Kiz: We knew John Elway was mad when the Broncos lost their opener in the NFL playoffs. But whoa. Elway must have been really mad. Kicking and screaming mad. He kicked Julius Thomas, Orlando Franklin, Terrance Knighton and Rahim Moore off the team. That’s nearly $100 million in talent gone via free agency. Can a Super Bowl dream survive those losses?
Hooch: Of course. The Super Bowl is still a reality in Denver, even if the Broncos win only 11 games or have to play an extra playoff game. It takes a culture to win the Super Bowl. It takes having the right pieces, not the best pieces. It takes maximizing your money. And it takes peaking in the postseason, not October (when, last season, the Patriots and Seahawks were still finding themselves).
Kiz: The Broncos won’t be AFC favorites this year. According to Vegas bookmakers, the new odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl is … Indianapolis? Are you kidding me? The Colts spent big in free agency, adding running back Frank Gore and receiver Andre Johnson. Those would have been brilliant moves … five years ago. As Elway has learned the hard way: This ain’t fantasy football.
Hooch: Right. The addition of, say, a system guy in tight end Owen Daniels seems more important than the occasional flashiness of the flimsy Thomas. As for the fantasy football comment, I will say that the signings from last March, notably Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward, will pay dividends this season too. And, hey, at least we know Talib can’t play much worse in the playoffs next time, right?
Kiz: While Ndamukong Suh and DeMarco Murray grab the big cash and big headlines in free agency, I do like the bargain shopping done by Elway in picking up safety Darian Stewart. Is Denver’s chance of winning a championship as good now as in 2012? No. But Elway is now building a title contender for when Peyton Manning is gone.
Hooch: And that’s the fun of the NFL tournament — the No. 1 seed doesn’t always end up No. 1. Yes, Elway and coach Gary Kubiak clearly are looking at 2016 and 2017 too, but as long as Manning stays healthy (no guarantees, as we saw last season), this team will play at least one game in January. Then we will see whether Kubiak truly can do better than John Fox did.
