Week in Review: Blakes Breakdown of the AFC West

3rd Denver Broncos -7-9

Now I know what a lot of people will be saying, they went 8-8 last year with Tim Tebow at QB. How can you possibly have them going 7-9 with Peyton Manning back there calling the plays. First, I’m not completely sold on the health of Manning yet. He can have all the doctors in the world tell him his neck is ok, but until he gets hit, and hard we won’t know. Second, he is getting older. His skills are going to start to diminish. His arm strength won’t be the same, and his accuracy may suffer because of that. Another thing is that without the added threat of Tebow there, that running game isn’t very scary. Willis McGahee will be 31 this year, and has been used a lot in his career. Their offensive line isn’t as good as he got used to playing with in Indy. He will have to get the ball out of his hands very quick to avoid taking hits this year. He does have a few weapons on offense, Demaryius Thomas is developing into a true #1 WR. He also has Eric Decker. However Decker dropped 10 passes last year while only catching 44. He will have to greatly improve that this year.

While Tebow got a lot of credit for winning games last year, he was only able to do that because the defense kept them in most games. The Broncos pass rush is one of the best. Everyone knows how good Von Miller was last year, and will only continue to get better now that his thumb is healthy. Elvis Dumerville has been getting to the QB for years now. They need a bigger year from Robert Ayers at the other DE position. They signed Tracy Porter to play across from Champ Bailey. However Bailey is another year older and Porter wasn’t very good last year. Their Safeties aren’t very good. Mike Adams should not be a starting safety, and the rookies of Rahim Moore and Quinton Carter were not very good. The later two however are rookies and should improve. D.J. Williams was noticeably slower last year, and is facing a suspension this year. Their best run defender Brodrick Bunkley left for the Saints so they will be depending on rookie Derrick Wolfe to replace him.