Three Questions 1. Can Ball and Hillman replace Knowshon Moreno? In limited roles, Montee Ball and Ronnie Hillman came through with flying colors, boasting respective +5.5 and +0.4 grades from ProFootballFocus.com, which equated them to “good starter” and “average starter” ratings, while showing niche strengths in FootballOutsiders.com’s measuring sticks. Moreno made the most of his 2013 Bronco workload, rushing for 1148 effective yards and receiving for 703 effective yards, with +8.04 and +31.00 percent Defensive Value Over Average scores, according to Football Outsiders. In short, Ball showed he may be capable of handling the rushing duties as well as Moreno (+7.5 percent rushing, -18.3 percent receiving), while Hillman may be able to spell Moreno as the receiving back (-6.9 percent rushing, +41.1 percent receiving). 2. Who’s the go-to man? Only Peyton Manning knows. But here’s the otherwise non-commit answer: DeMaryius Thomas will challenge Calvin Johnson’s reign as game’s greatest receiver today. Julius Thomas will challenge Jimmy Graham’s reign as game’s greatest tight end today. And Welker will catch more passes than all four of those guys. Who’s the go-to man? All three Broncos are go-to men. 3. How good is backup quarterback Brock Osweiler? Nobody knows. Osweiler has had limited action in his two seasons as the backup to 38-year-old Peyton Manning, playing in nine games, going 13-for-20 for 107 yards in those games. No touchdowns, no turnovers. Satisfactory 78.5 passer rating for a 23-year-old quarterback, even though it’s such a small sample size for such a large man (6-7, 245 pounds). Defensive Player to Watch After coming through for Denver’s defense time and time again in 2012 and 2011, two-time Pro Bowl linebacker Miller finally got to see what happens when he isn’t there for his teammates, suffering a six-game suspension in 2013 for failing a drug test (spilling his sample) and then suffering an ACL injury upon his return. The team defense results weren’t pretty, with the Miller-less Broncos spilling points away in games left and right. Thankfully, the team had Peyton Manning and his receiving corps on mop-up duty, game after game, winning the typical contest by a 38-25 margin. No joke, that margin was the team average. Miller is now back from surgery. The team has added DBs and a mirror pass-rush image for Miller in DeMarcus Ware, who will take the weak-side slot. All in all, most folks in Denver are hoping Miller returns to the form that once sacked 35 QBs in 40 career games as a promising 6-3, 237-pound 25-year-old. If he becomes that guy, Denver can become great again. Broncos Special Teams Matt Prater is one of the top field goal kickers in the game, going 19-for-19 on his 49-and-unders, along with another 6-for-7 in the 50-plus yarders. He also was a league-leading 75-for-75 on extra points. Otherwise, the Broncos special teams is somewhat marginal. Punter Britton Colquitt is good, though his 2013 season was somewhat subpar for him (28 of his 60 44.5-yard punts were returned for a 9.8 average). Last season’s backup returners Omar TEAM ROSTER BRONCOS DEPTH CHART OFFENSE QB Peyton Manning Brock Osweiler RB Montee Ball Ronnie Hillman WR DeMaryius Thomas, Wes Welker Andre Caldwell, Cody Latimer TE Julius Thomas Jacob Tamme T Ryan Clady, Chris Clark Michael Scofield G Orlando Franklin, Louis Vasquez Ben Garland C Manny Ramirez Will Montgomery DEFENSE DE Derek Wolfe, DeMarcus Ware Malik Jackson, DeQuanterus Jackson DT Sylevester Williams, Terrance Knighton Kevin Vickerson, Marvin Austin OLB Von Miller, Danny Trevathan Steven Johnson, Brandon Marshall MLB Nate Irving Lamin Barrow CB Chris Harris, Aqib Talib Bradley Roby, Kayvon Webster S T.J. Ward, Rahim Moore Duke Ihenacho, David Bruton SPECIAL TEAMS K Matt Prater P Britton Colquitt KR Omar Bolden PR Wes Welker
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