It was more than just Darian Stewart. They got Danny Trevathan back from injury which was huge and Derek Wolfe returned to form after a down 2014 due to injuries sustained in 2013. They had Bradley Roby take the next step in his sophomore season and Malik Jackson take a huge step. I won't say none of that was due to coaching, but a lot of Denver's issues from 2014 revolved around guys not being healthy. Also they were still a top 5 D in 2014.
Reggie only missed one game but was probably playing on one leg for several others.
Valid points GD. And something else that we have to consider with Del Rio to Phillips was the change from a 4-3 to 3-4. IMO, the Broncos front 7 was built for the 3-4, with prototypical OLB's like Ware and Miller and prototypical DE's like Wolfe and Jackson. I think you can say something similar about our defense, that we might be better built for the 4-3. Peppers, Neal and Perry are probably better suited as 4-3 DEs, with Daniels as a 3 technique. The only guy on our defense who is a true 3-4 player is CMIII........and we played him out of position all year. Still, as a guy who watched almost every Broncos game the last 3 years, this defense played with a certain aggression under Phillips that was missing under Del Rio. It got them into trouble plenty this year but it worked.
Peppers played 4-3 DE for most of his career and some who have worked with him believe he would've had a bigger impact at 3-4 OLB. Considering what he's done the last two years, at his age and new to the 3-4, can you imagine what he could've done in his 20's?
DH13 posted:Peppers played 4-3 DE for most of his career and some who have worked with him believe he would've had a bigger impact at 3-4 OLB. Considering what he's done the last two years, at his age and new to the 3-4, can you imagine what he could've done in his 20's?
Peppers WAS a superstar in his 20s. 3-4, 4-3, 4-6, whatever defensive alignment you want to name, he'd have been a superstar. He's one of the best athletes to ever play in the NFL. If he'd have played TE, he'd have been a superstar as well. I remember him playing basketball at North Carolina for a Final 4 team. He would have been a first round pick in the NBA if he'd have focused on that.
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MichiganPacker posted:If he'd have played TE, he'd have been a superstar as well.
That gives me an idea...
MichiganPacker posted:. I remember him playing basketball at North Carolina for a Final 4 team. He would have been a first round pick in the NBA if he'd have focused on that.
While Peppers is a great athlete, he was never going to play in the NBA, let alone be a First Round pick. He averaged 5 and 7 pts. in his two years at UNC.
I still think Peppers is a more natural 4-3 DE. He's listed as 6'6" 285 lbs. - not many 3-4 OLB's that size b/c the position requires more coverage skills and tackling in space. Size isn't conducive to those two skills. Now he was able to do it in Green Bay b/c he's a freak athlete but a guy that size needs to use his length and strength in the trenches, not out in space covering RB's that are 8 inches shorter and 80 lbs lighter. He'd have to drop at least 20 lbs to reach his peak as a 3-4 OLB.
YOU WANNA KNOW .... what kind of guy Peyton Manning is? 23-year-old Bronco's practice-squad receiver Jordan Taylor (who still has yet to catch a single pass in the NFL), didn't own a suit to wear on the team bus to the Super Bowl, so he asked Peyton if he had an old suit or sports jacket he could borrow.
While Manning was rehabbing from a foot injury during the regular season, he turned to Taylor to be his warm-up partner, texting him for morning workouts and having Taylor run endless routes for him, so he could get back in shape. Peyton knew one of his suits wouldn't fit Taylor (Peyton's 20lbs heavier). So, the day after Jordan asked, Peyton's tailor showed up in the locker room to take Jordan's measurements for a custom-made suit. Here's Jordan in his first ever suit that didn't come from off the rack.
nice field they have there at Levi's. watch Oher and #70 in the clip below - good gawd:
FLPACKER posted:MichiganPacker posted:. I remember him playing basketball at North Carolina for a Final 4 team. He would have been a first round pick in the NBA if he'd have focused on that.
While Peppers is a great athlete, he was never going to play in the NBA, let alone be a First Round pick. He averaged 5 and 7 pts. in his two years at UNC.
He obviously didn't practice with the basketball team until football was over every year and didn't do any of the summer basketball work. There have been several articles on how Peppers was a legit NBA prospect. Krzyweski recruited hard to play basketball exclusively at Duke. His last game in the NCAA tournament as a sophomore he went 21 points/10 rebounds. He was not some lumbering football player who just banged in the post. He wouldn't have been an NBA superstar, but I think he'd have been a 15 minute a game guy that could have had a long career.
