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Published on 02/17/2009 at Tue Feb 17 19:28.
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SPEAK UP: Your MUST Keep List

Posted Tue Feb 17th by

So with all the Denver players that have (or WILL be) handed their pick slips, which players do you absolutely, positively, would-die-without need to keep?

Here is my MUST KEEP list (in order of importance… as if that could really be determined):

Jay Cutler
Champ Bailey
Brandon Marshall
Ryan Clady
D.J. Williams
Eddie Royal
Ryan Harris
Ben Hamilton (tied with Chris Kuper)
Peyton Hillis
Tony Scheffler
Daniel Graham

I’ll also list my I’D LOVE TO SEE THEM STAY list (no particular order):

Casey Wiegmann – Good temporary solution at Center
Elvis Dumervil – Great little motor with long arms and a nose for sacks
Kory Lichtensteiger – Good potential
Brandon Stokley – The Slot Machine!
Marcus Thomas – Solid athlete
Wesley Woodyard – Amazing passion
Andre Hall – Just a personal favorite
Nic Clemons – Showed some sparks during last preseason
Tim Crowder – Could work well in the 3-4

Ok… who’d I miss? Who shouldn’t be on my list? Who’s on YOUR must keep list? Do you follow the team or the players? I mean, is there a marquee player that (if ditched) would make you try to kick your Denver football obsession? Let’s hear from you…

  • Pete

    Good list. Can’t disagree with any of them.
    I really wanted to address your “would you follow the player or the team if someone was released” statement.
    I think you follow players *ONLY* if they helped you achieve great heights. Such as if Elway, TD, Sharpe (Baltimore), Rod Smith, or Al Wilson were to move on. Naturally, you would be a fan of theirs, but not necessarily like the Broncos any less. Thankfully Sharpe is the only one we had to go through that with, and it was still easy to hate Baltimore cause they knocked us out of the playoffs. Atwater was another that I still liked to see play, but hated that he wasn’t with us.
    So to answer your question, NO, there is no player on our current roster who I’d follow if they went to another team. I don’t follow players who haven’t helped us be anything more than mediocre.

  • Bobby

    The whole O Line
    Cut
    BMarsh
    Champ
    Eddie Royal
    DG
    Stoke
    Scheff
    Hillis
    DJ
    Doom

    Like to See Stay
    Torain
    Thomas
    Barrett
    Selvin Young

  • NathanH

    If somehow(not realistic at all) Cutler was cut or traded I’d probably abandon the franchise for a good amount of years. But luckily I don’t think I’ll have to deal with it.

    Untouchables in order:
    Cutler
    Clady
    Marshall
    Royal
    DJ
    Scheffler
    Stoakley-Gonna be great in McDaniels play calling imo

    I’d hate to see them go, but for the right price list:
    Ryan Harris-There’s talk he could get LT money from some teams when his contracts up after being so impressive last year. It’s really hard cap wise to pay 2 LT’s starter money, which really scares me, so if someone offered a early 2nd for him, I’d jump on it.

    Dumervil- I’d be crushed to see him go but if we could get an early 3rd or late 2nd I’d take it. I don’t know how well he’s gonna fit in the new system unfortunatly.

    Champ Bailey- I really don’t want to trade him, but if we got the absolute right offer, I honestly can’t pair him with Cutler or Marshall in my untouchables. We’d have to take a look at serious offers for him given his age and injuries last year, luckily we probably won’t have to even worry about this.

    Graham- Good blocker, good leader, but if we could get good value in the draft for him it’d be worth looking at solely due to the cap room he takes up(he’s arguably the teams most overpaid player).

    Marcus Thomas- Big body and athletic, I actually think he’ll progress in the 3-4 if he allows him self to reach his potential.

    I don’t feel loyal to any one else on D really so the rest can be had and i wouldn’t care.

  • Bobby

    Oh yeah and Wesley Woodyard!

  • http://birty.blogspot.com mikebirty

    I’d probably add Kern and Larsen to that – “would like to keep” list and bump casey and stokely up to the must keep. Torain has to have a spot somewhere – maybe on a “Last warning” list where they get 12 months to prove themselves.

