Interesting article on the Broncos without Clady

[Morpheus]

Peyton Manning won't be slowed a bit by Ryan Clady's absence - NFL - Sporting News

Ryan Clady is an elite left tackle, and it's a bummer the Denver Broncos have lost him for the season with a left foot injury, especially after they gave him $33 million guaranteed in July.

But to think such a change on the blindside will somehow suddenly derail Peyton Manning is shortsighted.


Ryan Clady is done for the year, sustaining a Lisfranc injury to his left foot. But don't expect it to slow Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

Throughout Manning’s Hall of Fame career, there's no doubt the athletic Clady is the best left tackle Manning has ever had. His greatness as a quarterback, however, is making every offensive lineman with whom he has ever played look good.

Although Manning, for much of his career with the Colts, had a good left tackle in Tarik Glenn, it was Manning's innate ability to get the ball out quickly and sidestep the pass rush that was most responsible for him not getting hit or sacked.

Passers at his all-time level do just that. See Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, who has had no problems lighting up opponents with a revolving door of tackles on both sides. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Eli Manning have this trait, too. No wonder all of them are Super Bowl MVPs.

With his wealth of receiving options, Manning is set up better than ever in Denver to find someone open in a blink. Even if Clady in the lineup, it's not like Manning needed every possible nanosecond of protection to wait for something to develop downfield.

Manning is brilliant at quickly making the right decisions. The downfield shots will still be there off play-action, and he puts his four main targets—Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker, Eric Decker and Julius Thomas—in position to make big plays after the catch.

Remember when there was real concern when the Broncos lost another key quarterback friend, center Dan Koppen in the preseason? Probably not, because his replacement, Manny Ramirez, hasn't been talked about one bit as a liability in front of Manning.

Neither will Clady's replacement, Chris Clark. He'll follow in the tradition of Tony Ugoh and Charlie Johnson. Those guys struggled to succeed Glenn, and it didn't matter: It was Manning as usual.

 

[FFSparky]

Good reading Morph!

I stand by yours and my comments of "Next Man Up" !


Go Broncos!

 

[cdumler7]

For me it really is just a matter of switching which side of protection to help on. With Clady the Broncos were able to help Franklin who in all honesty is actually a very good blocking OT in his own right. The Ravens game especially we saw blocking coverage rolled his way and left Clady one on one with Suggs. Which he won that battle most of the game but I will say Suggs actually did pretty decent getting pressure from that side.

Honestly I don't think this limits us even in running out of our 3-Wide set as it will just mean having the RB over on that side to help out or using the TE to help chip the rusher. It might take a game or two to adjust but looking at who we play that shouldn't be a big issue.

Also it sounds like we are thankfully getting healthy at other positions like having our best Blocking TE in Dreessen coming back this week and now for our Secondary having Champ back (good thing to see him back when we are playing the #1 rushing team and he is one of the top 3 tackling Corners in the league).

Obviously any time you lose an All-Pro player it hurts but look at the LT's that many of the elite players have played with in the past. Manning has played with mediocre LT's most of his career, Rodgers is playing with somebody nobody has ever heard of and still putting up legendary numbers. Again I am not saying the Clady injury doesn't hurt but having a quarterback and the middle of the field weapons the Broncos have I think they should be fine. The Run Game in all honesty could be what is hurt more than the pass game.

 

[xBxtxDx]

The one thing that does bug me about this article and has consistently bugged me is people declaring Dan Koppen was the starting center when he was in camp. Fox came out and said Manny was the starter and Koppen was Manny's backup. Koppen was running with the 2's and 3's. It will be interesting to see if Walton wins the job back when he becomes healthy.

 

[cdumler7]

The one thing that does bug me about this article and has consistently bugged me is people declaring Dan Koppen was the starting center when he was in camp. Fox came out and said Manny was the starter and Koppen was Manny's backup. Koppen was running with the 2's and 3's. It will be interesting to see if Walton wins the job back when he becomes healthy.

I don't think I have seen one article written by an analyst that states that Manny has always been the starter. It doesn't matter how many times Manny practiced with the ones ahead of Koppen or how many times Fox said it they never seemed to grasp the idea that Koppen from day one of walking into the building was brought in as insurance in case Manny got hurt or didn't work out not the other way around.

