Once a Guarantee to a Offseason Question Mark

The days of the Denver Broncos being ran by O-Line guru Alex Gibbs and the offense being ran by likes of Mike Shanahan, Gary Kubiak and Rick Dennison seem like a distance memory.  The quarantee that each season in the West Coast Offense, the Broncos running game would produce a thousand yard back easily. How was that possible?  Due to Alex Gibbs' coaching of the zone-blocking scheme.

The Broncos offense and ability to have an effective offense in general was due in part to the scheme.  The Broncos did also have Hall of Famers on the line throughout the years.  But in the last season under that scheme in 2007, the Broncos line consisted of Ryan Clady, Ben Hamiliton, Casey Wiegmann, Chris Kuper and Ryan Harris.  The Broncos running attack that season was twelfth overall averaging 4.8 yards a rush and 115.4 yards a game and a passing game that did an outstanding job protecting then Bronco QB Jay Cutler as he was sacked eleven times all season long, including only .5 a sack by rookie phenom and perennial Left Tackle Ryan Clady. 

The Broncos O-line has seen significant change since that season.  Clady and Kuper are the only remaining starters from that season, while the team also brought back Harris to replace Kuper due to his leg injury late in the season.  The Broncos moved to multiple styles of offense with Josh McDaniels and John Fox.  But one thing that was certain through the years was that the Broncos moved from a dying scheme with Zone-Blocking to the "flavor of the month" with the Power-O attack with the O-line.

The running game has slumped mightily until Tebow came in and resurrected the ground attack with RB Willis McGehee this past season.  But with the league moving towards a pass first philosophy, there is one alarming stat that needs to be checked out...SACKS.  Alarming numbers were found by ESPN's Bill Williamson.  What was found is Clady has given up 24 sacks in the last three seasons, including 12 last season. 

Clady spoke with Denver Post's Lindsay Jones and this is what he had to say about protecting Tebow compared to Manning "Not too much of a difference".  This is what he also had to say as well about his performance this past season "There were a couple of things here and there that could have been better, but overall it was solid". 

Coming from the best player on the line, believing that his game was solid after giving up 12 sacks last season HAS to be worrisome.  To his credit, he was in forced to protect a QB that could not make wise decisions in the pocket when he (Tebow) dropped back for a pass.  But the Broncos have to make a decision, with Ryan Clady's rookie contract up at the end of the 2012 season, do the Broncos overpay for potential on his game, or do they decide to go elsewhere?  And this goes for the rest of the line as well, because their newest toy on the Bronco offense could be one hard hit away from calling it a career.