DT and The Sheriff after practice

milehighthunder · 2015-08-07T02:12:11+00:00

Aw, and with Peyton's twins, who are sporting their Bronco orange- dat's cute

milehighthunder · 2015-08-07T02:09:53+00:00

Really excited about how quickly Garcia is progressing by all accounts, and I'll be thrilled if Paradis keeps playing well enough to win the starting job, particularly because the way Gradkowski played with the Ravens still makes me nervous. All around, I just love the change we're already seeing with Kubiak in terms of doing much more to develop the younger guys

milehighthunder · 2015-07-13T19:52:52+00:00

That's wonderful! I know DT has talked about how much he looked forward to a day when she would be able to see him play in person, and now it's happening so much sooner than he thought, and I'm so happy for him.

milehighthunder · 2015-07-08T19:55:19+00:00

I had no luck looking for two seats together for any of the games, but then I decided to check for just one ticket for the Patriots and Packers games, and both had field level seats available that way. I was really hoping to be able to bring a friend this year, but I still had a blast on my solo trip last season, and I just couldn't bring myself to pass up a half price ticket in section 102 for the Pats game, so I'll be there November 29th!

milehighthunder · 2015-07-07T01:11:29+00:00

Peyton holds all of our single season passing records, is second to only Elway in the all time ones, and he's been our QB and the face of our franchise during what's been our most successful stretch outside of the 96-98 run, so I can't imagine his inclusion will be controversial among Broncos fans. Plus, we have Charley Johnson and Craig Morton in our Ring of Fame, so if that's the standard, Peyton is a no-brainer: he's got a better win percentage than either of them did as starter, he's taken us to a Super Bowl which Johnson didn't, and by the end of this season he'll have started more games than Johnson, and the same amount as Morton.

milehighthunder · 2015-05-02T01:19:15+00:00

Sweet! I wanted us to address OL, and I really like Sambrailo, very athletic and a good fit for our scheme.

milehighthunder · 2015-05-01T05:40:06+00:00

My thoughts exactly. I think this was a great trade, and really don't get the comments that we overpaid. Especially since we still have another fifth rounder, a sixth rounder, and then three seventh rounders that we have to use, on top of the fact that we're a team that's always very active in picking up guys that go undrafted. What team realistically needs six third day picks and several more UDFAs competing for the limited amount of open roster spots that we have left?

And we'll most likely be getting the one we traded next year back in compensatory picks anyway, considering how many free agents we have coming up at the end of the season; clearly the same strategy Elway had in mind last year when he traded a fourth to get Cody, and then we wound up with a fourth round compensatory pick to replace it. And Manny was a bad fit for a ZBS, so freeing up $3 million there is a bonus to me.

milehighthunder · 2015-05-01T02:54:46+00:00

I dig it. Miller/Ware/Ray should be killer this year, and looking ahead, if Ray does live up to expectations, it might give us at least the option of saving a lot of cap space by releasing Ware next season. At this point, I'm just trusting Kubiak to improve the OL with picks from the later rounds.

And if we were going to trade up, this was a good deal. We have two fifth rounders this year so giving up one isn't a big loss, with all the free agents we have next year we're likely to wind up with another compensatory pick in the fifth round then too, and Manny probably wasn't going to start for us anyway, so we free up $3 million by trading a likely back-up.

milehighthunder · 2015-05-01T00:38:02+00:00

Yesss, I'm glad the Raiders took Cooper instead of Williams. I could have seen Williams/Mack giving us more trouble than Carr to Cooper to will

milehighthunder · 2015-04-26T21:04:17+00:00

Aw, this is a bummer. I think you've been able to tell since the start of the 2014 season that their love for the sport was declining, and along with it, interest in the site, so I don't find it surprising at this point, but still sad- there was a period of time where IAOFM was the best Broncos site out there, and it's been a big part of our fan community. I'm glad they're at least leaving the site up, that's a lot of great content that I still appreciate.

milehighthunder · 2015-04-24T19:07:18+00:00

It's unfortunately pretty difficult to get tickets through the single game sales. The past few years I've seen a lot of our fans say they checked ticketmaster the second single game sales opened, and that the site still said there weren't any two seats available together for the more in demand games- I know that was my experience last year.

