As I spilled the beans this morning on Twitter, and a little more cryptically yesterday evening, I stumbled across a little bit of luck.  Thanks to some connections, some more indirect than others, I was invited to a private event – a client appreciation event, to be specific – at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Wednesday night.

Maybe I should get one of these... (personal photo)

Anything catered, anything with a bar (never mind I opted for a Diet Coke), and anything with a swanky fireplace located inside an even swankier lounge is my idea of a decent affair, especially when it requires I leave work early, and costs me nothing.

How does one make a decent affair a cool-points-through-the-roof affair?

Peyton Manning.

Did I mention he was there?  He was.  Roger Staubach, too.  A quick aside…it’s kind of interesting when a multi-Super Bowl winning, yellow Hall of Fame blazer-is-in-my-closet-at-home, quarterback is relegated to “also appearing” status.  Staubach was, but remained poised, gracious, and a consummate good guy.

This client appreciation event was highlighted by an hour-long Q&A session with Manning and Staubach – moderated by 9News’ Susie Wargin.

Not at all surprising, the session focused largely on Manning, and also not at all surprising, served as yet another reminder of what I didn’t need reminding of: I like Peyton Manning.  I mean, I really like Peyton Manning.

Peyton Manning, Roger Staubach, with me...admiring from afar. (personal photo)

Imagine that. The Colts fan turned Broncos blogger is a Manning fan.

For the life of me, I cannot fathom how some dislike Manning.  Football chops or rivalries aside (I’m looking at you, New England), this is a genuinely sincere, witty – actually downright funny – person.

The entire evening was chock-full of anecdotes and candid insight, and my recounting of events really serves it no justice, but nevertheless, here are some Manning highlights, straight from No. 18′s mouth:

• After spending 14 seasons in Indianapolis, Manning admits he’s not “completely comfortable” in Denver just yet.  He compared his experiences thus far to his 1998 rookie season.

• And speaking of rookies, Manning still holds the NFL record for most interceptions thrown by a rookie quarterback.  Manning jokingly (though I strongly suspect a tinge of seriousness) said he actively roots for his record to be broken.  Sam Bradford let him down, as did Matthew Stafford.  Peyton insists younger brother Eli would have broken the record in 2004, though “he only started ten games,” and well, you pretty much need to start an entire season for a chance at that dubious distinction.

• On the subject of late quarterback hits, something that wasn’t really called during Staubach’s time, Manning chimed in with what I believe begged to be interpreted as a subtle jab at Tom Brady.  It turns out Manning doesn’t like quarterbacks who, right after taking a tumble, immediately look to the referee for a flag.  (No, Manning didn’t use Brady by name, but let’s think about this: How many New England Patriots games have you seen where Brady doesn’t plead with the referee at least once?).  Perhaps he was envisioning Philip Rivers as well…either way, it wasn’t difficult to connect the dots.  Manning says the players who put themselves in harm’s way the most are defenseless wide receivers, often blindsided because of their positioning during routes.

• In an attempt to avoid the spotlight of rehabbing in Indianapolis last offseason, Manning spent time in June 2011 in Denver with the Colorado Rockies.  Because of the lockout (ugh!), Manning couldn’t use the Colts’ facility or meet with team doctors, so he used the Rockies’ facility and visited with the team’s trainers.  He stated it was an ideal situation compared to going to a local gym, and getting pestered by the woman on the neighboring treadmill about whether or not she should put Dallas Clark on her fantasy team.

• When asked about his favorite football memory, Manning’s response wasn’t winning Super Bowl XLI (which is my favorite memory), but rather the many lifelong relationships forged by playing football.  He added those bonds in Denver will come, but “you have to go through some battles to form those relationships.”

I’ve said this a lot over the past decade; Peyton Manning won’t struggle to find work after his playing days are over.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t have to think about that next chapter for a few more seasons.

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @DENHorseForce and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

Grading the NFL draft: Denver Broncos double down on defense - It was a draft with a capital D, as in Defense.  The Broncos used four of their seven picks on defense, including their first pick of the draft —Cincinnati defensive tackle Derek Wolfe— in the second round (36th overall). The Packers, Eagles and Patriots used their first 18 selections combined on defense.  In all, 50 defensive backs were selected, the highest total of players at any position.  Read more from the Denver Post >>>>

Broncos’ Peyton Manning enjoys Coors Field as a Rockies fan - During a visit to Coors Field for the Rockies game Sunday, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning had one big question: What was outfielder Michael Cuddyer doing occupying his locker?  During the 2011 NFL lockout, Manning needed a place to train while rehabbing after neck surgery, so he contacted Todd Helton, who arranged a workout program at Coors.  Read more from the Denver Post >>>>