  • CJ

    Must Keep
    JAY CUTLER- I would never root forDenver again if he was let go
    Brandon Marshall-Great reciever let stop the drops though
    Ryan Clady-going to be a great leader of the offesive line
    D.J. Williams-Great linebacker when he is in his natural position
    Eddie Royal-Great talent and speed! Mcd would be insane
    Ryan Harris-Great talent competed with ryan clady for sacks
    Ben Hamilton/Chris Kuper-These two are young and talented
    Peyton Hillis-Need to let him start and see what this white boy can do
    Tony Scheffler-Great recievig and young lets see some blocking!

    love to see them stay
    casey Wiegmann – Pro Bowler! and stayin 1 more year
    Elvis Dumervil – Next Dwight Freeney
    Kory Lichtensteiger – Good potential
    Brandon Stokley – Good slot
    Marcus Thomas – did you see the backflip he can do
    Wesley Woodyard – Great tackler and special teams future player
    Andre Hall – better stop the fumbling
    Tim Crowder – Could work well in the 3-4 and young

    Cut/trade
    Champ Bailey- sorry all my friends dissagree trade him while hes still young a worth a shit face it in 3 years hes done
    Boss Bailey-Injury Prone always hase been will be in 09

    Thats all the big names i got

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    I agree with adding Larsen to the LOVE TO SEE THEM STAY list. That was an oversight on my part. :)

  • robtink242

    bly’s gone. wow

  • http://www.myspace.com/tyschik09 Shell

    Totally agree with your list and I would agree with a lot of these people and say I would not follow the Broncos for quite some time if they got rid of Cutler. I mean come on, this guy just did his best season yet and with McD here, he can only go up. You’d also have to be crazy to get ride of Royal and Marshall. They are beasting right about now. Still shocked they got rid of Bly, but hey, maybe there’s a method to his madness.

  • Barto51

    UNTOUCHABLES
    Cutler
    Champ
    Clady (best left LT in NFL)
    Harris (Probably best RT in NFL)
    Kuper
    Marshall
    Royal
    Stokely
    Hillis (if o-line stays he could be a monster on the grid-iron)
    Dumervil (i like the possible move standing him up in the 3-4)
    D.J.

    WOULD LOVE TO SEE STAY
    Wiegman (he’s good but long in the tooth, if he were only Clady’s age)
    Hamilton
    Lichtensteiger (if Wiegman goes he stays)
    Marcus Thomas (need to see his potential produce)
    Woodyard (need to find a way to play him, just where?)
    Larsen (i think he could be one of the two MLB’s in the new 3-4 D)
    Barrett (was impressive toward the end of the year, potential)
    Sheffler (great hands, needs to quiet getting hurt so often)

    I would let Boss Bailey go, again great talent but a long history of injury. I also agreed with the release of Bly.

  • Fan From Spain

    I’v very suprized Dumervil and Stokeley arn’t on your must have list JD…

  • http://www.search-this.com mark

    This is exactly the problem with the Broncos, the list should not be that long. That is a list of Broncos that are MUST keeps. I only got 5 people on my list:

    Jay Cutler
    Brandon Marshall
    Ryan Clady
    D.J. Williams
    Eddie Royal

    Sure there are other nice players, players that I would like to keep, but ultimately only 5 that are must keeps…

  • steve

    must keeps

    Cutler
    Marshall
    Royal
    Clady
    Harris
    Kuper
    DJ
    Champ
    Stokley
    Scheff

    must sign any combination of the following

    Karlos Dansby
    Dunta Robinson
    Jim Leonard
    Julius Peppers
    Albert Haynesworth
    Bart Scott
    Chris Canty

  • http://www.slushygutter.blogspot.com CommishCH

    Keep about half of the cheerleaders buy cut that wack-a*s Miles the mascot.

  • http://myspace.com/paraleipsis jchase8410

    Karlos Dansby got franchised today

  • http://myspace.com/paraleipsis jchase8410

    Since the broncos have close to $50 mil in cap room, release Stokely, move Fast Eddie to the slot, and sign TJ Houshmanzadeh on the other side. Then sign Nmamdi Asomoghua at CB, and Peppers at OLB. Draft BJ Raji, and Louis Delmas to play FS…we would have the best receiving corps AND CB tandem in the NFL AND a solid pass rush…slim chances of anything like that happening, but it’s fun to play around with…

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    Mark, you get the prize from figuring out the point of my article (although you ruined my follow-up post).

    When it comes down to it, how many players did we have at the end of 2008 that could NOT be replaced?

    The answer you gave, while some may argue the specifics, is correct… very, very few. (probably less than my list for sure)

    The changes we’ve seen and the changes we’re about to see shouldn’t bother us as much as they tend to, because like with all teams in the NFL there are really only a handful of players on each team that are truly unreplacable.

    Let’s think about it… Would you not agree that McD and Prof X have more than a 50/50 chance to land better talent at almost every position on the field?

    I admit to an unease about change in general, but I’m coming around. I’m now prepared to ‘let it ride’ on these two young gamblers.

    Welcome to the new Broncos! :)

    P.S. Commish, you made me laugh out loud!

