Pre-draft Look at the 2007 Denver Broncos

I suppose you could say that the 2006 season for the Denver Broncos ended in their poor performance against the San Francisco 49ers. The Broncos needed only to win that last game to ensure another trip to the playoffs. True, the 49ers are considered a potentially dangerous team to be aware of in the future. True, they had steadily improved throughout the 2006 season behind running back Frank Gore's 1,600-yard season, but the Broncos should have played like, well, like they were fighting for their playoff lives. Instead, they turned in another mediocre performance against a mediocre team. Thus, when the wild card games kicked off, the Broncos were forced to watch from their living rooms.

Nevertheless, the 49ers game was not the Broncos' undoing. Their season ended much earlier than that. After reaching the 5-2 mark after seven games behind a stellar defensive unit, the team began to slide. Any fan worth his or her salt could have seen it coming. Behind hot-and-cold QB Jake Plummer, the offense rarely put up enough points to win. It wasn't all Plummer's fault. Once teams recognized that WR Javon Walker was Plummer's only potential target, their job of stopping the Broncos became much easier. Denver's RB duo, Tatum and Mike Bell, could hardly be considered a vital component to the offense and aging receiver, Rod Smith, could no longer get open enough to draw coverage away from Walker. This would be a tough situation for any quarterback's shoulders. Add the fact that by the second game of the season Denver fans were screaming for the highly-touted rookie QB, Jay Cutler, to take the reins of the offense, and it's easy to see why Plummer had an uphill battle. The offense consistently went three-and-out. Even the best defense will eventually crumble when it spends 75% of the game on the field. The Broncos proved no different.

Denver fans hope that the disappointment of 2006 is behind them. Owner Pat Bowlen and head coach Mike Shanahan have given them enough offseason reasons to hold on to that hope. It's still very early to tell what the team will accomplish in 2007, but it doesn't hurt to look.