QB

Kyle Orton

 (+) Orton is said to be indestructible; wears a wrap of barbed wire around his neck and drinks Jack Daniels like it was Gatorade
 (+) He has upped his fantasy points each year he has been a starter
 (+) Playing with two teams that were both mediocre at best, Orton has come away with an impressive 29-19 record as a starter.  Brady Quinn’s is just  3-9
 (–) The Broncos lost their best receiver in Brandon Marshall and replaced him with either Jar Jar Binks-Gaffney or rookie Demaryius Thomas
 (–) Kyle throws one of the worst long balls in the league
 (–) Of the most yards, TDs, and fantasy points he’s put up in his career, none would have placed him in the top-10 of last year’s rankings alone

Tim Tebow

RB

Knowshon Moreno

(+) Knowshon will be the unquestioned starter to begin the season
(+) With Brandon Marshall gone, the Broncos will likely have to run the ball more
(+) The Broncos have one of the easiest schedules against the run (5th in the league)
(+) Looks to have a nose for the endzone
(–) Lacks the speed to get those stat-padding long runs
(–) Seemed to wear down towards the end of the year
(–) Defenses will bunch the box and force Kyle Orton and his weak receiving corps to beat them

Correll Buckhalter

 (+) In 2009, Buckhalter gained the most yards (642), had the most receptions (31), and had the highest YPC (5.4) in his career
 (+) The Broncos have the 5th easiest rush schedule in the league
 (+) Correll has low mileage on his legs due to all the injuries he’s sustained throughout his career
 (–) Knowshon Moreno has the ability to be an every-down back, which will likely scale back Buckhalter’s touches this year
 (–) The guy is one of the NFL’s more injury-prone players of the past decade and will turn 32-years old in October
 (–) Saw less touches towards the end of last year with the Broncos wanting to solidify Moreno’s starting status – This trend should continue into 2010

WR

Demaryius Thomas

(+) Demaryius will be competing for targets with Royal, Gaffney, Stokley, Brandon Lloyd, (R)Decker, and Daniel Graham; the 1st-round talent should have a nice opportunity
(+) A nice pass schedule should help the rookie along, as Denver has the 11th easiest SOS against the pass
(–) In large, Rookie WRs do not reach Fantasy Relevance; 6 of 46 1st-rounders the last decade reached 800 yards, and Thomas’ situation isn’t exactly bubbling with optimism
(–) Thomas missed out on all spring activities due to a foot injury, which should at the very least provide more challenges for him in getting acclimated to the NFL system
(–) Kyle Orton is serviceable, but not special by any means, and with Brandon Marshall gone, he’ll be exposed for what he is… very average at best
(–) A lack of established playmakers in this offense could severely limit chances for targets and Red Zone chances

Jabar Gaffney

(+) Should see a fair chunk of targets this year with the departure of Brandon Marshall
(+) Rookie WRs (Demaryius Thomas) have trouble producing historically, so Gaffney will very likely have a starting role throughout the season
(+) Gaffney is a NE Patriots defector, so having played in a Josh Daniels offense before, he likely has the best grasp of the offense out of the Denver WRs
(–) He doesn’t bring a particularly special skill to the table – has just average speed, hands, and route-running abilities
(–) The Denver offense will be challenged to move the ball well with Orton at QB and the departure of Brandon Marshall.  Moreno will be the one leaned on this year

Eddie Royal

 (+) Broncos coach Josh McDaniels could go back to using Royal the way he was used in 2008 when he caught 91 passes (caught only 37 passes last year)
 (+) With Brandon Marshall gone, Eddie could see his targets rise this year
 (+) Royal still has the best hands on the team
 (–) The kid has just 5 career receiving TDs (5 in 2008, 0 in 2009) and is a non-factor in the red-zone
 (–) Owns a career 10.4 YPC, which isn’t even as good as 98% of tight ends in the league
 (–) With Kyle Orton as his QB, you can pretty much forget about the deep ball

