Day Two of the Draft Complete

John Elway surprised just about everyone by selecting Adam Gotsis, a defensive tackle from Georgia Tech with the 63rd pick of the draft. Before he was selected, I had never heard of him. He was a hot name before the draft and shot up boards and was expected to be gone in the third round. Although it may seem to be a reach based on draft analyst rankings, but Elway and co. have drafted well on the defensive line since he became the Vice President of Football Operations. 

This pick fits an immediate need for the Broncos and if he shows that he is polished and rehabs successfully he could find himself starting by the midway point in the season. Even if he does not crack the starting lineup, he will still play a role as a rotational player. Malik Jackson’s departure left a gaping hole at defensive end and although they signed Jared Crick, he is not the longterm solution at that position. 

He tore his ACL midway through the season last year, but he should be ready by the beginning of the season. His ACL injury should not be a longterm problem for him, which is why the front office felt comfortable drafting him in the second round. 

With the final pick of the day, the Broncos selected safety Justin Simmons out of Boston College. David Bruton and Omar Bolden left in free agency, and Darian Stewart is in a contract season, safety depth was much needed.

Simmons needs to be able to be in the rotation from day one. He does not need to be starter quality, but he needs to be good enough to give the starters a rest every now and then. He played free safety at Boston College so he will likely be Stewart’s eventual replacement. Simmons was the emotional leader on his defense, hopefully he can carry that over to the NFL.  

Thoughts on Denver Drafting Paxton Lynch With the 26th Overall Pick

Many thought the Broncos would have to move past the New York Jets in order to grab Paxton Lynch, but they obviously knew that New York would not pick him in the first round. They ended up trading up to the 26th spot to take their future quarterback, relinquishing the 31st and the 94th picks. 

After the draft concluded, there were reports that Dallas was also trying to trade up for the opportunity to select Lynch, but the possession of a first round pick enticed Seattle to accept the Broncos offer. Good job on Elway’s part to ensure that another team was not able to complete a trade before them to pick Lynch. 

John Elway possessed 10 picks going into the draft so I was not a surprise that he used one of his mid-round picks as ammunition to put himself into a position to draft a player that he really wanted.

Lynch is a polarizing pick among Bronco fans because many thought they would be able to get a project quarterback in the later rounds. Dak Prescott and Christian Hackenberg would both be available in the second and maybe even third rounds. However, I am a huge fan of this pick because Lynch has the highest ceiling of any of the other quarterbacks in the draft. Some have raised concerns of his ability to work from under center and his ability to read NFL defenses (which every rookie QB is unequipped for). 

The best case scenario for both Lynch and Denver is for him to take zero snaps during the 2016 season. Hopefully Sanchez is able to hold down the fort without getting injured or preforming poorly enough to get benched. 

Jon Gruden compared Paxton Lynch to Cam Newton during the ESPN broadcast of the draft, which is good but Gruden is known for overemphasizing player skill. I don't agree with Gruden’s assessment because Cam is much more athletic and more polished coming out of college. 

Lynch has a strong arm and athleticism, but he needs to work on his mechanics, especially since he will be transition to an offense that operates mainly under center. With that said, it is reassuring that Lynch compares closely with Cam according to a former head coach. 

The Broncos did a good job of getting the player that they wanted in the first round and without panicking a trading up before they needed to. Lynch may not be prepared to play this season, but I believe he is the quarterback of the future. Reportedly, Paxton Lynch was the number one quarterback on the Broncos board, ahead of the first two overall picks Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. Although I might not agree with that, it is hard for me to criticize John Elway when it comes to ranking quarterbacks.

Denver Broncos Early Offseason Preview

The Denver Broncos just won the Super Bowl, but the front office probably already has their eyes on free agency. They have a couple of high profile players that will become unrestricted free agents. They will have some tough decisions to make because they only have $11 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap.

Von Miller will probably receive the franchise tag designation from the team, which will cost them around 14 million if he does not sign an extension before the season begins. Von's negotiations will likely follow the same timeline as Demaryius' negotiations last summer Von will sign a deal over $100 million sometime before the extension deadline before those that receive the franchise tag. His performance in the playoffs probably earned him an extra couple of million on his new contract.

The defense will likely lose two or three starters. I would love for them to find a way to keep Malik Jackson, but they will probably allow Malik Jackson to walk in free agency. He will probably command $10+ on the open market. He has been an absolute beast all season and whichever team signs him will be in a really good position.

Danny Trevathan is another one that the team will likely have to let go. Brandon Marshall is the better player (not a slight to Trevathan) and the Broncos cannot afford to pay two inside linebackers top five money. Todd Davis will be able to fill his void though. Coaches have been high on him this past year and proved himself when he got his chances this season.

Demarcus Ware could be cut during the offseason since he will be in the last year of his deal and the Broncos could save $10 million in cap space. If he leaves, he will probably sign a one year deal in Dallas to finish out his illustrious career. There is a slight chance that Denver could keep him under contract because of his leadership on the defense.

