4 Things to Be Excited About As a Broncos Fan

The Denver Broncos just finished the 2010-2011 season with a 4-12 record. And no, the four wins aren’t what I’m referring to in the title of this article as things to be excited about. Or are they? Maybe, with 4 wins, the Broncos have officially hit rock bottom. It’s the lowest win-total since John Elway was drafted in 1982 and the second lowest of my lifetime. But what it did, was force the Broncos organization to make some much-needed changes. As a Denver fan, here are four things that make this disaster of a season something to be excited about:

1. #2 Draft Pick: With four wins, the Broncos secured the second pick in the draft, allowing them to finally draft a franchise player on the defensive side of the ball--an area left barren by former coach Josh McDaniels. The Broncos will most likely draft shutdown corner Patrick Peterson from LSU.

2. The return of John Elway—Elway is expected to be named Vice President of Football Operations this week. If “the greatest football player ever” is half as good in the front office as he was wearing #7 for the Broncos, better days are on the way.

3. The hiring of a new head coach—Will it be Jim Harbaugh? Jeff Fisher? John Gruden? Bill Cowher, maybe? Three things are for certain: Josh McDaniels set the franchise back 4-5 years with his horrible personnel decisions; Elway is already evaluating Harbaugh at Monday night’s Orange Bowl; Any of the aforementioned coaches would be terrific hires. I can’t remember an off-season with so many good coaches available.

4. Tim Tebow—Yes, he still has his critics—lots of them. But Tebow’s will to win and compete at the highest level showed during the Broncos’ last few games. And Tebow showed that he CAN run at the pro level. Tebow ran for 94 yards and a touchdown in yesterday’s loss to San Diego. He also threw for 205 yards and 2 touchdowns. Critics will point to his 16 of 36 completion rate and inability to throw the deep-ball, but hey, Michael Vick had the same criticism in his early years in Atlanta. I say, give the kid the ball next year and build the offense around him. Find some athletic playmakers like Philly has done, and see what he can do. For the season, he completed 41 of 82 passes for 654 yards, with 5 TD’s and 3 Int’s. He ran the ball 43 times for 227 yards (5.3 avg) and 6 TD’s. Not bad. Not bad at all.