Broncos tried to fix bad draft in 2009 with their 2012 draft - And with their 2012 draft, the Broncos attempted to make a final correction on their embarrassing draft of 2009.  Where would the Broncos be today — with Peyton Manning at quarterback, Von Miller at pass-rush linebacker and John Elway as the front- office point man — had they not so magnificently bombed with their five (that’s right, five) draft picks in the first two rounds that year?  Read more from the Denver Post >>>>

1-On-1 With New Broncos - Broncos TV talks to Ronnie Hillman, Brock Osweiler and Derek Wolfe about coming to Denver; full interviews to air on Xfinity’s 2012 Draft Special later this week.  Watch video from Denver Broncos >>>>

Reflecting On The Weekend - Broncos TV talks 1-on-1 with Head Coach John Fox about the 2012 NFL Draft.  Watch video from Denver Broncos >>>>

2012 NFL Draft: Grading out the Denver Broncos’ Picks - The dust has settled from the 2012 NFL draft, and now we can start assessing the picks our teams made.  The Denver Broncos knew it was an important draft following the recent signing of Peyton Manning, and they had some clear holes to fill.  Read more from Bleacher Report >>>>

Mile High Monday: Denver Broncos Draft Overview - The 2012 NFL Draft proved to be the most unpredictable and exciting draft in recent memory. With a record 19 trades in the first round alone, there was simply no way of telling what we were going to see next.  The new Collective Bargaining Agreement has removed the uncertainty and the ridiculous costs associated with a contract for a top draft pick. That resulted in teams being more willing to move up at the start of the draft so they could get their guys.  Read more from Predominantly Orange >>>>

Broncos’ Eric Decker quite the baseball player - We know Eric Decker as a 6’3″, 218 pound wide receiver who caught 44 passes for 612 yards and eight touchdowns last season as a member of the Denver Broncos.  Had Decker chosen another career path — baseball — many of us would have never heard of him.  While attending Minnesota, Decker played both football and baseball and was actually drafted into the MLB — twice.  Decker was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008 and the Minnesota Twins in 2009, but opted to instead pursue a career in the NFL.  Read more from Bronco Talk >>>>

Brock Osweiler: Sitting On Denver’s Bench Is “A Quarterback’s Dream”- Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: The Holy Trinity of Denver quarterbacking. Elway. Manning. Osweiler.  Brock Osweiler joined 92.3 The Ticket in Denver to discuss his new gig in Denver playing for John Elway and under Peyton Manning. He also touched on how high the Broncos were on his list of potential teams, whether the Broncos staff has communicated any changes they want to see from him, and the possibility that he’ll be a backup for quite some time.  Read more from Deadspin >>>>

2012 NFL Draft winners and losers - The 2012 NFL Draft is over, but it will probably take a few years before we truly know which front offices made the best decisions this past week.  Still, those seven rounds of selections have prematurely left some teams’ fans up in arms and others dreaming of a potential Super Bowl run.  Here’s an early look at the weekend’s biggest winners and losers, as well as a few other fun facts from the draft.  Read more from Fox News >>>>

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @DENHorseForce and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

It seems kind of absurd that the Broncos now clearly have the best front office in the Denver pro sports realm.  Think about it: a year ago this team had just finished one of the worst seasons in its history, fired its coach, and replaced him with the one head coach who managed an even WORSE 2010 campaign.  Yet here we are in 2012: Denver is coming off a playoff season, and now has one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.

I think it would be premature to say that John Elway is as good of a front office man as he was quarterback, but a Super Bowl in the next 3 years will cement that.  Elway inherited a mess.  The McDaniels’ era sunk Denver.  The team’s young elite were shipped away, replaced with aging role players, and the whole team was forced to play by a script that was too clever by half, and orchestrated by a guy that was too inexperienced as a whole.  Yet here we are with the Broncos in the Super Bowl discussion for the 2012 season.

Compare the record of Elway’s front office to other Denver teams and it’s clear the Broncos are now the personnel management toast of the town.

Big Transactions

Broncos: Denver gets Peyton Manning in a race that featured teams parking a plane at an airport in hopes of cherry-picking a meeting, floating ownership rumors as incentive, and even getting a state’s legislature to pass a pro-Manning resolution.  In the end, Elway and Company won, and did it without a gimmick.

