Former Buffalo Bills running back coach Eric Studesville is immediately showing his influence in Denver as the Broncos announced the signing of former Bills running back Bruce Hall.

Hall started as both a quarterback and running back in college at the University of Mississippi. He was signed in 2008 as a college free agent, but has not seen a carry as an NFL player.

Press release after the mouse key pound.

Click here to read the rest of this entry »

The 2009 NFL season has all come down to this: the AFC Champion Indianapolis Colt facing the NFC Champion New Orleans Saints for the Lombardi Trophy. Super Bowl XLIV.

This game has been broken down to death already, so we’ll be brief in our assessment and pick today. We love both quarterbacks and passing offenses (who doesn’t?). We like both defenses. But in both categories, we’ll give Indy a slight edge. New Orleans has the edge in the running game, but we don’t see them taking the ball out of Drew Brees‘ hands enough to exploit this.

In the end, none of these edges will matter all that much. These are two complete teams. If they played the game ten times, they each might win five apiece.

So we’re taking the undefinable spirit and moxie each team is taking to the game as the deciding factor. The Colts might be the slightly better team, but the Saints are prepped to play a better game today.

The New Orleans Saints will beat the Indianapolis Colts 37-31.  Your picks in the comments.  Enjoy the season’s last hurrah, everybody — it should be a good one!

Denver Broncos running back and Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2010 inductee Floyd Little.

One of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s greatest wrongs has been righted, and the player known to the Denver Broncos as “The Franchise” will finally have his achievements to the league honored properly.

Former Denver Broncos running back Floyd Little (1965-75), the first No. 1 draft pick to sign with the club, was elected into the 2010 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a senior candidate Saturday.

During his nine-year career (all with the Broncos), Little led the league in all-purpose yards and ranked second in rushing yards. Little remains one of only three players in NFL history with 6,000 career rushing yards and 3,000 career special-teams return yards. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

The utmost congratulations goes out to Floyd Little who was just named to the NFL hall of fame. It’s about time. Now Denver fans will just have to wait for Shannon Sharpe to get in. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think it would be a travesty if Sharpe gets passed up next year. Press release after the jump. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

This is the next piece in the BT Staff tryouts, this time coming from Sam Walter — enjoy!

Tim Tebow.

I’m sure by now we’ve all seen his resume. He’s won a Heisman Trophy, two National Titles at Florida, was a two-time First team All-America QB and has garnered more national media coverage than any other college player in recent memory. He leaves Florida with a record of 48-7, 145 combined touchdowns (rushing and passing,) 9,286 passing yards and an additional 2,947 yards on the ground. He is considered by some to be the greatest player in College Football history…

And I want absolutely no part of him in a Denver Bronco uniform.  Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Our call for help received a great response, and we’ll be publishing certain pieces over the next week or so in our hunt for the next BT Staffer(s).  This piece comes via Michael Guirges, an LA-based Denver-born Broncos fan.  Give us (and him!) your thoughts in the comments.

An unidentified fan of the Denver Broncos, front, in Denver in 2009. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The past four years of my Broncos fandom have really got my wheels turning, thinking about Homerism.

What is a homer? Am I a homer? If I am, is that okay?

I remember when Jake Plummer, just a few short months after the AFC Championship game was replaced by Jay Cutler. I was happy. I thought that it gave the team its best chance to win. Now that I think about it, that is what Coach Shanahan said…

Or  how about when the Broncos signed Travis Henry? That was great right? “Boy”, I remember thinking, “he’s a top back in this league. This should take us over the top.” If I only knew then what I know now. I don’t even really want to talk about it. Shanahan (I?) was wrong about Travis Henry too. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Brandon Marshall tackles Troy Polamalu after Polamalu intercepted a pass by Kyle Orton. (AP Photo/Chris Schneider)

The thing about passion, is it swings both ways.

Ever asked for a raise? It’s a tough time… You gauge your own value to the company, then you high ball it. Maybe you’ve got a significant other or a spouse that’s got you gassed over how important you are to the firm… Here’s a rule that most employers live by, “Everyone is disposable,” if someone isn’t they should be, for the better of the team.

Disagree? Look at it this way, if someone is too important to your team to go down, then that’s more of a weakness than a strength.

Still disagree? Look at the 2008 New England Patriots, not a person in the world would have said that Tom Brady was replaceable, but he was and by a no-name quarterback that hadn’t started a game since high school. That’s because of the strength of the team… Phil Simms being replaced by Jeff Hostetler, Joe Montana by Steve Young, Jerry Rice by Terrell Owens. We can go on.

See when something’s too big to fail, you break it up into several strong pieces, instead of one all powerful piece. At least you should or you run the risk of hurting the entire team, in my opinion… But I’m no politician.

