Could well take the crowd out of the game, the way Miami's playing. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that Orton would be done after the bye (Broncos Forums had a poll up two weeks ago that basically boiled down to "should we start Tebow now, after the bye, or when mathematically eliminated?" unless he did something spectacularly good. Turns out it did not even take that long.

I just hope the offensive line develops some consistency and Tebow gets much better very fast, or we will be back to "suck for Luck." Then we will officially be one of those awfully desperate teams falling into the trap of snatching up the most popular amateur QB, confident he will immediately and singlehandedly put them in the Super Bowl (the way we got Tebow in the first place, though McDumbass was the main reason for that.) I still think Quinn has potential, but if our line cannot establish the running game (Tebows return overshadowed a pretty good game from McGahee, though the Raiders are among the Leagues worst against the run) and provide reliable pass protection he would fare no better than Tebow. The way they are playing now, a sandlot running QB may be the best chance we have when the protection breaks down and he HAS to make throws on the run or get first downs himself.

That is a good example of why I hope Denver uses what looks to be a very high first round pick on the best available athlete, but preferably not yet another QB unless 1) he is the best player on the board and 2) we have NOTHING there. High draft picks are rare and painfully "earned," and teams who have them also have far too many weaknesses to squander that opportunity ignoring the most talented players to focus on a single one of their innumerable "needs." After a few years plugging holes they get back to .500 and are only one or two star players from contention--but draft in the 20s along with all the other mediocre teams. I would much rather draft our future stars while we can get them cheap, watch them explode and get us double digit wins, then fill our last few holes with the merely serviceable players available at our draft position. The biggest thing that would help our offense right now would be Clady playing like he did when he was drafted, Franklin continuing to exceed high expectations, Kuper performing at the level I have come to expect from him, and replacing Beadles and Walton with people who do not suck huge hairy donkeys. I would not complain if Denver spent, say, the #6 pick on the best available athelete and got a big, powerful pulling guard/center, because the one thing I dislike about Kuper (along with the rest of the line) is that he is barely over 300, which may be great for zone blocking, but is horrible for line surge in short yardage.

Returning from the tangent, I hope Tebow does well, not only for his sake and the teams today, but because I expect a high draft pick, want to spend it on a potential Hall of Famer, and do not want to spent it on yet another QB while our many other glaring weaknesses (DT, anyone...? ) remain neglected. The D looks much improved, particularly at LB, but I would welcome the best (non-kicking) athlete of next years draft at any postion but LB, OT--and QB.