Nuggets: Recent enough, the trade of Carmelo Anthony has to be the defining move of the Nuggets front office.  The team capitulated to its superstar’s demands, sweetened the pot with hometown hero Chauncey Billups, and moved on.  The Nuggets hauled in some strong team talent in return, but in all likelihood, are still awaiting a new star to rise if they want to break the one-and-done playoff cycle.  A desire to pursue a new star is publicly absent.

Rockies: The biggest recent transaction also involves a star leaving the team rather than joining it.  Ubaldo Jimenez was dealt to Indians last year.  It remains to be seen if Jimenez’s amazing first-half run in 2010 was a flash in an otherwise underwhelming career.  Still, the Rockies’ rotation is noticeably more lackluster since the trade with the team turning to an aged Jamie Moyer to backfill an otherwise lackluster stable.

Avalanche: The Avs made the commitment to a youth movement.  Even if a possibly-fading-yet-still-a-good-leadership-guy came available, the Avs have signaled no desire to pursue the over 25 crowd…and they’re watching the playoffs at home once again.

Seeding the Future

Broncos: Denver’s front office hit big with Von Miller in the 2011 draft.  If Miller remains healthy, and productive, he’ll remain among the league’s elite defenders for some time.  Perhaps more importantly, Denver also found starting talent in Orlando Franklin and Quinton Carter in the same draft, and picked up some intriguing contributors in Virgil Green and Julius Thomas.  If that wasn’t enough, there’s a good chance Chris Harris is two seasons or less away from becoming a defensive starter after making the team as an unsigned free agent.

Nuggets: The Nuggets front office has made positive additions through recent drafts.  Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried are high tempo threats who can make games incredibly entertaining.  Despite the patchwork nature of the Nuggets personnel, the team is young, which could lead to a bright future…assuming one of the young guns becomes an all-star at some point.

Rockies: The club’s stars are young (Cargo, Tulo).  The club’s icon is old (Helton).  The club’s headlining additions are also old (Cuddyer, Moyer).  The club’s solution for third base is young (Nelson, Pacheco).  A real mixture of young and pretty old talent here.  While the Rockies youth movement has paid a few exciting dividends in the past several years it appears the front office may be taking a breather…or the pipeline is turning to a trickle.

Avalanche: All youth, all the time.  The addition of Gabriel Landeskog could be the most promising for the Avs.  Fellow youth-stars-in-waiting Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene are also part of the talent crop the Avs’ front office is hoping will bloom…really, really soon.

“Cut That Meat” Spending Factor

Broncos: They had the money, and they spent the money.  Pat Bowlen opened the checkbook for Peyton Manning, and while no other huge names made the Denver payroll during free agency, the Broncos weren’t afraid to go shopping for the luxury yacht on the market.  If there’s any question about what the front office expects from the team in 2012, just look at the accounts payable section of the ledger.  The Broncos want to win…now!

Nuggets: The good news is that the Nuggets are no longer obligated to pay Nene an absorbent amount of money to miss a quarter of the season with injuries.  Also good news is that the Nuggets don’t appear to be drastically overpaying anyone on the roster (assuming Galinari pans out).  The bad news is that no one on the roster warrants the mega salaries pulled in by players who make teams favorites as opposed to also-rans.

Rockies: Not the highest, not the lowest.  The Rockies front office took care of its blossoming stars last year (not including Ubaldo).  The payroll doesn’t scream, “we expect pennants,” but hints that there’s a payday potentially waiting for anyone who breaks through to make one possible.  Still, since Rocktober 2007, the Rockies haven’t showed any inkling of waging up to keep the team in the hunt.

Avalanche: Paydays for future stars are waiting…maybe…so we hope.  The Avs front office has money to spend, but has made a habit of not spending it.  It’s a front office that seems convinced that the only way back to glory is through unwavering piety.  Sure, it’s smart to keep money available for when your young talent becomes amazing all-stars, but with now clear idea on when that may happen the Avs at the moment appear to be doing nothing more than hoping things work out.

So…with all that said…it’s still bizarre, but yet also apparent: the Denver Broncos have to be considered the most stable, well-run pro sports organization in town.  However, this is subject to change if a certain someone has a certain issue with a certain body part located between his head and his shoulders.

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @DENHorseForce and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

I don’t know exactly when someone coined the moniker “Doom and Gloom” to refer to the combination of Elvis Dumervil and Von Miller, but if Saturday night is any indication of what the dynamic duo is capable of, then you can be sure we’ll be hearing that nickname a lot more.

Yes, there was a relatively extended Tim Tebow sighting when the Broncos faced the Seahawks at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, but if the second year quarterback’s work was anything more than a footnote in your perception of this game, you need de-programming.

