Bucking Broncos; Can Denver keep their offense steady without Cutler?

A starting off season blunder occurred when new Denver Broncos coach Josh Mcdaniels started doing some moving and shaking with his new roster, supposedly thinking up this fancy scheme that involved sending Jay Cutler to the Buccaneers and getting Patriots backup QB Matt Cassel to come to the Broncos (I suppose McDaniels was lonely, and needed a friend).

Any player would agree that (supposedly) being used as trade bait without your knowledge, would be upsetting to say the least. Cutler, seemingly more sensitive then the normal professional football player and grown man, stayed angry at the coaching staff even after they tried to come and warm back up to him.

Regardless of if Cutler's behavior or McDaniels persona pushed the hands of fate, as we all know Cutler got his "revenge" and was promptly traded to the Bears for QB Kyle Orton and accompanying draft picks. But where does this leave the Broncos offensively?

In 2008, the Broncos offense was 3rd in the league through the air and 2nd in the league in total offense. Jay Cutler was 3rd in total passing yards and yds per game, and 2nd in throws for 20+ yardage.

On the Bears side, they were 21st in passing, 26th in total offense with Orton was 19th in yards, and 21st in yards per game. Although, Orton did not have the set of receivers that Cutler had, having Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal both in the top 10 for receiving. The most player who caught the most balls on the Bears was not even a WR, it was their RB Matt Forte. The toss up is how much of positive/negative stats you can devote to being the fault of one end of the offense or another.

There's no doubt in my mind that the improved talent of Orton's new wide receiver corp should give him some better numbers and more confidence in the passing game. But as far as if will be as successful as it was with Cutler at the helm, I suppose we'd have to wait and see. In my mind it will not, Cutler was just the better (more sensitive) quarterback.

Orton sure is not making progress easy with his rough preseason debut, where he threw 3 interceptions and zero touchdowns, while his counterpart Chris Simms followed behind with 2 touchdowns and zero interceptions.

It is a preseason game, and it is Orton's debut with a new team, learning a new offense and new teammates is not a change that happens overnight by any means, but if asked to make a quick prediction, id say two thirds of the way through the season, Denver fans will be yearning for their old QB.

The ComeBack Kid; Why Old Man Favre Could Be Good News For The Vikings

Once again, as the entire football world has heard by now, good old Brett Favre has come out of retirement (how many times now?), and finally made it to the team he desired to play before he was traded to the Jets.

Some of the football community is tired of his charades over his "to retire or not to retire"drama sessions, and some enjoy that the legend is still around playing the game, though the general consensus seems to be certain he will finish the self destruction he started last year.

Vikings fans could have a good reason to be happy about famous number four signing with their purple people eaters, because like it or not he could be the very push that helps them get through the playoffs.

The Minnesota Vikings are a solid football team but just a slight step down from Super Bowl contender. In 2008,they went 10-6 and lost in the playoffs to the Eagles, after having trouble converting 3rd downs in the second half, and having a QB capable of throwing only roughly half the yards Mcnabb threw for.

Last year the Vikings ranked 1st in rushing yards a game allowed with 76.9 yds, and 6th in total yards allowed a game also with 292.4 yds. These stats were very much indicative of a very well disciplined defensive unit.

On the other side of the ball, they had league's best running back in Adrian Peterson (1760 yds), and the 5th best run game (146.1)

The problem resided in their passing game, ranked a measly 25th overall, with their Quarter Back Gus Frerotte ranking 22nd in the league accompanied by his sub par 73.7 QB rating (5th from the worst) that year.

Even with this horrendous passing game to keep the offense creative, the Vikes still managed to rush an avg of 4.5 yds a play, 146.1 yds a game, even when the defensive knew pretty much what to expect.

Now bring in old man Favre, the fallen war hero with a passion for football and himself. He was traded to the Jets last year, led them to playoff possibilities and promptly self destructed. His QB rating was a mediocre 81 he was 11th in yards, 22nd in avg yds per pass, and had the league high in interceptions, and hearing this sounds like no good way to promote Favre into the Vikings savior, and maybe he's not. But Gus Frerotte threw the ball significantly less then Favre did with the Jets, and Favre had the 5th highest completion percentage compared to Frerotte's 24th ranked.

The biggest part of the puzzle regardless of the stats is that Favre does not have to carry the team, the amazing ground game has carried itself when the passing game had no help to give. Favre has the ability to make good throws and be a great QB, we've seen that. And we've also seen him throw to the other team just as often these days.

If Favre can come in, make himself seem like he has a lot of potential to improve the passing game, and seems a viable threat (that Frerotte and Jackson are not), then defenses will have to start actually accounting for the idea that maybe just maybe the vikings will show some promise through the air, instead of on the ground where they normally stay (and stay well).

Remember how well All Day Adrian Peterson runs the ball even when the defenses know he's coming, then imagine what he could do if the defenses had to account for the passing game as well, backing off from the line for fear that the guy getting the ball hiked to him in the purple uniform actually is a threat, then ladies and gentlemen the vikings just might be unstoppable...Providing that Favre can still identify his receivers from the defenders.