BroncoTalk Offseason Awards – Best/Worst Offseason Nominees

Running behind the 8-ball as of late – I still haven’t even unpacked my luggage! Today was supposed to be the unveiling of the final BroncoTalk Offseason Award (Best Offseason), the “Best Picture” of these awards, if you will. But I want to make sure I do this award justice, and in my current hurried state I don’t think I could do that. So next week I will announce the winners of the Worst and Best Offseason, but I want to give YOU the opportunity with your thoughts. Today I will give you the list of “nominees” – the teams I’m considering to win each award. Just leave a reply with your thoughts on the subject and help influence the BOAs as they come to a close!

Nominees for Worst Offseason

Green Bay Packers

Co-Winner: Worst Draft
Lord Favre did not get any help this season, and he’s grumpy because of it. Comparing the cold shoulder Packers fans must be feeling to the “This One’s For John” mentality of the Broncos as Elway finished his career must be gut-wrenching for Green Bay fans out there.

Indianapolis Colts

Winner: Least Improved Defense
Their defense was milked by the entire NFL, and they also lost slot receiver Brandon Stokley to our own Broncos. Will they be able to repeat as Super Bowl champs with a defense full of backups?

Kansas City Chiefs

Winner: Worst Trade, Least Improved Offense
The Chiefs lost their starting quarterback, are facing a potential holdout from their Pro Bowl runningback, retired another great O-lineman, and kept Herm Edwards. While that last one is especially damning, it’ll be hard for the Chiefs to be considered anything but the frontrunner for this award.

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings did little to improve their quarterback situation, or any situation, for that matter. They drafted Adrian Peterson, which was a solid move, but was that enough of a move to get them out of the bottom of the NFL?

Tennessee Titans

Co-Winner: Worst Draft
When you consider everything the Broncos did to help Jay Cutler succeed by surrounding him with talent, the boring offseason of the Titans almost seems sad in comparison (good luck Vince Young).

San Diego Chargers

Winner: Worst Coaching Decison.
Gone: Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator. In comes Norv Turner, who has never had this talented of a team, and no one really knows how this historically unsuccessful head coach will do with this team. But you have to consider the Chargers’ offseason as pretty bad when you think about the huge coaching overhaul, despite little changes in player personnel.

Best Offseason Nominees

Arizona Cardinals

Winner: Best Coaching Decision
The Cardinals hired Ken Whisenhunt, hopefully changing the culture in the desert for years to come. The hiring of Russ Grimm will help the O-line, and this talented team may actually play up to their potential in 2007.

Carolina Panthers

Winner: Best Draft
My winner of best draft makes the nominees mostly because of their draft – the cutting of Keyshawn Johnson and few free agency moves makes them a long shot to win it all.

Denver Broncos

Winner: Worst Cut, Best Free Agent Signing, Most Improved Defense
I promise to be objective about the Broncos offseason and this award – while we made a ton of moves in the positive direction, we still cut Al Wilson and tragically lost two of our young players. And perhaps all of the moves won’t allow us to gel the way we would like… all that aside, know that our Broncos are among the frontrunners for this award.

Detroit Lions

The Lions, rebuilding since 1957, had an exceptional draft and complemented it with an active offseason. Their receiving unit is now one of the tops in the entire league; they added depth along the offensive line and runningback position, and simply getting healthy will help this defense in huge ways! I’m high on the Lions in ’07.

Houston Texans

Winner: Best Trade
Making improvements at the quarterback position is always a ticket straight to a nomination here – the Texans believe they’ve found their guy in impressive backup Matt Schaub. When you consider the possible shift in the W-L columns, they could definitely have the most improved offseason when considering the wins alone.

New England Patriots

Winner: Most Improved Offense
The media’s favorite team gets a nomination easily – quantitatively, they may have done more moves than any other team save the Broncos. Tom Brady has a lot of weapons now, so look for the Pats to return to deep playoff runs for the bazillionth year in a row.

Oakland Raiders

I’ll keep this short and sweet – I want the Raiders to get better. So I can hate them again and not just stupidly pity their patheticness. They made some moves this offseason, so they get a nod.

There are the nominees! Leave a comment, let me know if I left someone out! Good or bad, I encourage your feedback – and of course, let me know who should win each award and why. See you Wednesday when I award the Worst Offseason!