Brandon Stokely

TE

Daniel Graham

-  The Broncos started the 2009 season with a new head coach in Josh McDaniels after the long tenure of Mike Shanahan ended.
-  The rebuilding process began along with the season but was quickly turned into a hunt for the playoffs when the team started the season 6-0
-  The Broncos then lost the next four games but were still in the hunt, after this period the team went 2-4 and finished 8-8 on the season, missing the postseason.
-  The Broncos scored 326 points while allowing 324 points against
-  In wins the defense allowed 10.7 points per game, in losses the team allowed 29.9 points per game

2009 Total Points Rank:           7th (122 tot pts)
2009 Average/Game Rank:     9th (7.6 pts/gm)

FR=Fumbles Recoverd, PA=Points Allowed, FP Rank=Fantasy Points Rank, FP/G=Fantasy Points per Game

2010 Broncos Defensive Outlook... 

Yeah, Darrelle Revis is holding out and Albert Haynesworth is acting like a bitch in the Pre, but the biggest tragedy this Pre Season will be the loss of Elvis Dumervill to the Broncos.  With 17 sacks last season, he managed to bring the rocky mountain high to 10^th in the league with 39 total.  Exit Dumervil… exit any chance the Broncos will be in that neighborhood this year.

They have a nice secondary with Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins but, In short, the loss of Dumervil is doomersville for the Horse’s Fantasy D this season.  They’re in trouble. 

Leave ‘em on the waiver wire.

-  D.J. Williams led the team with 122 tackles, Brian Dawkins had 116
-  The Broncos had 39 sacks last season
-  Leading sacker was Elvis Dumervil with 17.0 (also led the NFL)
-  How can the Broncos be more consistent on a game by game basis on defense
-  Andre’ Goodman led the team with 5 INTs
-  Team forced 20 fumbles
-  Team forced a total of 37 turnovers

Team PYRO is hyper about Offensive Lines!  Understanding who will be blocking for the players on your roster is vital to your teams Fantasy success.  We take many factors into account when we rank these units, including weight, height, starts together as a unit, starts per year played, rushing average, sacks allowed, draft position, contact situation, pro bowl/all pro honors, Adjusted Line Yardage (ALY) and Adjusted Sack Rate (stats found at the link below).  O-Line Rank is one more piece of the puzzle that directs us towards delivering you a Fantasy Football Championship. 

Here is another great resource for looking at O-Lines…    http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number you see is Red Zone Touches (a pass attempt, a carry, or a target inside the 20 yard line).  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

% of Teams RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number is the players percentage of touches cut out against the total number of the Teams Red Zone plays called.  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.  So, if Thomas Jones received a touch in 45 percent of the Jets Red Zone calls last year, and Knowshon Moreno received a touch in 38 percent of all the Broncos plays last year, Jones would be ranked higher at his position than Moreno would be.

RZ TD Success Rate (Position Rank) = The first number is the percentage of which an individual player was able to score a TD against his total number of touches.   The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

Why Should I look at this Chart?

We couldn’t possibly take up a whole minute of your valuable fantasy football research time babbling about the importance of Attempts for your team and then leave out Red Zone Tendencies.

Yep, same drill with these charts, only a lot more important if scoring TD’s is what you’re leagues about.  The PYRO Red Zone Tendencies chart delivers a touchdown focused microcosm of the Offensive Scheme section.

To score a TD, your player needs a touch (pass att, carry, or target), and when they get a touch inside the 20, great things can happen for your Fantasy teams total points line.

It’s really easy, touches are King and converting a touch in the red is Fantasy Gold.

PYRO 2010 Bronco Leaders in the Red Zone... 

1. Knowshon Moreno
2. Correll Buckhalter
3. Jabar Gaffney
4. Daniel Graham
5. A floating diaper, alright fine, Eddie Royal, but good luck with that

Grade* = Team PYRO took this number directly from NFL.COM - not a number devised here by us, you know, your friends who don’t sleep?  In other words, proceed with caution knowing the source, but we thought it was at least a worthy effort and could help you gauge just how solid the teams draft was.  We hope it helps, we think it will.

Draft Bits...

WR Demaryius Thomas is dealing with a foot injury and missing a lot of practice in the Pre.  We are severely tempering expectations for him and the whole Denver Offense as a whole.