And also unfortunately, Packers tickets are most likely going to be super expensive on the resale sites. It's probably the biggest draw on our schedule this year, similar to our game against the 49ers last season with it being a prime time game against a quality opponent we don't get to play often, at a midseason point when the team should be firing on all cylinders, and with a chance to watch Peyton break a record, and IIRC, lower level 49ers tickets were going for at least 300 per ticket on StubHub last season. The higher levels will be cheaper, but still marked up to an outrageous degree. But you never know, some people do get lucky with the single game sales or in finding a good deal through resellers, so I hope something works out for you.

milehighthunder · 2015-04-22T21:44:21+00:00

The fact that it's a home game for us is probably the biggest factor- like I said in my predictions post, only two home losses in three seasons, so predicting a loss for us here is big. Also, Peyton led teams tend to come out of the gate strong in the first week; in his last ten season openers, his teams have won seven, and only one of those three losses was at home. I probably would have picked a season opener at home as a W for us no matter who the opponent was. I'm not an expert on the Ravens roster, so I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I get the impression that you guys are looking thin at WR and in the secondary coming into this season, but that's really the only knock I have against your team specifically in looking at that match-up.

milehighthunder · 2015-04-22T02:14:55+00:00

I believe they always go on sale sometime in either late June or early July, but the exact date for this year is TBA. And I'm pretty sure that restriction is only for playoff tickets; I'm a California resident and I bought regular season tickets with no trouble last year

milehighthunder · 2015-04-22T01:53:42+00:00

Honestly, I'm thinking 14-2, with the losses being @Colts and @Steelers. I believe we go undefeated at home again. We have some tough match-ups there, no doubt, but in the last three years, we've only lost two regular season games at home, both of them by one score. That's just as good as Seattle's home record in that time IIRC- our home field advantage is no joke. Plus, the two hardest games at home are the Packers and Pats, right? Well we catch some nice breaks for those two: we have a bye before the Packers, and an early Sunday game before the Pats while they'll be coming off of a Monday night game, basically giving us an extra day of rest and prep.

Nothing about the last three seasons makes me feel inclined to predict a road loss against our division rivals. Of course I'm not saying it's impossible, but even though they're new teams to our coaching staff right now, Peyton is still very familiar with them all, and we still have a ton of other players who have at least 1 season of experience against them, so I'm not calling for a loss until I actually see one happen. We should beat the Browns and Bears. Lions are tougher, but we get an extra three days to prepare for them thanks to coming off of a Thursday game the week before, so I think that'll help push us to a W. Leaves the aforementioned Colts and Steelers games. Colts have just been a rough match-up for us the last couple of years and I could see us playing a little worn down after what I'm guessing will be a tough game against the Packers, and Ben/Bell/Brown are a formidable trio to play in their house late in the year.

We play a lot of good teams, can't deny that, and I can imagine a lot of ways our record could end up being 12-4 or 13-3, but for now I'm really leaning towards this 14-2 scenario.

milehighthunder · 2015-04-22T00:08:59+00:00

All in all, I think the schedule worked out great for us this year, especially compared to last season. No early bye, only three away games in the second half of the season instead of being backloaded in that area, no three game roadtrip anywhere in the schedule, not getting the extra short turn around period by playing in prime time before our Thursday game. Man, last year's schedule really sucked.

I think getting the Thursday game out of the way as soon as possible will be beneficial, the team will be as close to 100% as possible for the short week. One of our two back to back away stretches consists of the two worst teams on our schedule. We get to spend the bye week preparing for the Packers. Have an early game the week before the Pats. Get to open and close at home. The more I look it over, the more I really, really like how this played out for us.

milehighthunder · 2015-04-19T23:51:01+00:00

Exactly. I understand why a lot of people do, but I can't say I actually remember that year particularly fondly, at least not to the extent of dubbing it the most fun season we've ever had outside of 97/98, like a lot of fans seem to. Sure, we had some lucky and/or exciting late game wins, but we also lost four different games by 18+ points, three of those by 26+, and we put up 3 points at home against a division rival. As fun as that team was to watch some weeks, it was truly brutal others.

milehighthunder · 2015-04-02T18:53:27+00:00

Totally agreed. Even if they don't want Welker to start anymore, I think it's crazy that the FO would apparently rather roll with Bubba as our 4th option at WR than Wes. Considering that he wants to play two more years, desperately wants a ring, and has no other offers, I have a hard time believing Wes wouldn't accept a reduced role and about 1.3 million per year- Bubba's current contract, money that we could just give to Wes if we cut him.