I also love the fact that he was a triple jumper and high jumper in high school. A 46 foot triple jumper and a 6'7" high jumper. This was a guy that was about 250 pounds at that time.
http://espn.go.com/blog/green-...acker-julius-peppers
http://www.jockbio.com/Bios/Peppers/Peppers_bio.html
In 1998, Southern Nash won the state championship in track for the first time in the school's history. Peppers contributed as a sprinter, winning the state championship in the 4×400 meter team relay (3:23.10 minutes) and finishing second as a triple jumper (14.05 meters). He was also rumored to have cleared 2.03 meters in the high jump.[3] During his senior year (1997–98), he was named to the Parade magazine high school All-America team in football as an all-purpose talent and was also named Male Athlete of the Year by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. In 2005, Peppers was named by the Rocky Mount Telegram newspaper as one of the 50 Greatest Athletes from the Twin County (Nash and Edgecombe) area.
Tdog posted:nice field they have there at Levi's. watch Oher and #70 in the clip below - good gawd:
Holy crap, might as well be on roller skates. Pathetic.
And Goodell was disappointed with the Prob Owl?
Sure he has the size to play DE but he had the rare athletic ability to play OLB. He was somewhat wasted at DE having to bang with 320lb lineman. I'm pretty sure in his 20's he could drop and cover and RUN with almost any RB in the flat or middle. Plus the fact he would completely clog passing lanes with his wingspan. He would have been a bigger faster CM3 without the golden locks.
ChilliJon posted:
This Cam is never far away.
Very prophetic, Chilijon. Good call.
One of the Denver reporters said that in pre-game SB warmups, Newton chose to warm-up on the Broncos end of the field (10 yards) from the goal-line and moved into the Bronco endzone where he did more warm-ups which annoyed the Broncos. Apparently that was just one more thing the Broncos used for motivation ...as we clearly saw...thank God.
Thunderbird posted:ChilliJon posted:
This Cam is never far away.
Very prophetic, Chilijon. Good call.
But hey...my towel (scarf) is neatly tucked in and I look good. Just like when the Falcons beat the Panthers for their only loss this past season. As the seconds ticked away. "Cam I Am" made sure to drape his scarf on his head and then carefully tucked it under his jersey as he walked off the field.
Texans beat the Panthers? Pretty sure it was the Germans who bombed Pearl Harbor.
Nothing washes a Panthers spots off. Even cold November rain.
Ummm...
Her claims were never substantiated and there were a lot of inconsistencies with her story. His side of the story was never proven either though, most likely the truth lies somewhere in between. My guess is that he probably did something inappropriate with her, but it wasn't a sexual assault. She reported it early on and UT came to Peyton's defense and in turn her story morphed in to the story from the lawsuit. That's the story I've gotten from people here in Knoxville at least. I find it hard to believe even the Mannings could get everyone on board with covering up Peyton shoving his asshole in to her face. That's pretty extreme even by today's low standards.
Yeah who knows. Just gives more evidence that none of these guys are probably as nice/good/clean as we would like to think. But it was a pretty shocking story to have his name involved with.
Well seeing as the University of Tennessee is currently being sued in federal court for major Title IX violations, this would not be surprising. There is a huge underbelly to major college sports that the public purposely turns a blind eye.
And who knows what really happened in that room but very damning that the Mannings destroyed her in their book, with no evidence to support it and a litany of evidence contradicting it. Reminds me of Lance Armstrong's, "the best defense is a good offense" where he would activity ruin lives to continue his lie.
Being in Denver this year and hearing all of the stories, you could tell that Manning is as calculated an athlete as we've ever seen. Stories of him calling his own press conferences (no Broncos involvement) with only specific, hand picked reporters to ensure no real questions were asked - I have a friend who does PR for a team in the league and this doesn't happen. Choreographed jokes were the norm. Media members would purposely suck up to him bc they wanted to be in Manning's "inner PR circle" and get invited to those private press conferences. Most fans and media here started to really see how ungenuine he was when he was backing up Osweiler. Throw in the first handshake after winning the Super Bowl being Papa John and dropping that awful Budweiser comment and it all falls into place: Peyton Manning is a corporation, not a person.
I'm sure if had just slapped a pair of sunglasses on his dick before plopping it on her head, maybe even used an Elmo voice ("peyton likey footrubs"), she would have gotten the joke.
I'm sure there's nothing to the Manning and Tennessee story at all. Nor with the PEDs.
Kirby Puckett shattered a lot of perceptions about him as well plus the countless number of other high profile athletes.
Color me not surprised
Considering UT already made a $300K settlement regarding Peyton's "indiscretions", does this really surprise anyone?
Can you imagine what the reaction would be if people would report this week that Cam Newton did the same thing at Auburn? There'd be calls to suspend him for the start of next season.
20 year olds (like Manning was in 1996) do a lot of stupid things. This was certainly a borderline criminal activity. The proper thing to have happened was for Phil Fulmer to take care of the situation back then. A 1 or 2 game suspension with a full apology to the trainer, but that might have cost them a game and some votes in the National Championship race.
Instead, Manning ruined her professional career and cost a teammate his scholarship. As bad as the initial incident was, the coverup was worse.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new...es-article-1.2530395
What should people's responses be that believe that Manning did this? Write Papa John's and Nationwide and tell them you won't use their businesses unless they remove Manning as a spokesman.