PFC #11 Denver Broncos

QB: John Elway, Craig Morton, Jake Plummer
RB: Floyd Little, Terrell Davis, Sammy Winder
WR/TE: Rod Smith, Lionel Taylor, Shannon Sharpe
OL: Gary Zimmerman
DF: Tom Jackson, Karl Mecklenburg, Champ Bailey, Steve Atwater
ST: Jason Elam
CO: Mike Shanahan, Marty Schottenheimer
Extra: Ed McCaffrey, Clinton Portis, Riley Odoms, Willie Brown, Tom Nalen

Well, I had pretty high expectations for this Broncos team given that around the time I started watching football, this was one of the premier franchises in the NFL. Also John Elway is my favorite non-Eagles QB of all-time. However, it seems that this team was more a collection of good players that maximized their talents and not a group of great players. I mean Willie Brown, John Elway, and Gary Zimmerman are HOFers, but the rest of the group is lacking. Besides Elway, their QB core is a group of perennial backups that had a few good years with the Broncos. Terrell Davis’ career unfortunately was cut short and leaves us with a lot of questions. For two years he was the best back in the league and was on his way to being an all-time great. However, a devastating knee injury ended his rise to greatness and left him with a poor man’s version of Gale Sayer’s career. Floyd Little is a great back and is very underrated in the NFL history and Sammy Winder is even more underrated, but these guys fall short to the upper echelon of running backs in this tournament. The receivers are very good, but not great. I mean Shannon Sharpe is one of the best tight ends ever and Rod Smith is a fringe HOFer who has a chance of making it in, but Lionel Taylor is just a very good player. The Defense is pretty good, but the orange crush doesn’t seem like they will be good enough to stop these other all-time offenses. Steve Atwater is one of the best safeties I have ever watched and Champ Bailey is a pure shut down corner. I am not to wild about Tom Jackson and Karl Mecklenburg, but they are solid all-time defensive players. The O-line made Denver during the Shanahan years and Gary Zimmerman was the best. I mean the Denver O-line made guys like Olandis Gary and Mike Anderson look like great running backs. Denver also has a great kicker in Jason Elam, which should come in handy in these close games against the all-time great teams. The coaching in Denver also falls into the very good, but not great category. Mike Shanahan has two Super Bowl wins and did go to the AFC title game with Jake Plummer as his QB, but his career has suffered since losing Elway. Marty is also a good coach, but could never perform on the big stage and no stage is bigger than this tournament. It will be interesting to see how this team will matchup in the first round against their AFC foes the Cleveland Browns. Historically they have owned the Browns, but we’ll see if that matters in our tournament.