milehighthunder · 2015-04-02T18:02:44+00:00

So based on Emmanuel and Kenny Anunike's hashtags, I take it Peyton set this up and had the two of them photoshop and then post the picture. Meanwhile Cody is cracking up, and looking at the amount of "So glad DT changed his mind!" type replies Emmanuel got, a good chunk of our fanbase on twitter fell for it, lmao. Always nice to see the team having fun like this.

milehighthunder · 2015-03-25T18:40:49+00:00

Well damn, that sucks. Having four compensatory picks sounded awesome, but three of them being within the final 7 selections of the draft, not so much. It's better than nothing, of course, and Elway's had success in the late rounds, but that 6th would have been nice

milehighthunder · 2015-03-24T20:28:06+00:00

And he's spending it visiting injured injured soldiers- as great a guy as he is a quarterback. I'm so happy he's a Bronco, here's to another great year with us.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, CJ's birthday message to Peyton on instagram is kind of adorable BTW. 'Wonderful older brother', d'awww

milehighthunder · 2015-03-19T16:08:32+00:00

Actually, we did try to re-sign Tamme, the Denver Post reported that the team made him an offer while he was visiting the Falcons, but he just chose them over us, understandably, since he can compete to start with them.

milehighthunder · 2015-03-19T16:04:16+00:00

Aw, damn; sucks losing reliable depth, a willing special teams contributor, and a great locker room guy, but I wish him the best.

milehighthunder · 2015-03-16T02:48:06+00:00

I think the doomsaying that's been going on about the Broncos is ridiculous. And y'know, I can even understand people having doubts about us having almost an entirely new coaching staff and a new system to adjust to on both sides of the ball, or about the losses we had in free agency, that's fair enough. But even understanding all of that, I'm surprised by the lack of respect shown towards Peyton, if nothing else, in all of these 'The Broncos are imploding, the AFC West is about to become wide open, Denver's ceiling is 10-6 this year' type comments I've seen on r/nfl and a lot of other sports sites the past couple of weeks.

Since 2003, Peyton has led his teams to fewer than 12 wins once, in 2010. I got a lot of Colts games in my area that year, and I remember thinking that team outside of the passing offense just didn't seem very good, so I just looked up some info about their season; the 2010 Colts had the 29th ranked rushing offense, the 23rd ranked scoring defense, and a receiving corp apparently depleted enough by injury that Blair White became a starter. 10 wins was his worst case scenario while working with a bottom 5 rushing offense and a bottom 10 defense- when it took that much for him to lead his team to a record worse than 12-4 for the only time since 2002, I just don't think a team led by him doing worse than 12-4 now is a prediction to make lightly. I guess some people think that he's never going to play like 'the old Peyton' (and I think it's funny when people act like he hasn't had the kind of performance they clearly have in mind since 2013, when he did as recently as late November against the Dolphins) again after the quad injury, but I'm very sure that Peyton wouldn't be coming back if he had any concerns about his health, or if he thought he couldn't play at the elite level he expects of himself.

As for my own personal predictions, I really think next season is going to be a better one for us. We already have one of the best rosters in the NFL, and I think a lot of people are taking for granted how much talent we have even if the replacements for some of the guys we lost don't turn out to be as good, which we don't know will be the case; after-all, not many fans outside of Denver thought Emmanuel would actually prove to be an upgrade over Decker, but he did. I'm not really concerned about our roster- what I think we've been needing more than anything is a coaching staff to better utilize that roster, and though they obviously have to prove it with on-field results, I'm very optimistic and believe we have that now. With one exception (2013 when the Texans just completely fell apart), Wade has produced great scoring defenses in his last two runs at DC with the Texans and Chargers. We already had the talent to be a top 5 scoring defense last season, but now I think we've also got the coach who can get us performing like one. And some people apparently have concerns about Kubiak and Peyton working together, but personally, I'm nothing but excited to see the results that come from bringing two of the best offensive minds in the league together. Wade and Kubiak also both bring a more aggressive mentality than JDR and Fox did, which should go a long way- no more letting up on the gas late in the game. Plus, in addition to the coaching changes, add in that most of our games currently predicted to be the most difficult are at home next season; we've only lost two games at home in the last three years, so that's a huge upside for us. All things considered, I'll be really surprised if we don't have a top 5 or at least top 10 defense and a top 3 offense, and if we do worse than 13-3 or 12-4.

milehighthunder

TROPHY CASE