67]

On 5/28/2023 at 3:53 PM, AKRNA said:

Well, that's good because I haven't.  Coaching on the offensive side of the ball was pretty bad though. Combine that with a talent limited roster at say OL, injuries, etc., a QB that can't play from the pocket and you're a 5-12 team.

Not sure where you're getting the idea we've got a much better staff. I mean, we just replace Ejiro with VJ. It looks to me like Sean had a hard time filling all ths spots. Not surprising really when you consider our GM just fired entire staffs in consecutive years. Not sure I've ever seen that before.

I may be wrong but I don't think we've got the staff, personnel or attitude to compete for several years at least. Consider we've lost 5 premium picks in the last two drafts and have some serious cap challenges and Seans job doesn't look to easy.

 

 

 

I mean, I think it's a clear upgrade in HC to go from Hackett to Payton. That alone is worth a win, maybe two. I would say the DC side of things is a downgrade. ST is almost certainly upgraded because it can't get worse.

I think we have the defensive personnel to compete, as evidenced by the fact that we've continued to churn out top tier defense year over year. If Payton can get Russ and the offense to be average, hell, even to be ranked in the 20-24 range, with a defense like last year we are pushing playoffs. It's that simple. The offense doesn't need to be the best in the league but it needs to be much better than it has been.

The lack of premium picks the last few years is obviously a problem. We'll see how much that bites us going forward. I'm not sure what serious cap challenges you're referencing though. We came into this offseason with a ton of cap space and used it wisely. 

[Dbrog24]

8 hours ago, broncos67 said:

 

I think we have the defensive personnel to compete, as evidenced by the fact that we've continued to churn out top tier defense year over year. If Payton can get Russ and the offense to be average, hell, even to be ranked in the 20-24 range, with a defense like last year we are pushing playoffs. It's that simple. The offense doesn't need to be the best in the league but it needs to be much better than it has been.

I do think we see a large step back in our defense this year. Not in terms of individual players, but in game situations where we need to make adjustments. I'm pretty confident Vance Joseph is not going to be switching dude's positions and stuff to take advantage of matchups like Evero did...Evero was honestly one of the best I've ever seen at that. I want to say it was Dre'Mont that he moved to an edge one game to repeatedly stuff the oppositions offense. 

Overall point is if our offense moves to top25, I think we actually lose about the same number of games...maybe we win 6 or 7 just cause of the clear upgrade on the HC side of things.

[Cutler06]

Does anyone besides me think  Drew Sander will get some swing time to OLB if/when Gregory is on the injured list ?? Got the size, speed and instincts to work there

[broncos67]

On 6/6/2023 at 8:20 PM, Cutler06 said:

Does anyone besides me think  Drew Sander will get some swing time to OLB if/when Gregory is on the injured list ?? Got the size, speed and instincts to work there

I fully expect him to play a role similar to Micah Parsons (I don't think he'll be anything close to Micah Parsons), but he's got the speed to do something like that.

[AnAngryAmerican]

On 5/25/2023 at 2:41 PM, broncosfan_101 said:

Dalvin would suck up every penny of cap space we’ve got left. I wonder if we could restructure him so we could also help the DL/edge spots.

Just realized that none of Kareem, Fleming, or Lancaster are included in the $9.6M cap space number I looked at. Even with a restructure, it might be tough to get him in.

Now, it is Schefter who is a pawn of player agents despite his reputation, but this is significant.

I personally am not wild about this as a reeks of win now desperation and would be very costly like 101 says. 

Maybe we can start calling this group the “Win-now Walmarts” as so many moves since their takeover seem to look at the immediate term. Not the short term mind you, but the immediate term. They know a winning team will make it easier to sell the fanbase on approving a tax hike to help finance a new stadium, which will further line their pockets. 

Cook is a good player - no argument there - and his skill set fits what I expect Sean to want to do offensively. That’s said, he’s frequently battling minor but nagging injuries (not his fault, true, but it must enter the calculus). I also like our stable of RBs now and while it’s impossible to know whether or when or Javonte returns at his pre-injury form, this is a move you make if you’re a ready made contender which, even with the coaching upgrade and improved OL, I don’t think we are even sniffing. 

[paul-mac]

Frank Clark signing. Interesting move.

[broncos_fan _from _uk]

1 hour ago, AnAngryAmerican said:

Now, it is Schefter who is a pawn of player agents despite his reputation, but this is significant.

I personally am not wild about this as a reeks of win now desperation and would be very costly like 101 says. 

Maybe we can start calling this group the “Win-now Walmarts” as so many moves since their takeover seem to look at the immediate term. Not the short term mind you, but the immediate term. They know a winning team will make it easier to sell the fanbase on approving a tax hike to help finance a new stadium, which will further line their pockets. 

Cook is a good player - no argument there - and his skill set fits what I expect Sean to want to do offensively. That’s said, he’s frequently battling minor but nagging injuries (not his fault, true, but it must enter the calculus). I also like our stable of RBs now and while it’s impossible to know whether or when or Javonte returns at his pre-injury form, this is a move you make if you’re a ready made contender which, even with the coaching upgrade and improved OL, I don’t think we are even sniffing. 

Depends on what the contract is. He’s due $14M from the Vikings, and amount that all 32 teams deemed so ridiculous that the Vikings couldn’t even get a 7th for someone to swallow that contract . The next tier of RBs are the $10.091M that Barkley,  Pollard (lol), and Jacob’s (lolololololol) are making. I don’t think cook gets that either. That puts him in the $7-9M range. Throw in that the Vikings have to pay $2M this season which will help ease the space at the top and I expect he’ll get a 2 year $14 contract ($6m this year and $8m next) $8m guaranteed. Is that palatable? Perhaps