Denver Has Competition to Replace Walker...

I was replying to a message board post at one of my favorite Football forums on the Internet, someone had brought up (intelligently) that he'd rather have the depth we (Denver) have at Wide Receiver (12) and not cut a Receiver in order to sign another Tight End (4). Of course, subtract one from both of those parentheticals, because Brandon Marshall and Tony Scheffler are both hurt. Leaving us currently with 11 Wide Receivers (gasp) and three Tight Ends (could be a problem, no?).

Although, I do have an inside source in Dove Valley who is telling me that the Broncos do not plan on running goal line offenses at all this season. Mike Shanahan, genius that he is, had a Happy Gilmore type revelation earlier this summer, while studying tape of Jay Cutler's rookie season. He focused specifically on a play where Cutler connected on a 77 yard bomb to (then Broncos Receiver) Javon Walker. Eureka! Shanahan jumped from his $80,000 Trevor O'Neil Cork Sofa (look it up) and shouted, "Why don't we just do that, every time!?!".

After a quick morning meeting, present were Shanahan, Cutler and the Broncos new Offensive Coordinator (Shanahan, again), it was decided. Cutler emerged from the room a follower, in love with Shanahan's plan and is now planning on throwing no less than 80 yard touchdowns throughout the '08 Preseason, Regular Season and Post Season. I was able to catch up with him shortly after his original press conference where he addressed the Brandon Marshall situation and he told me that in fact, "Yeah, that's the plan, basically 80 yards, no more no less. That's what Coach wants..." I immediately asked what would happen if Defenses just started running Dime packages with as many as eight men in coverage. "Look, we've got the two best Corner Backs in the league (Dre Bly and Champ Bailey), so very worst case scenario, I'm going up against what like the third and fourth best Corners in the league? They're not even in the same league..." And who am I to argue, it's worked very well for NFL teams in the past (throwing 80 yard TDs). Further digging reveals that this would in fact take away the need for Running Backs and we could most likely keep that second Tight End in to further help with pass protection. It would also open up a ton of cap room.

Anyway, my favorite Denver News Station, KCNC (aka CBS 4) posted this article. Below are the important parts.

Wide Receiver Darrell Jackson, on why he chose Denver-

"I want to go out and have fun and a have chance to win," said Jackson, who had 46 catches for 497 yards and three touchdowns for the 49ers last year. "This is a great football city with winning tradition, especially the last 13, 15 years under (head coach Mike) Shanahan. That's all I was really looking for."

He went on to say-

"I could have gone somewhere and been a starter off the bat but go through the growing pains," Jackson said. "You have a great offensive line here, you have a good quarterback and you have a great running back."

Keary Colbert, on why T.O. called him blasphemous-

"We went through a lot of injuries at the quarterback position, so we had to kind of scale back a little bit at times," Colbert said. "It was one of those seasons last year. You can't predict what kind of season you're going to have, you hope for the best and see how it plays out." [edit note: Terrell Owens could be heard screaming, "That's my Quarterback!" while pouting, from Dallas.]

But Keary, do you think this is the year Denver goes Four-Wide again at Receiver?

"That's every wide receiver's dream, to go four-wide," he said. "With the group we have, that would be a good thing. We have a lot of playmakers and I think we can spread some things out and make some plays."