What is up with the Broncos?

I apologize for the absence from posting for the past week or so, but we just completed the printing of my father's latest book, The Ultimate Gamble (available here), and I have been swamped working on marketing the thing. It's a non-fiction philosophy book that examines whether or not god exists from both a scientific and religious perspective.

Anyway, the biggest news of the last few days has been the opening of free agency in the NFL and as usual, my hometown Denver Broncos have been extremely active. As expected, the Broncos took a sledge hammer to their defensive roster from last year cutting multiple starters including two players (Dre' Bly and Dewayne Robertson) that Mike Shanahan had traded for. When your team's defense ranks in the bottom 3-4 in the league in virtually every category, and was the main reason for your head coach's firing, then this certainly makes sense. We're also told the Broncos will be switching from a 4-3 defensive alignment to a 3-4, meaning a lot of new personnel would be needed anyway, regardless of how effective or ineffective the old players were.

So the Broncos made headlines late Friday -- the first day of free agency -- by being rumored to sign former Eagles' Pro Bowl safety Brian Dawkins. They also signed a pair of running backs (Correll Buckhalter and JJ Arrington) and a couple other defensive players. By late Saturday, the Dawkins signing was confirmed (along with the signing of another former Cleveland Brown, linebacker Andra Davis) but it was clearly overshadowed by the day's biggest story: the Kansas City Chiefs acquiring Matt Cassel from the New England Patriots. Next thing I know, a headline on ESPN.com reads "Cutler Upset" and I'm wondering what in the world could this be? That's when the Broncos' offseason moves turned confusing.

Evidently, according to multiple sources, the Broncos had been shopping quarterback Jay Cutler (just in his third year and coming off a Pro Bowl) and looking to trade for Cassel themselves. As we found out, the Chiefs, whose new GM is Scott Pioli, formerly of the Patriots, gave up just a second-round pick (#34 overall) for Cassel. But rumors were that the Broncos had almost come to an agreement with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that would have sent Cutler to the Bucs for Tampa's first and third round draft picks, and then sent a first round pick to the Pats for Cassel. Certainly there must be more information yet to come to the surface, because right now this situation is rather mind-boggling. Here's why:

• If you're the Patriots and you have a chance to get a first round pick in the 12-19 range for your backup QB, why would you instead give up the QB and a veteran linebacker (Mike Vrabel also went to KC in the deal) for just a second rounder? Is there another conditional pick involved that hasn't been announced yet? Is this a buddy-buddy deal between Pats coach Bill Belichick and Pioli? Does Belichick secretly hate or resent new Broncos coach Josh McDaniels, a former Pats assistant, the same way he apparently hates Eric Mangini?
• If you're the Broncos, why in the world would you want a QB who has started just 15 games in his career since high school and had good, not great, numbers in those starts over a younger player that was a high draft pick, still has 3 years left on his deal, and is coming off of a Pro Bowl season? Add to that the fact that you're likely going to have to re-sign Cassel to a long-term deal for big money, and it really makes no sense. And if you're the Broncos, you'd better be sure you can complete the deal if you start talks because you already know that Cutler can very very temperamental (he stated publicly that he was angry over the Shanahan firing, for example).

As if that wasn't enough for the Broncos to worry about, now word is Brandon Marshall, the Broncos star wide receiver, has gotten himself in legal trouble yet again. Evidently over the weekend he was involved in a bar brawl and was arrested. This from a player that had to serve a 1-game suspension from the league last year because of his off-field antics, now he has the NFL investigating him again. If they find he was in the wrong, he could see another suspension of anywhere from 4 to 8 games this time, and the Broncos may just start to wonder if he's worth the trouble (can anyone say Pacman Jones?).

Let's hope this isn't indicative of how the new Broncos front office and coaching staff are going to run things in the future (can you say New England West?). Definitely an exciting weekend for the Broncos and their fans, but certainly not for all of the reasons most would like. Looks like McDaniels is going to have his work cut out for him with this team, and he's not entirely blameless in the situation.

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