 
QB Tim Tebow just might get a chance to play this season.  We’ve had a lot of debate about this kid this off season.  They paid to get him and the heralded Kyle Orton sans a receiving corps is all that stands in his way.  Still, he won’t be able to provide you with much production running this offense.  But if you’re in a league where every QB gets points, Tebow could be a nice late draft pick.

Team PYRO considers our Strength of Schedule data an essential part of building you a Fantasy Championship.  This data is integral in helping us rank our players each year.  So far, so good.  We go to GREAT lengths to deliver you this PYRO nugget and we know nobody else in the industry is putting forth this type of effort, which puts you at a great advantage if you have been using us as your fantasy football research outlet.  Our SoS considers three factors when determining rankings for schedules for the upcoming year:

1) 75% weight is applied to the strength of defense from the previous season.  This is determine by fantasy points given up (run and pass).  Easy right? Here's where Team Pyro goes deep: before we get to that number, we factor in the quality of teams that these defenses had to face (essentially, a strength-of-schedule for the prior season).

 
2) 20% weight is applied to Free-Agent, Trade, and Injury Returns that will help or hurt the team for the current year.  We rank each players impact to their former team (2008), sum it all up, and then rank each team accordingly.

3) 5% weight is applied to the NFL drafincoming rookie impact.  It's a challenge to successfully gauge a rookie's effectiveness (too many Jamarcus Russells out there) which is why we valued it so low.  Some teams not only drafted highly touted defensemen this year, but will be immediately filling deficient positions from '09 with rookies, and usually, anything is an upgrade when you are starting a rookie.

Chart Key =

Ranking:  1=easiest  32=toughest

QB's, WR's, and TE's

(INDY) Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark have the EASIEST passing schedule in 2010

(BALT) Joe Flacco, Anquan Boldin, and Todd Heap have the HARDEST passing schedule in 2010

RB's

(SF) Frank Gore has the EASIEST rushing schedule in 2010

(MIA) Ronnie Brown has the HARDEST rushing schedule in 2010

July 7, 2010

Claimed OL Kirk Barton off waivers from the Detroit Lions.

June 17, 2010

Signed OL J.D. Walton. Released DL Jaron Baston. Designated FB Kyle Eckel waived/injured.

June 14, 2010

Signed LB Elvis Dumervil to a one-year tender.

June 9, 2010

Signed CB Perrish Cox.

June 4, 2010

Released QB Tom Brandstater. Signed G Chris Kuper to a six-year contract.

May 26, 2010

Signed LB Jammie Kirlew.

May 22, 2010

Signed CB Syd'Quan Thompson.

May 19, 2010

Announced the retirement of G Matt McChesney.

May 6, 2010

Signed OL Maurice Williams. Released S Marcellus Bowman and G Michael Shumard.

April 27, 2010

Signed LB Akin Ayodele.

April 14, 2010

Traded WR Brandon Marshall to Miami and 2010 and 2011 second-round draft picks.

April 13, 2010

Signed WR Brandon Marshall.

March 31, 2010

Announced the retirement of PK Jason Elam after he signed a one-day contract.

March 14, 2010

Acquired QB Brady Quinn from Cleveland for FB Peyton Hillis, a 2011 sixth-round draft pick and a conditional pick in 2012.

March 11, 2010

Re-signed DL Le Kevin Smith. Released LB Andra Davis and DL J'Vonne Parker.

March 10, 2010

Waived G Mitch Erickson. Released DL Kenny Peterson.

March 9, 2010

Signed DL Jarvis Green.

March 5, 2010

Agreed to terms with RB J.J. Arrington, DL Justin Bannan, CB Nathan Jones, OL Russ Hochstein and WR Brandon Lloyd.

February 3, 2010

Signed T D'Anthony Batiste to a future contract.

January 27, 2010

Reassigned vice president of public relations Jim Saccomano to vice president of corporate communications. Named Patrick Smyth executive director of media relations.

January 23, 2010

Named Eric Studesville running backs coach, Bob Ligashesky tight ends coach and Bob Wylie assistant offensive line coach. Promoted Ben McDaniels to quarterbacks coach and moved Clancy Barone to offensive line coach.

January 18, 2010

Announced defensive coordinator Mike Nolan is no longer with the team.