 

[Morpheus]

The one thing that does bug me about this article and has consistently bugged me is people declaring Dan Koppen was the starting center when he was in camp. Fox came out and said Manny was the starter and Koppen was Manny's backup. Koppen was running with the 2's and 3's. It will be interesting to see if Walton wins the job back when he becomes healthy.

Fox can say what he wants and we all know the depth chart is meaningless in camp.

But I found it interesting that the minute they knew JD Walton was not going to be available they resigned Koppen to a 1 year deal.

 

[Morpheus]

Let's put it this way.

NOBODY predicted Manny Ramirez would play as well as he had at Center after the performance he had last year when Kuper went out.

 

[Broncos6482]

Let's put it this way.

NOBODY predicted Manny Ramirez would play as well as he had at Center after the performance he had last year when Kuper went out.

Good point. Manny has been great this season. Much better than last.

While we're on the subject of the offensive line, did anyone else notice how much Zane Beadles struggled against the Giants? He did not look good at all. Hopefully that was just a bad game and not a sign of things to come.

 

[Morpheus]

Good point. Manny has been great this season. Much better than last.

While we're on the subject of the offensive line, did anyone else notice how much Zane Beadles struggled against the Giants? He did not look good at all. Hopefully that was just a bad game and not a sign of things to come.

Giants have a pretty good front 4 and He did pretty well all things considered, I thought.

O-line gave up ZERO sacks (although he narrowly escaped a couple, LOL) and we rushed for over 100.

Manning was hurried a few times, that was about it.

 

[cdumler7]

Yeah I would say Beadles and Clady have struggled the most of all our starters. Kind of crazy considering they are the two pro bowl players on the line. Now some of that is they had both been left on an island most of the time. Beadles hasn't looked as good as he had last year but we have played two teams that are very good up the middle so far so hopefully he can pull it together. To me the two guys I would leave on an island on the OL would be Vasquez and Franklin as both have done a great job in both the run and pass game.

Now as for Ramirez he has definitely done very well for making the position switch. For some reason there are guys who are career back ups at the guard position that can become very good starters at the Center position. MileHighReport actually had an article on the Center position and how many of the starters in the league were back up guards that were converted and I would say it was over half the league if I remember right.

 

[xBxtxDx]

Let's put it this way.

NOBODY predicted Manny Ramirez would play as well as he had at Center after the performance he had last year when Kuper went out.

The thing is, Manny was improving very rapidly towards the end of the season and especially in the last 3. Manny was running with the 1's during OTA's and Mini-camp and Koppen was sitting on the couch. Yes Koppen was signed right after they found out Walton was not going to be able to go for the season, but that tells me they did not like the depth behind Manny more than them replacing Manny with Koppen. Also, Koppen was not all of that, he actually ranked out pretty poorly last year and ended up being the worst player on the line once Manny started improving.

 

[xBxtxDx]

Yeah I would say Beadles and Clady have struggled the most of all our starters. Kind of crazy considering they are the two pro bowl players on the line. Now some of that is they had both been left on an island most of the time. Beadles hasn't looked as good as he had last year but we have played two teams that are very good up the middle so far so hopefully he can pull it together. To me the two guys I would leave on an island on the OL would be Vasquez and Franklin as both have done a great job in both the run and pass game.

Now as for Ramirez he has definitely done very well for making the position switch. For some reason there are guys who are career back ups at the guard position that can become very good starters at the Center position. MileHighReport actually had an article on the Center position and how many of the starters in the league were back up guards that were converted and I would say it was over half the league if I remember right.

Their struggles also could be due to Manny being new at C. They say it takes awhile for the OLine to gel and get on the same page.

 

[cdumler7]

Their struggles also could be due to Manny being new at C. They say it takes awhile for the OLine to gel and get on the same page.

This is the exact reason I think the OL should only get better as the season goes when it comes to blocking assignments and especially when it comes to the run game. We saw against the Giants on Sunday what happens when this team blocks well in the run game.

 

[xBxtxDx]

This is the exact reason I think the OL should only get better as the season goes when it comes to blocking assignments and especially when it comes to the run game. We saw against the Giants on Sunday what happens when this team blocks well in the run game.

Which is why I have not got excited at all over there performance, there are now 3 starters that are new or in a different position than last year. Of course they are going to struggle.