dragondawg
05-02-2007, 03:19 AM
By Mike Klis
Denver Post Staff Writer
There is grunting in the weight room and puffs during sprints.
Otherwise, all is quiet at Dove Valley.
The draft is finished, which means Broncos coach Mike Shanahan essentially is finished with his offseason project attempting to transform a 9-7 team in 2006 to a Super Bowl appearance in 2007.
Now that the most eventful offseason in the team's 47-year history has ended, what is there to make of the 2007 Broncos?
They have an offense built around quarterback Jay Cutler and a defense built by coach Jim Bates.
Although Cutler has but five games of NFL experience, it became evident the offense needed to best utilize his strong, downfield arm. The Broncos now have a bigger offensive line, one of the league's best blocking tight ends in Daniel Graham and a top running back in Travis Henry.
"When they pick out an area where they feel they need to get better, they attack it hard," said Tony Dungy, coach of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts.
Shanahan identified two areas of need - weapons for Cutler and a pass rush for Bates, the new defensive head coach who replaced defensive coordinator Larry Coyer after the Broncos allowed an average of 26.1 points in their final 10 games of 2006.
If Bates hasn't been given carte blanche of the Broncos' defense, he clearly possessed the most influential voice in the team's draft war room last weekend. The Broncos made four picks in the draft and three were defensive linemen.
Let the Jim Bates era begin.
"I won't be playing a down," Bates said. "It's going to be the Denver Broncos defense. All I am is the head with a bunch of great coaches who put it all together. I'll be the decision maker, but the end result will be how our guys on the field come together as a Denver Broncos defense."
Bates' philosophical synopsis includes many of the same terms espoused by Coyer. Accountability. Fundamentals.
All-out pursuit. Steal the ball. The biggest difference is Coyer never could consistently develop a strong pass rush, while Bates has a long history of coaching double-figure sack artists, most recently Jason Taylor and Aaron Kampman.
"In this league, the defensive ends are usually the leading sackers," Bates said. "To have that edge speed, have guys who have that good first step and play with good technique, we will have an opportunity with our coverage scheme to make more sacks. We've added speed to this defense, there's no doubt about it."
The perception is the Broncos' first big step toward a stronger pass rush was in selecting defensive ends Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. Bates views it differently.
When attacking the quarterback, Bates works inside-out, back-to-front. Pressure from the defensive ends becomes the final step.
"No. 1, the top priority is you have to play well against the run," Bates said. "You have to stop the run to get the sticks in our favor where it's third down-and-long. That gets you more sack opportunities."
Indeed, a significant factor in the Broncos' second-half slide last season was their inability to contain premier ball carriers such as LaDainian Tomlinson, Larry Johnson and Frank Gore.
Sacking a quarterback isn't easy when he has to complete only a second-and-3 pass.
In rebuilding the middle of their front four, the Broncos restructured the contract of Gerard Warren and added noted run-stoppers Marcus Thomas through the draft and Alvin McKinley through free agency.
So now it is second-and-9, third-and-7. Now what? Against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game of the 2005 season, the Broncos surrendered a flurry of quick -hitting completions thrown by Ben Roethlisberger.
Bates believes nothing gets a defense to a quarterback quicker than a covered receiver. It's no coincidence Dré Bly became the Broncos' first acquisition of the offseason. With Bly and Champ Bailey at the corners, an opposing quarterback's only chance may be to try the intermediate patterns between the linebackers and safeties.
Only Bates rarely plays the cover 3 zone preferred by most teams.
"There are so many good quarterbacks - and even the average quarterbacks can beat cover 3," Bates said. "There's a lot of windows. A lot of defenses do it so well because they can disguise it, but that's not what we do. We know we have excellent corners, so if you're good there, you can get coverage sacks."
If the down and distance calls for a pass, but Bailey and Bly have it covered, this is when the Broncos can unleash the pass-rush speed of Moss, Crowder or Elvis Dumervil, who had 8 1/2 sacks in limited playing time as a rookie last season.
"It usually takes more than one guy when it comes to putting pressure on the quarterback," Bates said.
Sacks mean punts, pressure means turnovers and turnovers mean a shorter field for the Cutler-led offense. The theory is sound.