Anyone else excited about Miller & Dumervil? Anyone? (personal photo)

The main event Saturday was a glimpse of what could be the biggest rebuilding block the Broncos will find for several years: Doom and Gloom.  Blindfolds may no longer be needed when the Denver defense takes the field.

Dumervil and Miller combined for 3.5 sacks Saturday night (Elvis had 1.5, Von 2).  In a little more than two quarters, the duo walloped Tarvaris Jackson, hitting the flustered Seahawks quarterbacking six times.  Mind you, these numbers were for basically half a game.  Multiple replays showed the best-case-scenario that must have been rolling through the minds of EFX in the Broncos draft night war room; a quarterback trying to turn away from a surging Von Miller only to realize a bull-rushing Elvis Dumervil had cutoff the escape route.  Blitzes may mean something again in Denver with that kind of sustained pressure from just two men.

Outside pass-rushing tandems are sought-after in the NFL.  Freeney-Mathis is about the only notable one left, and it can be lethal when both men start rolling.  If Dumervil and Miller start giving quarterbacks only 2-3 second windows to get the ball out…well…it could be a much more fruitful year for Champ Bailey and Co.

Seattle hoped to calm the pass-rushing storm with a running game.  That didn’t happen with the Seahawks first team offense posting 13 yards rushing in the first half.  The only defensive concern in Denver Saturday night had to be injuries to linebacker D.J. Williams and defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley.  Bunkley’s knee injury could be the most concerning simply because the Broncos are already lean at the position with Ty Warren likely out for the majority of the season.

On a night owned by Denver’s defense, the worry inevitably shifted to the offense.  Tebow was able to gobble up yardage in one minute to allow Steven Hauschka to boot a 51-yard game winning field goal as time expired in a meaningless preseason game.  Based on the dominance of Denver’s first team defense, there’s absolutely no reason a game-winning field goal should have been needed.

By the third quarter it felt like the first half of the 2010 Broncos season had returned.  If the offense was playing at the same level as the defense, the Broncos should’ve taken at least a 24-3 lead into halftime.  Instead the Kyle Orton-led offense took a 10-3 lead into halftime.  Again, we saw Orton’s stats for the game, and heard commentators talk about his “solid” outing.  Again, I was sitting there thinking about that large chasm of perception that exists between Orton’s statistics, and what those statistics actually look like when translated into gameplay.

Orton stats: 16/23, 236 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 99.2 Rating.

Orton Offensive series: Punt, INT, Punt, TD, Punt, FG, Downs, Missed FG, TD.

Think it’ll take Phillip Rivers and the Chargers offense 4 drives to put points on the board?  To be a playoff team you need to capitalize, and in the NFL capitalization means everyone shows up.  Last night the defense showed up.  The offense did not.  During the McDaniels era the Broncos found plenty of ways to lose.  Sometimes they lost when the offense put up a good amount of points, but the defense allowed their opponent to put up more.  Other times they lost when the defense stepped up and made scoring difficult for their opponent, but the Broncos offense had even more difficulty getting onto the scoreboard.

Willis McGahee (above) and Knowshon Moreno combined for 84 yards. (personal photo)

Sure, offensive ineptitude is not entirely Kyle Orton’s fault.  The running game was mildly effective last night (Moreno and McGahee combined for 84 yards), but not great.  If you’re going to only have a mildly effective running game, you better have a passing game that is straight up dangerous.  Most importantly, this Denver team will not fare well if it must wait until its fourth offensive drive to score each week.  A team’s chances of winning increase greatly if two of its first four offensive drives result in touchdowns.

If Saturday is an indicator, the Broncos offense still has some serious work to do.

Finally, a special note on special teams.  Perhaps Denver is banking on the new kickoff rule making returns obsolete at Sports Authority Field.  Whatever the case, giving up a 105-yard kickoff return is bad news.  Lapses on special teams can be insanely costly.  Just ask the San Diego Chargers who led the league in total offense and total defense last year, but missed the playoffs because special teams were atrocious.  As we’ve established, the score of last night’s game shouldn’t have been remotely close to the 23-20 contest that resulted.  It wouldn’t have been either if not for the kickoff lapse.  Any players on that coverage team who are on the roster cusp should be a bit nervous.

To conclude: Defense looked scary good up front.  It’ll be interesting to see how that translates against stronger opponents.  Offense looks like the 2011 Colorado Rockies…enough talent to make noise, but not jelling when needed.  Special teams needs to hope Matt Prater keeps kicking really, really hard.

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @Aerys_Broncos and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

DHF Home