The Denver Broncos are coming off of a whirlwind of a season. From Gary Kubiak’s hire in January of 2015 to hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Feb 7., it certainly has been a year to remember. This offseason, as the outside fan base seems to be in a panic, Kubiak and John Elway are the opposite.
“Obviously, coming off a Super bowl win, how do we go about it? We’re going to have a lot of new faces. We’re going to be a different football team and it’s going to be a different year,” Kubiak said Tuesday morning from the NFL annual meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. “My approach is going to be that we have to have the same standard in what we do and how we do it. The nucleus of our team—there are a lot of guys coming back that were very successful and played extremely well. We’ve got to show them, along with the guys we’re bringing in, that we’re going to continue to help them get better and give them a chance to go back out this year and put themselves in position again.”
The team lost several players in recent weeks to free agency or out-right release and they resigned C.J. Anderson and two new offensive tackles. All of the moves combined presented Kubiak with a flurry of questions on Tuesday morning but none more than the quarterback situation. The head coach admitted that he and Elway speak about that position slot daily.
“Right now we have Mark [Sanchez] and Trevor [Siemian], so we know that. Obviously, we’ve got work to do and we’re going to create competition,” Kubiak said. “John and I will continue to work on that and do it at our pace until we feel like we’ve got the right guy.”
Sanchez joined the team via trade with the Philadelphia Eagles March 11 and Kubiak praised his veteran ability and his postseason resume. Siemian is a second-year quarterback that was picked up late in last year’s draft, he will have to show a lot of progress to truly push for the starting job. Tuesday, The Broncos second-year coach made it no mystery that the Broncos are looking for at least one more quarterback to join the roster.
“Whoever we bring in, it’s about competition. We’re not going to give anybody a job,” he stated. “We’re not through. We’re going to create a very competitive situation for Mark and for Trevor. It’s going to be ‘May the best man win.’ I can tell you whoever lines up out there for us will be expected to play well and play well for a very good football team.”
Offensively, Kubiak also addressed the recent acquisition of Russell Okung and Donald Stephenson as well as the departures of Ryan Harris, Louis Vasquez and Evan Mathis. The new offensive line gives the Broncos a chance to once again create a competition in the upcoming team workouts.
“I would say right now we have a lot of versatility. That’s a good thing. Getting [Donald] Stephenson, getting [Russell] Okung—Ryan [Clady] is still ours,” he said confidently. “The good news is we went from being very thin to having some depth on that phase of our football team. It’s going to be very competitive and it probably wasn’t last year just by nature of injury and some of the things that happened. We felt like that was the No. 1 area where we needed to improve and John has given us a chance to do that.”
Ryan Clady remains the biggest question across the Broncos roster. His $10.1 million cap hit set for this season has the Broncos at nearly even on cap space after the approximately $6 million dollars needed to sign their upcoming draft picks is included. Okung’s signing made it clear that the renegotiating of Clady’s current contract was stalling. Kubiak stated Tuesday that, “he’s part of our team. Our plan is to put Ryan back to work. We’ve obviously gotten better up front with some of our additions. We’ll see.”
The Broncos also cut tight end Owen Daniels to create cap space to try and resign Brock Osweiler and others but now that Kubiak finds himself without his tight end of 10 years he hinted at a possible return at a different price tag.
“I don’t think you ever close the door on things down the road,” he said of Daniels. “We’ll see what happens. That’s something that John and I have talked about.”
He also stated that the team will be looking for last year’s tight end draft pick, Jeff Heuerman to be a big factor this season.
The needs on defense, much like offense are also clear. The losses of inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, defensive tackle Malik Jackson, backup safety David Bruton and the potential to lose free agent safety and returner Omar Bolden have the Broncos on the lookout for replacements. Kubiak, a longtime veteran of the NFL understands the departures but remains optimistic at their options.
“I think it’s obvious we’ve lost some very good players, but we’ve got a lot of good players on our football team, too, so we need to remember that and grow from there,” he said reassuringly. “I think you’re always going to have those types of things happen to your team.”
At inside linebacker that list is short. Todd Davis and Corey Nelson have played the most behind Trevathan and Brandon Marshall the past two seasons and Davis, in particular, has played well.
“Todd and Corey are going to have an excellent opportunity to start,” Kubiak said. “That’s the first thing. Big opportunity in their careers. I mean, we could actually flip-flop those guys and ‘B-Marsh’ could go to [former ILB] Danny’s [Trevathan] spot. That’s something that we talked about. We need to get better there. We need to improve our competition, which we’ll do through the draft or however we go about it. Obviously, those guys need to step up.”
Jackson’s departure was not news or a surprise to Kubiak, as he played out his rookie contract and was simply too expensive to keep. The head man does not expect to find another Jackson but will look at a combination of players to fill that void.
“You’ve got to move on. They’re hard to replace,” Kubiak said. “I don’t think to you try and replace them with ‘a guy’. You try to replace them with your group. How do we make the next group as good as we can possibly make it? It’s just something we work through and Malik did a great job for us.”
The other pressing issues commented on was trying to resign returner and wide receiver Jordon Norwood, whether running back Ronnie Hillman coming back was an option and the concerns of depth at safety. Each issue is still completely up in the air but Elway’s recent comments and Kubiak’s Tuesday point toward Hillman departing while Norwood is legitimately wanted back but at a low price and that the draft looks to be the best option for replacing Bruton and possible Bolden.
One thing is certain; the Broncos will have a mixture of new faces and leaders with championship rings in tow this season. Kubiak admitted that he thinks back to the Broncos’ Super Bowl teams of the late 90’s for guidance and often speaks with former head coach Mike Shanahan on how to handle the rigors of trying to repeat. One thing he made clear after the last question of his press conference — he has not forgotten his biggest role, leading the men on the roster, no matter the personnel turnover, each year. He certainly did well his in his first year as head coach of the Broncos but this season, with a younger group, may be a taller task, one he is not shying away from.
“I think my job is to get the most of every guy that they give you to work with,” he explained. “Nothing drives me more crazy than to see a young player that is very talented, should be a success in this league and help his family out and himself out, and get the most and he’s not getting it because maybe he doesn’t quite understand how to work or how to be a pro. I’m not trying to be hard from that standpoint, but I just feel like that’s my job. When I’ve got those types of kids and I see that in them, I’m going to let them know. Hopefully, we can get everything I can out of them. That’s any coach. I enjoy that part of it.”
