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Along with misidentifying himself as an offensive genius, one of the biggest complaints about Brian Billick in Baltimore was that he ran easy camps and practices. Perhaps he was more concerned with how he came off on HBO documentaries than preparing his team for battle but, whatever the reason, the Ravens never had a reputation for intensity in the offseason.

Today's practice session, then, was a sign that there's a new sheriff in town. John Harbaugh's boys spent a good chunk of Saturday fighting with each other during the team's minicamp. Defensive tackle Amon Gordon and rookie offensive lineman Oniel Cousins exchanged punches, touching off a brawl that included all 85 players and took two minutes to work itself out. Then defensive backs Corey Ivy and Frank Walker came to blows during a blocking drill.

In neither case did the coaches appear to be too interested in breaking things up, reports the Associated Press. Rex Ryan, the defensive coordinator, was seen laughing, in fact, and Harbaugh didn't sound like he saw anything upsetting out on the field.

"We had a good practice. Our guys are competitive, they like football, it's going to happen. I think as they realize the tempo of the practice is going to stay the same, it will probably happen less and less. They're a feisty bunch."

Feisty's good but undisciplined attempts to show toughness aren't. The latter's been a problem for the Ravens, so maybe it's good they're getting it out of their system now.

NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason.

How far do the Denver Broncos have to go to return to the playoffs? Their team was ravaged by injuries en route to a 7-9 record this season. A healthy team could have easily won another couple of games and found itself battling for a wild card. A more pessimistic view might point out that they got old in several spots because they haven't built well through the draft. That would indicate there's a longer road back to success. Either way, the good news is that, in Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Elvis Dumervil, they've got building blocks for 2008 and beyond. Here's where they need the most immediate help.

1. Defensive Stability – Jim Bates was hired as defensive coordinator and immediately installed a scheme predicated on big defensive tackles. It was a total flop. Sam Adams and Amon Gordon couldn't occupy blockers, leaving the middle of the field open to all comers. They overhauled the line during the season, but found no better results and that led to Bates's firing. New coordinator Bob Slowik must establish a strategy and stick to it if the team is to improve defensively. Be they big DTs or athletic ones, the team can't afford to veer wildly in such a short amount of time.

In an effort to improve the play of one of the NFL's worst defenses, the Denver Broncos made yet another roster move along their defensive line this week. They released veteran Sam Adams, starter of 11 games at defensive tackle this year, in the latest shuffling of a unit that's been in flux since the summer. Adams will be replaced by Steven Harris, a Florida alum who had been on Denver's practice squad.

The Adams move is the latest sign that the Broncos don't know what they want to do on defense. When Jim Bates was hired as defensive coordinator, the party line was that the Broncos would play massive defensive tackles as an integral part of the scheme. 12 games into his first season, though, they've parted ways with two players who fit that bill in Adams and Amon Gordon, and veered in the direction of more nimble players who can shoot gaps.

That's not a tweak, it's a wholesale change and nothing new from a team that's run through 26 defensive tackles in seven seasons. Many have been free agents that had little left in the tank because they've only used one first day draft pick on the position. Whatever system they decide on, the Broncos need to implement it with more homegrown players. They've got no choice but to do that for the rest of this season.

Teams that don't play in Indianapolis have spent most of the last decade trying to figure out how to stop Peyton Manning. Early on he would force the ball on occasion, which led to a fair number of interceptions but since 2003 you couldn't count on that. Manning matured, takes what the defense gives him and is content to win even if he doesn't put up eye-popping numbers. Those endorsement checks get cashed whether he throws for 400 yards or 200, after all.

One thing he's never done is take a lot of sacks. He recognizes defenses too well for that. So it's odd that the Broncos pinned their entire defensive hopes on sacking Manning yesterday. They deactivated oversized defensive tackles Sam Adams and Amon Gordon and replaced them in the middle of the defensive line with defensive ends Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder. Having spent the first three weeks getting overrun like the French army at the on the Western Front of WWI, the Broncos decided to play French army in World War II and offer no resistance whatsoever.

The scheme did confuse the Colts at the outset.

"A guy like (rookie left tackle Tony) Ugoh has never seen that (type of defensive front) before," Manning said. "But that's where sideline adjustments pay off. You talk about what it is and you adjust to it. And we certainly got some run game looks at it once we figured out where No. 94 was going to be."

They certainly did. Joseph Addai and Kenton Keith averaged more than seven yards a carry en route to 216 total yards on the ground. And the quartet of pass rushers didn't sack Manning once and disrupted him so much that he threw three touchdowns. It's time for the Broncos to go back to the drawing board to fix their woeful defense.