Brock Osweiler's situation could get tricky if he slips into the open market. The Broncos hope to get his deal done before the tampering period is over because there are plenty of needy teams in the league and one of them might be willing to overpay for the chance at a franchise QB. Hopefully they will be able to get him on a short 2 year deal at $14-15 million per year so he can prove himself for a full season before he becomes a $20 million per year player.

I don't see the Broncos keeping many of the older veteran players that are free agents. Mathis, Vernon Davis, Antonio Smith will all probably walk in free agency. Elway will likely have to draft a defensive end in order to replace both Jackson and Smith on the line, unless he is able to find someone cheap in free agency. Max Garcia made progress as the year went along and he should be ready to take the starting job at left tackle next season.

Jeff Heuerman tore his ACL early in training camp in his first year, but he should be able to do just as much as Davis did for Denver this season. I am actually excited to see what he is able to do in the passing game with Brock next season. There is no reason to bring Vernon Davis back since Heuerman should be able to easily replace his production from last season. All he needs to do is hang onto the ball.

Bruton is an important player to re-sign though. He broke his leg against the Steelers in week 15, which might bring his price down. Bruton is a very important player on the defense and it was evident when Stewart and Ward went down in the playoffs. Bruton is very good in coverage and is probably one of the best if not the best third safety in the league.

I am of the opinion that the Broncos should probably let Ronnie Hillman walk. CJ Anderson does everything better as a back. They can easily replace Hillman in the draft. He is not the dynamic back that the Broncos thought they were getting when they drafted him four years ago.

Elway has a lot of tough decisions to make this offseason, but his track record shows that Broncos fans should remain calm and trust the process.

Denver Nuggets All-Star Break Review

The Nuggets were coming off of a terrible past two seasons and after trading away two starters, it did not look like 2015-16 had much in store for the Nuggets. But they have been pleasantly surprising this season. They come into the All-Star break with a 22-32 record and are in the race for the eighth seed in the West, 5 games back from the Jazz. They are also not too far away from having a top five pick in the 2016 draft. I don't want them to have a top pick and if they do end up getting one that isn't in the top three, they should trade it away. There are enough young players on this team that are showing potential, that I feel that another mid-lottery pick would just clog up the rotation.

Nikola Jokic has improved throughout the season and has become an important part of the offense and is often the second option behind Gallo who has played phenomenally through the first half of the season. Jokic is going to be a major weapon for the Nuggets in coming years because he scores with ease from both inside and out and is a pretty good rebounder as well. The only aspect of his game that is lacking is his defense, but he should be able to improve on that in the coming years. Look out for Jokic to have a very successful two months post All-Star break.

Gallinari is the surprise of the season for this Nuggets team. He has made major strides in his game since his injury and has put up almost 20 points, 5 rebounds and almost 3 assists per game this season. Many thought that it was a mistake to sign him to an extension last summer, but now that is looking like a bargain.

Emmanuel Mudiay has had a tough first season so far, but he does seem to be improving on his game throughout the season. He has limited his rookie mistakes as of late and is becoming a more efficient player. He still needs to work on getting good shots because he has a good shooting stroke, but he takes too many contested looks. He is shooting an abysmal 33% from the field. Over the past 17 games, he is shooting 38% from the field. It's not great, but it shows that he is improving his shot selection. His turnovers are also down from about 3.9 per game before to 2.9 over the past 17. He should start looking like the player many thought he would be coming into the season after the All-Star break.

Jusuf Nurkic took longer than many thought it would for him to get healthy and once he was finally healthy, he was hurt again. He has been coming off of the bench because of the emergence of Jokic. Those two should be able to play together in the future, but as of now, Jokic is the starter and Nurkic is forced to come off of the bench. He finally had a good game against Detroit on Wednesday, putting up 16 points and 11 rebounds. He is the best interior defender on the team, but he needs to be able to stay on the court for the rest of the season.

Will Barton has been the biggest surprise for the team this season. He went from an energy guy off of the bench to the biggest scoring threat on the bench and the third biggest scoring threat on the team. He is scoring 15.5 points on 45.5% shooting and grabbing 6 rebounds per game. The Nuggets signed him to a very cheap three year $15 million deal last summer and the the front office is probably rejoicing that they have him on such a cheap deal for the next two years.

Gary Harris has blossomed into one of the best wing defenders in the league and has improved him offensive game immensely. His improvement on the offensive side of the court earned him more minutes, which has allowed him to showcase his defensive abilities. I wish he would shoot a little bit more than he does. He does a good job of getting to the rim and finding good shots.

The Nuggets will make a playoff push in the second half of the season and the player discussed above are going to play a big role in ultimately get them there. They have over preformed this season so there is no reason that they can't over perform some more. Everyone involved in the team has the incentive to make the playoffs because, as I said earlier, another young player will just mess with the rotation. It will be interesting to see if they do anything before the trade deadline. I don't see anyone that they could trade for that would immediately improve the team, without losing some important young pieces.

