If you're following along you probably get the sense by now that brief is not my strength. That said, watching the Pats-Fins while keeping an eye on an all-out war between Nadal and Djokovic I'm just going to be as simple as possible here.
Last year the Broncos suffered a lot of injuries. I mean, a lot of injuries. Many of them were to key players. It all predictably fell apart for them. Now, the return of all of these players is no guarantee of success. For one, they will be dealing not only with a new coach in John Fox, but a scheme change on defense from a 3-4 to a 4-3. The personnel isn't a guarantee to fit and it is a bit risky to guarantee any type of success for the defense early. Still, there is an ample amount of talent there.
Offensively, I, unlike seemingly everyone else, believe in Knowshon Moreno as a back in for a nice year. He is still tremendously talented and the Broncos line, while somewhat makeshift, isn't without some talent. Kyle Orton is what he is, but the fact is he's a much better quarterback than Jason Campbell and will be playing on his homefield. At wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, for reasons that will remain a mystery, is coming off a beast of a season. Eddie Royal provides an underneath threat and I think losing Jabar Gaffney is addition by subtraction.
As for Oakland, I feel like a lot of people will like them for one reason alone "Run DMC is going to run wild on that terrible Broncos team." And it could happen. But DMC has to do a bit more before he completely wins me over and he had some inredibly huge games against some historically bad defenses (none other than the Broncos to be fair) last year. The Raiders o-line is undergoing a schematic change and it is unclear whether or not they will be a mess to start the season. If they are this one really swings in favor of the team at home, with Elvis Dumervil and the better quarterback. And that, in essence is why I like Denver either way.
Don't underestimate the loss of Nnamdi for the Raiders either, we have no idea what in the world that could do to the Raiders pass defense. Losing Gallery and Miller on top of that is just icing on the cake. The Raiders front-7, their d-line in particular, is the strength of the team...and if they dominate you could see the Raiders pulling it out, especially if their blazing fast WR's break a couple big ones along the way....but to me, why on Earth do you want to take Jason Campbell on the road for a team missing a few of its best players, a new coach, a new o-line scheme and a steady and prolonged recent history of suckitude with only 3 points to show for it? You might be right, but that is not my cup of tea.
Official play: Broncos -3
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