  • NathanH

    Next year is definitaly thte start of the new era of the Denver Broncos, and this off season will shape it all. I’ve never been so excited for an off season.

  • SivNiz

    Mark, I think Harris needs to be on that list as well.

  • stav

    Why would we ever think about keeping Andre Hall? Because of one TD run in 2007 against Chicago? Between Hillis, Torrain, Young, and I’m sure we’ll be drafting another rb. I heard that Asomoghua is going to get franchised, so I doubt that’s realistic wen they need to focus on qb pressure. Yes to Peppers, no to cutting Stokely and signing TJ, he’ll want too much and the point is to have Cutler throw the ball less this year. Except for keeping Hall and maybe Crowder, I agree with the lists.

  • http://www.search-this.com mark

    @SivNiz : “Mark, I think Harris needs to be on that list as well.”

    Fine. I like Ryan Harris, he did a good job last year and he seems like he has a good head on his shoulders, but I need to see a few more years of that caliber of performance before I label him MUST keep. Same with Peyton Hillis – Maybe he ends up being MUST keep, but he isn’t right now.

  • Andpark

    100% Keepers for me_
    Cutler
    Clady
    D.J.
    Royal
    Marshall (drops even in probowl have me worried)
    Harris
    Hillis
    Scheffler
    Larsen

    Insane offseason for sure and I cannot wait for April 25. McD seems ruthless, keep who is worth it and move on. I think we are going to be a team to be concerned about next year. Young and talented all around. Big FA and Draft for the D and we are a scary team.

  • T-Money

    Cutler
    BMarsh
    Royal
    Clady
    Champ

    If we get rid of Champ i hope it comes to bite us in the ass. I hope he goes to a team we see at the AFC Championship game and has 2 picks one for 6. I think trading him for a draft pick or 2 is a rip off. He is the one of the best if not the best at stopping the run from the corner position. All you have to do is watch his higlights from the New England game (before he got hurt) where he was actually challenged more than once or twice. Randy Moss had 1 catch for 4 yards or a slat pass…and he was short of the fist down.

    Another thing…. He has only missed 3 games due to injury prior to last season. When you have a shut down corner that has been said to be the next ‘walk in hall of famer’ -wesley dukes, and you have one season where he get a nasty groin tear and all of a sudden hes trade material. That’s a stupid move anyway you look at it. Not to mention that he is virtually the last VET that was have, and trading him for a rookie…

    Im so sick of hearing “we’re a young team” as an excuse, then coming to this point in the off season to hear you guys say we need to get younger. What we need is leadership and experience to teach the young that we already have.

  • SivNiz

    Mark, good point. He’s next to go on the list.

  • Richard

    I think we have a pretty good idea of who stays and who goes next. More surprises will happen, but lets keep one thing in mind. Last offseason the Dolphins brought in 27 or 28 new players and completely changed the team. Went from 1-15 to 11-5. And that was with a team that stunk badly on both sides of the ball. Our situation this year isn’t nearly as dire as what Miami experienced. As long as we have the Vision(and I’m getting more confident of that with every move), we’ll get er done, with 30-35 mil for FA, and 9 draft choices. An overhaul on D is warrented and a few treaks on O will happen.

    Should we only improve the D to say 20th, we go 10-6 and probably get a post season game. So cheer up, the glass isn’t half full, its 2/3 full.

  • Bobby

    Derrick Ward just said on NFL Network that he thinks he would look good in Orange and Blue

  • T-Money

    Woodsen sounds very convinced that he was going to Denver….

  • Soxbigdog

    have to keep:
    Jay Cutler
    Brandon Marshall
    Champ Bailey
    Eddie Royal
    Ryan Clady
    Ryan Harris
    D.J. Williams
    Peyton Hillis
    Tony Scheffler

    Keep if the position cannot be upgraded
    Kuper
    Hamilton
    Weigmann
    Scheffler
    Crowder
    Dumervil (after he is moved to LB)
    Stoakley

  • MikeY55

    i wouldn’t be surprised if these were some fairly medium spending picks up the broncos make to steadily improve the D James Sanders starting safety past 2 seasons for patriots only 25 mike wright reserve D end only entering his 5th season young and huge perfect for a 3-4 end, Igor Olshanky i think will come cheaper then canty and denvers new d line coach was his d line coach in san diego might have some leverage jt gust like mcdaniels might with sanders and wright… also some other names out there derrick ward i wouldnt be surprised at all if he came to denver i would like it to good back… and Ronald Bartell Jr…. a rams corner who is big and physical and has been improving might be available to add young depth to the CB postition

  • http://rickparros.com/ Sean Weldon