BroncoTalk Offseason Award – Most Improved Offense

The BroncoTalk Offseason Awards continue! Today, the Most Improved Offense award is given, and unlike the case with the Least Improved yesterday, the winner is by no means clear cut. I looked for some input over at BroncosFreak, and to my non-surprise the votes were overwhelmingly for the Broncos. I’m sure if I had done the same thing at a Patriots board I would have gotten similar results, but for the Pats.

Those two teams are the main contenders for the award – apologies to San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, and Houston, who were the other main contenders. This one is between the big boys.

Was there any bigger splash this year than the Randy Moss trade?

Let’s consider each improvements one at a time, starting with New England:

New England Patriots
BIGGEST SIGNING: Randy Moss
BIGGEST LOSS: Daniel Graham
OTHER GAINS: Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker, Sammy Morris, Kyle Brady
OTHER LOSSES: Corey Dillon

The Patriots made the splash of the offseason by trading for Moss, a move that finished an uncharacteristically busy offseason for the Pats. Adding Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker to the receiving corps. makes the offense all the more explosive. And they bounced back from the loss of Corey Dillon by taking backup RB Sammy Morris away from their division opponent Miami. Huge moves all offseason long, and they’re rightfully in the running for the award.

Denver Broncos
BIGGEST SIGNING: Travis Henry
BIGGEST LOSS: George Foster
OTHER GAINS: Daniel Graham, Montrae Holland, Brandon Stokley, Patrick Ramsey
OTHER LOSSES: Cooper Carlisle, Tatum Bell, Damien Nash

While everyone is extremely excited about Jay Cutler, it’s important to remember, at least for this award, that the move wasn’t part of this offseason. Our biggest move is the signing of Travis Henry, complemented by the unsexy signings of Daniel Graham and Montrae Holland. I expect the running game to be much improved behind Henry, and Holland adds depth to the offensive line.

The BroncoTalk Offseason Award for Most Improved Offense goes to…

The New England Patriots

I know, I know… I’ve blasphemed. But I’m trying to be as objective as possible with these BOAs, and objectively I feel the Patriots did more to improve their offense this offseason than the Broncos. A lot of the posts on BroncosFreak state the obvious – the Broncos offense sucked last year, and there’s will be MORE IMPROVED, the name of the title. But I need to separate the beginning of the season from the end – I need to distinguish between Jake Plummer‘s efforts and that of Cutler’s. When Cutler came in, our offense performed admirably, so I need to consider the improvement from the end of last season.

The Pats, on the other hand, had a decent enough offense all last year with the pathetic wide receivers they had. They’ve upgraded in HUGE WAYS and now see themselves with one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL.

The Broncos offense may be much better than last year, but this is more attributable to Jay Cutler than THIS OFFSEASON. So the Patriots get the BOA.

Next week I’m off on vacation, but I’ll have posts scheduled throughout the week to keep your fix going. And I’ll be previewing the final week of the BOAs, where the Best Offseason award (and worst) will be given. Until then…