Now Manning the helm for Broncos, Peyton looks to outduel successor

The Denver Broncos that take the field on Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts will look a lot different than the ones that finished the 2013 season with Seattle’s bootprint stuck to their backs.

Team president John Elway went and liberally -- if not generously -- overhauled the team. Attempting to avoid the kind of mauling the Broncos experienced in February, Elway doled out deals worth a combined $124.5 million to DeMarcus Ware, T.J. Ward, Aqib Talib and Emmanuel Sanders. Gone are Champ Bailey, Eric Decker, Knowshon Moreno and Wesley Woodyard, all excised to various football outposts.

Elway’s plan was to retool on the fly, taking advantage of whatever title window Peyton Manning’s weakened shoulder can still hold open, while not asking Manning to be the only one bearing the weight of Denver’s Super Bowl-or-bust expectations. The plan took a hit when linebacker Danny Trevathan was lost until at least October with a broken kneecap. It then took a fall when receiver Wes Welker was suspended four games for violating the league’s PED policy, allegedly testing positive for amphetamines.

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Welker is the bigger name, but the combination of Sanders, second-round pick Cody Latimer and Andre Caldwell should be good enough to hold the fort until Week 6. The Broncos’ biggest and more immediate concern is the loss of Trevathan, particularly as it pertains to Andrew Luck and the Colts’ short passing game.

Last October, Luck and company tuned up Denver for 39 points, ruining Manning’s return to Indy. This time around, Luck has the added benefit of free agent wide receiver Hakeem Nicks and a healthy Dwayne Allen. Allen, a hulkish target at 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds, missed almost all of last season with a hip injury, but represents a matchup nightmare for Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, who’s expected to fill in for Trevathan on the weakside.

The addition of Allen and Nicks to the offense and the development of Luck make the Colts a fascinating Week 1 matchup for the new-look Broncos. Talib gives Denver the prime chess piece needed to match up with wideouts Reggie Wayne or T.Y. Hilton, but Allen and Nicks, who replace Coby Fleener and Darius Heyward-Bey in the starting lineup, give the Colts third and fourth options to test Denver’s linebackers and defensive backs. The play of Ward, in particular, will go a long way to helping to neutralize Allen and Fleener as difference-makers in the passing game.

While Luck has enough weapons to go toe-to-toe with Manning’s vaunted attack, Indy’s suspect offensive line and Trent Richardson-led rushing attack may keep him from doing so. Despite a preseason in which he looked quicker and more elusive at times, Richardson remains hesitant in the backfield, a problem behind a good offensive line and a potential disaster behind Indy’s blockers.

After spending the past three offseasons investing heavily in players to protect Luck, he remains one of the most-hit quarterbacks of the past decade. This is a major problem when facing a pass rush that’s better than advertised up front, and also features Ware and a supposedly healthy Von Miller. If Richardson and Ahmad Bradshaw aren’t effective enough to keep the Broncos defense honest, it could be an all-out attack against Luck.

But if Luck can avoid enough drive-killing sacks to unleash the full weaponry at his disposal – assuming run-oriented coordinator Pep Hamilton will let him – he’ll likely find himself in a shootout with Manning and the Broncos’ historically-proficient offense.

As the world witnessed in the Super Bowl, Manning and his receivers can be stopped with consistent pressure and physical corners who reroute Manning’s targets at the line of scrimmage, thereby upsetting the timing that's so critical to Denver’s passing game. Unfortunately for the Colts, their best pass-rusher, Robert Mathis, is suspended for the first four games and there are still questions about the secondary outside of cornerback Vontae Davis. Indy will have to rely on second-year linebacker Bjoern Werner and free-agent addition Arthur Jones to disrupt Manning’s pocket and hope Greg Toler, Darius Butler and safety LaRon Landry can hold their own as Davis marks Broncos WR Demaryius Thomas.

It should make for a captivating early-season chess match between Manning and Colts coach/defensive guru Chuck Pagano, while Hamilton goes heads up against Broncos defensive coordinator John Fox.

The Denver Broncos made plenty of noise in April and May, replacing some of Manning’s favorite targets and giving Fox plenty to play with on defense this year. Sunday night will be the first true test of how the Broncos plan to use those new pieces to finish the job they left undone.

MATCHUPS TO WATCH

LaRon Landry (Colts S) vs. Julius Thomas (Broncos TE)

At 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, Thomas is a matchup nightmare. Too big for safeties and too fast for linebackers, Thomas finally lived up to the promise the Broncos saw when they drafted him in the fourth round out of Portland State despite not playing football in college. With Welker suspended and Decker gone, Thomas should be a focal point both in the short passing game and up the seam. The Colts will likely use a combination of players on him, but Landry is the most intriguing. A physical marvel himself, Landry has the kind of speed that belies his 226-pound frame. The Colts will need Landry to help contain Thomas, particularly near the goal line.

Colts offensive tackles vs. DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller (Broncos DE and LB, respectively)

Protecting Andrew Luck has been a major issue for Indy, and the problem pretty much starts and ends with left tackle Anthony Costanzo and right tackle Gosder Cherlius. Both players return as starters despite being the bookends on a line that allowed Indy’s quarterbacks to be hit a staggering 109 times in 2013, behind only Houston and Cleveland. Their Week 1 test won’t be easy, drawing one of the best edge-rushing duos in the entire NFL. Ware was a menace last year in Dallas, while Miller is nine months removed from a torn ACL. If the Colts can’t keep the Denver duo out of the backfield, Luck will be unable to make the kind of plays down the field Indy will need to keep up with Denver.

Andre Luck (Colts QB) vs. Peyton Manning (Broncos QB)

They’re not facing off, per se, but Luck and Manning represent the past and the future of the game’s premier position. They also operate two different offensive schemes, with Denver’s designed to maximize Manning’s ability to read the defense before the snap and deliver short, quick passes to exploit one-on-one matchups. In Indy, coordinator Pep Hamilton continues to insist on a run-based offense despite five legitimate targets in the passing game and a quarterback in Luck who’s the most-advanced passer at his age in NFL history. Last year’s matchup was a bit of a letdown, with Denver being held to 17 points before pulling off a late push against a soft Indy defense. Here’s hoping for an aerial showdown Sunday night.

FINAL ANALYSIS

Losing Welker saps some effectiveness out of the Broncos' offense, but they’ve known about the pending suspension for quite a while and spent training camp and the preseason preparing multiple weapons. If the Colts spread the Broncos out defensively and exploit the absence of Trevathan, Luck should be able to keep them in the game, possibly even help them steal it. Yet if Hamilton insists on trying to trot out Richardson and Bradshaw and trying to bleed the clock, the Colts will find themselves in an insurmountable hole. In the end, Manning, the two Thomases and second-year back Montee Ball will be too tough for Indy to stop and the Colts will wait too long to open it up.

Source:

http://www.nbcsports.com/now-manning-helm-broncos-peyton-looks-outduel-successor

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