This is about as excited as I have been for the second half of a basketball season since 2013 when the Nuggets finished in third place. They do have an easy schedule down the stretch because they had the third hardest in the league pre All-Star break. They play LA twice, Cleveland, San Antonio and Oklahoma City once. The rest of their games are against middling to bad teams, which gives many fans, like myself hope that they will be in the playoffs.

Can We Please Not "Favre" Manning

I have a favor to ask the media. Can you please not ask Peyton Manning, John Elway or anyone in the Denver Broncos front office about Manning's potential retirement every chance that you get? He will make his decision when he is ready to and he won't give you an answer if he hasn't even decided.

Let the man have his space. He probably won't be back next season, but we should cherish all four years that he was a quarterback in Denver.

There is so much more to talk about, such as impending free agents draft prospects. Hell, you could even still write stuff about the Super Bowl and the aftermath. There is absolutely no reason to badger him about his decision. I definitely don't want this to turn into a Brett Favre situation where reporters are camping outside of his house waiting for a decision.

His $19 million contract becomes fully guaranteed on March 9th. Even if Manning does not have a decision by then, the Broncos will probably cut him in order to save on salary. Obviously he is not the same quarterback that he was when he initially inked his deal almost 5 years ago. He is not worth that much money and even if he does come back, which is a HUGE if, it will have to be at a severely discounted price.

Honestly, I hope he does retire because it could get real ugly next year in Los Angeles if he decides to play another season. He was clearly not the same quarterback as before. He should go out on top rather than playing for one more franchise that probably wont have a good chance to make a deep run into the playoffs.

Super Bowl Parade Information

I can't make it because I have a test in one of my classes today (that should be illegal), but I encourage everyone to attend this joyous event.

The parade starts at noon, but events will begin in Civic Center Park at 10AM. The parade starts at 17th and Wynkoop. After the parade, there is a rally at Civic Center Park at 1PM that will feature Broncos players and coaches.

They are expecting one million people to show up for the parade and rally. 675,000 showed up for the parade after the teams first Super Bowl victory so one million is not out of reach.

Being at the parade will be a moment to remember for those that are able to attend. If I didn't have a test, I would be one of the first people there. If you can call off work to go, call out and attend the parade.

Nuggets Lose a Heartbreaker to the Nets

The Nuggets came into this game off of back to back victories against Chicago and New York. This matchup against Brooklyn is their second to last game until the All-Star break. They are five games out of the playoffs and that dream keeps slipping away. They can't afford to drop games to inferior teams if they wish to keep their hopes alive.

This was a heartbreaking loss for the Nuggets. They got the go ahead runner from Faried with 1.3 seconds left, but Joe Johnson banked in a buzzer beating three pointer that gave the Brooklyn Nets the win. I am not putting the entire loss on that one play because the game should not have been that close in the first place.

The struggled out of the gate and Mike Malone already had to call two timeouts by the midway point in the first quarter. The team recovered well out of both timeouts though and were able to close the gap. This pattern was a trend throughout the game. They could get down, then make up the deficit then they would get down again. If they would have come out with some fire, the game would have been over much earlier.

Kenneth Faried continued his recent stellar play into tonights game. He was the star of this game, he played fantastic defense, hit the go ahead shot for the Nuggets on a broken inbound play and finished with 22 points on 10-16 shooting and 10 rebounds. He is communicating very well on defense, which makes him a much more effective player on the defensive side even if he doesn't have the tangible defensive skills. I hope he continues to play this way so that I don't have to hear anymore trade rumors about him.

Gallinari had another fantastic game, which seems to just be the norm now. He has been automatic in recent games and has been getting to the line effectively. Although he did not get to the line double digit times today, he still got there 7 times. He never stopped driving to the hoop even though he was not getting calls and he was still able to finish effectively.

Malone utilized Gallo as a small ball four for most of the fourth quarter because of Nikoa Jokic's stinker of a game. It doesn't normally work well for the Nuggets, but it seemed beneficial to the team tonight. The loss had nothing to do with this small ball lineup because it worked for the most part.

Foye was a star for the Nuggets, hitting two late threes to keep the game close. He played the entire fourth quarter. Although he was playing well on offense, he struggled on defense, which hurt them down the stretch.

Gary Harris was another great player on both sides of the ball. He played great defense and finished with 17 points on 8-11 shooting. He also had a clutch steal when the game was tied with less than a minute to go. He should be getting more recognition around the league as a young up and coming player, but maybe that will come with time. Efficient offensive games like the one he had today will serve to earn him more minutes.

This was a tough loss for the Nuggets and they are now 5.5 games behind the Utah Jazz who are in eighth place. The playoffs don't seem as reachable now as they did a week ago even though the Nuggets have been playing well during that stretch. They have one more game at Detroit on Wednesday before the All-Star break. They won their last matchup against the Pistons a couple of weeks ago, but Drummond did not play many minutes. It will be interesting to see how the Nuggets deal with him when he is not in foul trouble.