MVN - Most Valuable Network

Appeal Victorious for Henry; Pyrrhic for Broncos

News has spread quickly that Travis Henry has created a landmark precedent by successfully appealing his looming one-year suspension for violation of the substance abuse policy.  Obviously, he will continue to be available for the Broncos for the near future.

The success is tremendous for Henry—if the travails of Ricky Williams are any indication, Henry’s career would have been in serious jeopardy had he failed on appeal.  Unfortunately, having Henry remain does only a little to help the current travails of the Broncos, which I haven’t seen this gloomy in years.

One play against the Raiders was a division line in the progress of the game—a long Jay Cutler pass to Brandon Stokley in the third quarter.  Before that play, the play of the entire team was downright disgraceful.  There is no way to sugarcoat the performance in Oakland any further.  The team looked as disjointed and uneasy as they did when they were cascaded with boos at the midway of a San Diego slaughter earlier this year.

Turnovers are the bane of any offense, and the fumbles and interceptions did not help at all.  This is obvious, and Cutler, Henry, and company will admit to this.  However, the offense once again got absolutely no help from the other side of the coin.  Directly, poor field position was yielded on defense, and indirectly the offense was kept sidelined while the unheralded Justin Fargas ran roughshod on the run stopping unit once again.

We can excuse the secondary and especially Champ Bailey and Dre’ Bly from this criticism.  Aside from a touchdown yielded by Bly to Tim Dwight, their performances were satisfactory to me.  But as I continued to watch the horror unfold, I came to the conclusion that amongst the front seven, there is only one player that I could see as a legitimate starter at his current position—Elvis Dumervil.  DJ Williams could play at another linebacker position—but he is also entering a contract year in 2008.

Nate Webster was never supposed to be the strongside starter, so that can be forgiven.  But Ian Gold is losing the speed that help him compensate for lack of size.  Tim Crowder is still learning, and Jarvis Moss is on IR.  But the biggest disaster has been at defensive tackle, capped by the recent release of Sam Adams—another disappointing free agent acquisition in the end alongside Simeon Rice.

Having Henry available is nice—but unfortunately it’s at a position with depth, considering the presence of Selvin Young.  If only the same could be said about the positions listed above.

I can’t believe I am saying this about the Broncos before Week 17, but I can’t foresee any way to salvage the season, barring a major Chargers meltdown.  When the head coach loses to a team he has dominated like none other, it’s one sign of doom.  The front office had better be doing its homework right now to get the players that Jim Bates needs to prevent more embarrassment in 2008.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.