"Now you've got to get it done," Shanahan said.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f65/dragondawg/20070501_101214_BroncosChart050207.jpg
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_5796213
Denver Post Staff Writer
There is grunting in the weight room and puffs during sprints.
Otherwise, all is quiet at Dove Valley.
The draft is finished, which means Broncos coach Mike Shanahan essentially is finished with his offseason project attempting to transform a 9-7 team in 2006 to a Super Bowl appearance in 2007.
Now that the most eventful offseason in the team's 47-year history has ended, what is there to make of the 2007 Broncos?
They have an offense built around quarterback Jay Cutler and a defense built by coach Jim Bates.
Although Cutler has but five games of NFL experience, it became evident the offense needed to best utilize his strong, downfield arm. The Broncos now have a bigger offensive line, one of the league's best blocking tight ends in Daniel Graham and a top running back in Travis Henry.
"When they pick out an area where they feel they need to get better, they attack it hard," said Tony Dungy, coach of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts.
Shanahan identified two areas of need - weapons for Cutler and a pass rush for Bates, the new defensive head coach who replaced defensive coordinator Larry Coyer after the Broncos allowed an average of 26.1 points in their final 10 games of 2006.
If Bates hasn't been given carte blanche of the Broncos' defense, he clearly possessed the most influential voice in the team's draft war room last weekend. The Broncos made four picks in the draft and three were defensive linemen.
Let the Jim Bates era begin.
"I won't be playing a down," Bates said. "It's going to be the Denver Broncos defense. All I am is the head with a bunch of great coaches who put it all together. I'll be the decision maker, but the end result will be how our guys on the field come together as a Denver Broncos defense."
Bates' philosophical synopsis includes many of the same terms espoused by Coyer. Accountability. Fundamentals.
All-out pursuit. Steal the ball. The biggest difference is Coyer never could consistently develop a strong pass rush, while Bates has a long history of coaching double-figure sack artists, most recently Jason Taylor and Aaron Kampman.
"In this league, the defensive ends are usually the leading sackers," Bates said. "To have that edge speed, have guys who have that good first step and play with good technique, we will have an opportunity with our coverage scheme to make more sacks. We've added speed to this defense, there's no doubt about it."
The perception is the Broncos' first big step toward a stronger pass rush was in selecting defensive ends Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. Bates views it differently.
When attacking the quarterback, Bates works inside-out, back-to-front. Pressure from the defensive ends becomes the final step.
"No. 1, the top priority is you have to play well against the run," Bates said. "You have to stop the run to get the sticks in our favor where it's third down-and-long. That gets you more sack opportunities."
Indeed, a significant factor in the Broncos' second-half slide last season was their inability to contain premier ball carriers such as LaDainian Tomlinson, Larry Johnson and Frank Gore.
Sacking a quarterback isn't easy when he has to complete only a second-and-3 pass.
In rebuilding the middle of their front four, the Broncos restructured the contract of Gerard Warren and added noted run-stoppers Marcus Thomas through the draft and Alvin McKinley through free agency.
So now it is second-and-9, third-and-7. Now what? Against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game of the 2005 season, the Broncos surrendered a flurry of quick -hitting completions thrown by Ben Roethlisberger.
Bates believes nothing gets a defense to a quarterback quicker than a covered receiver. It's no coincidence Dré Bly became the Broncos' first acquisition of the offseason. With Bly and Champ Bailey at the corners, an opposing quarterback's only chance may be to try the intermediate patterns between the linebackers and safeties.
Only Bates rarely plays the cover 3 zone preferred by most teams.
"There are so many good quarterbacks - and even the average quarterbacks can beat cover 3," Bates said. "There's a lot of windows. A lot of defenses do it so well because they can disguise it, but that's not what we do. We know we have excellent corners, so if you're good there, you can get coverage sacks."
If the down and distance calls for a pass, but Bailey and Bly have it covered, this is when the Broncos can unleash the pass-rush speed of Moss, Crowder or Elvis Dumervil, who had 8 1/2 sacks in limited playing time as a rookie last season.
"It usually takes more than one guy when it comes to putting pressure on the quarterback," Bates said.
Sacks mean punts, pressure means turnovers and turnovers mean a shorter field for the Cutler-led offense. The theory is sound.
"Now you've got to get it done," Shanahan said.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f65/dragondawg/20070501_101214_BroncosChart050207.jpg
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_5796213