thundercleetz

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_27344956/elway-ellis-interview-kubiak-houston-be-next-broncos Congrats to Kubiak. Thank you for a great year and finally giving us a real offense.

Elway can suck it. As far as I'm concerned there is nothing Elway can do to take away his pain of the Mile High Miracle. No doubt that Broncos team would have won the Super Bowl if it wasn't for us. Elway has three years of a stacked team with Manning and nothing to show for it. Let them have Kubiak and spend another ten years searching for a QB. It stinks to lose Kubiak but we are stacked upfront and set at QB. Shanahan will be just fine.

Assuming Kubiak takes Dennison who would you want? I've heard the younger Shanahan is a know it all but do you want to change the offensive system again?

Are we even going to have a coaching staff come the Pro Bowl?

@jeffzrebiecsun: Teryl Austin and Doug Marrone both pull out of interviews for Denver HC job, per ESPN. Everybody, Ravens included, see where this is headed. See ya!

@AlbertBreer: And if Ravens lose Kubiak/Dennison, Kyle Shanahan would be on their radar, provided he's not in Chi by then. KS impressed Ravens last year. Hopefully a decision is made soon or we could lost out on Shanahan. it would suck to change our offensive system for the second time in two years :P

@JasonLaCanfora: Gary Kubiak will meet with Broncos for their head coaching opening. Interview expected this weekend. Suffice to say Elway very interested

Watched some highlight tapes, I know its not completely accurate but I was very impressed with Green-Beckham. Always attacked the ball at its highest point, strong hands. Looked the part of a #1 receiver. Mel Kiper projected us drafting Devin Funchess at 26. He was also a guy who attacked the ball at the highest point. He is a real big guy, so I don't know anything about his route running ability. Kiper has Funchess labeled as a WR but said he's not a flanker or a traditional tight end. Interesting. White's speed and ability to attack the deep ball was very impressive. I didn't see much in the way of catch radius or attacking the ball. By the way Mel Kiper projected EIGHT WRs in the first round. These guys are going to go fast!

Remember Kubiak didn't want to go after Manning when he was a FA. He opted to stay with Schaub. Manning can make any offense work, but Kubiak's offense is a poor fit.

Even if Torrey catches a TD there Brady has 1:40 to get in FG range. With the way our secondary was playing he probably gets a TD. Sure Torrey could have made a play on the ball but it was a poor decision from a time management stand point. Everything was working on offense, especially the run game and intermediate passing game. We should have continued to dink and dunk down the field.

Thanks for the analysis! It would be nice to finally get Flacco someone with a big catch radius who can also get open downfield. Marlon Brown has a pretty decent catch radius but he isn't very strong and goes down too easily. Jeremy Butler was an interesting prospect last season, I wonder how he progresses into his second year? Preston mentioned Kubiak told Ozzie he wanted a true #1, hopefully Kubiak continues to fight for it. I've liked what I've seen on Kevin White so far. Tim, what do you think of Green-Beckham?

I was looking at your WR analysis from earlier in the topic. Pretty bold statement on this draft class but interesting nonetheless. Who do you think are targets for us at this point? Do you think there will be a WR worth taking? Or will they be snatched up?

Good stuff. There is a huge gap between Johnson/Fitzgerald and Harvin/Wallace. Remember, Johnson and Fitzgerald were top three picks with enormous rookie deals easily over $50M with large guarantees. Both guys had huge cap numbers prior to the contract ending and had to sign extensions. They had leverage. While Bryant and Thomas are certainly as good, will they get as much money on the open market where a team isn't technically restructuring a contract? It will be interesting to see. I'd put Torrey as comparable to Wallace. Torrey's numbers are a little less. He's better than Garçon was and considerably younger than Jennings. No doubt Torrey's agent will ask for Wallace money. I'm not sure if the Ravens would go that high though. He might be worth more to a team that runs a traditional deep ball offense like Cam Cameron.

I agree with you, but what does that mean in actual dollars? While DT is a top 5 receiver and Torrey is maybe top 20, there is a point of diminishing return with respect to the salary cap. Who do you see as comparable contracts to Torrey, and then Thomas and Bryant? As a starting point let's use this: Mike Wallace got $60M over five years with over $30M in guarantees. Calvin Johnson got $130M over eight years with over $53 in guarantees (signed before he hit free agency, remember Calvin had a big rookie deal before the new scale. Six years $64M with over $27M guaranteed. His later year CAP numbers were enormous this he had a lot of leverage with the Lions.) Would you say Torrey is comparable to Wallace and Bryant/Thomas are comparable to Johnson?

How much more money can Thomas be over Torrey? If we can't get Thomas because of cap space, I wouldn't be optimistic we could retain Torrey.

Good article from Preston: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-preston-ravens-column-0113-20150112-column.html Preston goes on to state: So here's the question: how much more money is Thomas or Dez Bryant in comparison to Torrey Smith? If we are going to pony up for Torrey, should we just pay a little more and get a #1 receiver in Bryant or Thomas? The Broncos have both Demaryius and tight-end Julius Thomas as free agents. The Cowboys have both DeMarco Murray and Bryant as free agents. If Bryant or Demaryius are unrestricted, do you go for one of them and let Torrey walk?

Aaron Wilson is tweeting Kubiak was aware of the Denver-Fox rumors yesterday and took them into account when making his decision to stay. Kubiak didn't have to announce his intention to stay as quickly as he did, so I believe AW's story. AW also tweeted that Kubiak is building a home in OM.

This is the best news we could hope for after the loss. Even better considering he announced it right away as opposed to thinking it over and possibly taking a few interviews. Sounds like Kubiak is sure about his decision. Hopefully he is actively involved with WR scouting and drafting this offseason.

As good as our defensive line was this past season, remember we have Kapron Lewis-Moore and Brent Urban coming back. You have to love the way Ozzie has rebuilt the offensive and defensive lines. So much depth!

Not to pile on Torrey, but from my vantage point I don't think he had a good game run blocking at all. Forsett had lots of yardage left on that field because Torrey failed to block his guy on a few plays. I thought all the other receivers gave a great effort run blocking. What do I know. Mike Wallace got $60M from the Dolphins to be a pure deep threat (Wallace said he turned down $75M from the Vikings too). Torrey has every right to ask for that kind of money, that's what the market dictates. I want Torrey back. He's one of those players that goes beyond the football field for the organization. He's wildly popular, I think Ozzie finds a way. I also think Torrey's best football is still ahead of him.

This team is on the upswing. A couple of corners and we're set.

At first I thought Torrey should have jumped for that ball. It looked catchable to me. However a friend told me he popped up gimpy after the play. He may have hurt his hamstring with is why he didn't fight for the ball.

Not one player in the league that can guard that Brady-to-Gronk quick slant one-on-one. Hard to fault Hill there. Either the pressure gets to Brady, there's a batted ball or its a TD.

Good first half. This is going to be a thriller.

Don't mind that drive, you put them in a couple of tough third downs and stuffed the run. Pass rush is getting close. They know they can't run.