I think that Brandon Marshall understands this too or maybe it was explained to him. It’s basically the same idea that no one individual is as important as the team. Marshall’s not getting anywhere near $10-million a year from anyone this season, except maybe from the Denver Broncos. If he promises to play ball.

My solution is that the Broncos give it to him (or close to it anyway). This season, the uncapped season, while the team can afford it. Tell him to consider it retroactive, make it dependent on his off field activity and let it come with an option for one more season… If Marshall’s happy at the end of 2010 then, taking into account where the CBA is of course, the team discusses long-term.

Then again, I’m no Brian Xanders and none of this could make sense at all.

Either way, I don’t feel that whether we win or lose is dependent on the signing of Brandon Marshall. It’s dependent on a lot of factors, but having Marshall back would make those factors a lot easier.

A Broncos fan holds a sign expressing his sentiments about head coach Josh McDaniels. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Free Agency can rip a team apart or sky rocket them towards Super Bowl favorite. Either way it changes ball teams no doubt, a good off-season signing of a veteran can propel a team into elite status or establish it as another ho hum experience in surviving twenty one weeks of NFL games.

The Denver Broncos are faced with just this dilemma currently, who to keep, who to cut… Last season the turn around was almost nearly 70%, just look at the offensive side of the ball… Of the skill players only six had remained from the previous season.

So here’s a look at who Denver has the opportunity to re-sign or let walk.

By now I’m guessing everyone is familiar with the CBA and how that will affect a lot of the young players in the league. So I will simply list those affected as Restricted Free Agents:

Restricted Free Agents: Kyle Orton, Brandon Marshall, Tony Scheffler, Chris Kuper, Matt Prater, Elvis Dumervil and Josh Barrett.

Unrestricted Free Agents: Ben Hamilton, Russ Hochstein, Mitch Berger, and Ty Law.

* – list is an accumulation of several NFL records. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Dear Josh McDaniels,

Remember that time when you sent that guy who appeared to be the future to the Windy City? Well whether or not it was a good deal remains to be seen. However, what is evident is that I lost out on two freaking $70 jerseys and a $15 “Got Cutler?” t-shirt.

His ostracism riled up Denver fans into fits of pyromania. That infamous August caused fans to cremate whatever memories they still obtained in an attempt to materialize their anger. The rest of your tenure has not led fans to dissimilar actions. If I owned a Kyle Orton jersey it would have been cauterized well before the fourth quarter of the final Chiefs game.

Coach, what you need to recognize is that good old Mike Shanahan was never a fan of keeping around the guys whose jersey’s people like to purchase. Josh, you’re not variating from this philosophy. Thank god they don’t make Mike Nolan jerseys.

2003: I bought a Clinton Portis jersey ($70).

2004: Clinton Portis was traded to the Redskins (which I’m not complaining about). Click here to read the rest of this entry »

A Broncos fan sits alone in the stands following the Denver Broncos defeat by the Kansas City Chiefs on January 3, 2010. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Good news nation! It’s only uphill from here…

The off-season is this some NFL fans favorite part of the year. There is just so much to look forward to with the draft in April and free agency opening up on March 5th. It’s time for you to pretend like you watched the Senior Bowl and all important Bowl games scouted absolutely everyone in college football and put forth your best argument as to why your team should draft the kid out of SC that can run a legit 3.9 second 40-yard dash and catch a ball ten-feet off the ground like a hopped up vacuum cleaner. Not to mention the possibility of trades, picking up some extra draft picks, getting rid of a possible player that may or may not want to be here.

So, it being Super Bowl week and all… And facts being facts, the Broncos came so close to getting to the big game this season… Oh. so. close. Inches really, so we wanted to cover a couple issues over this week that Denver will face this off-season and let our community tell us what you guys think in the comments. These points will be deciding factors in whether the Broncos are participants or spectators in next season’s Super Bowl:

• Re-signings – Brandon Marshall, Kyle Orton, Elvis Dumervil, Chris Kuper, Tony Scheffler, Ben Hamilton and several others contracts are up this season. We’ll have our predictions up this week.
• Matter of fact, Brandon Marshall period.
• Draft needs – Denver’s looking to beef up their offensive line and talent up their defensive line. Both spots look to be seriously upgradeable very early in the draft, but which way does Denver go offense or defense?
• Retooling of the Broncos run game.
• Sophomore development in: Knowshon Moreno, Robert Ayers, Kenny McKinley, Darcel McBath, Richard Quinn, Alphonso Smith, Tom Brandstater, David Bruton, Tony Carter, Everette Pedescleaux and Seth Olsen (amongst others).
• New coaches: Wink Martindale, Eric Studesville, where do they come from, where are they at? Can they get in where they fit in?

So keep it here, we’ll go in depth on everything and anything. If we’ve missed something that you’d like then let us know as well!