BroncoTalk Offseason Award – Least Improved Defense

The BroncoTalk Offseason Awards continue! Today I award the team with the most awesome sucktitude when it comes to improving their defense. Consider the title of this post – least improved division – to be a fancy way of saying most UNimproved defense. And the nominees were hard to find – I looked at a major cut on the defensive side of the ball as immediate nominees, making the Denver Broncos up for consideration for the award.

But one team stood above the rest in the number of defensive starters cut – and it’s the #1 reason while all of the “experts” don’t anticipate a repeat…

The BroncoTalk Offseason Award for Least Improved Defense goes to…
The Indianapolis Colts for lynching their already suspect unit.
HONORABLE MENTION:
2. Jacksonville Jaguars for cutting Donovan Darius

“Hey! Who the heck is that guy?” Photo Courtesy

The defending Super Bowl champs had one of the worst defenses throughout the entire regular season. When Safety Bob Sanders came back for the playoffs, though, the entire unit seemed to go through a mysterious transformation of hard hitting and not missing tackles. While it’s hard to attribute this to one man, the evidence is there, and it only shows how valuable of a player Sanders truly is.

However, the worst rush defense in the NFL through 16 games did little to improve the unit, and in fact, they lost several key cogs to their machine.
GONE: Nick Harper, CB; Mike Doss, S; Montae Reagor, DT.
ADDED: Rob Morris and Josh Thomas, both backup resignings.

It’s hard to imagine the Colts repeating with a worse defense than last year – I mean, Broncos fans know the bitterness to seeing Reagor wearing Colt blue and excelling after a lackluster showing in Denver. He was a huge part of the Colts defense until he was hurt in the car accident last season.

I don’t want to sleep on the Colts – that can always bite you in the ass, and Heaven knows the Broncos can’t afford to do anything but focus on Peyton Manning and crew. But it’s hard to believe they’ll repeat with less stars on defense than they had a year ago.