FanHouse JabarGaffney

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
Kyle Orton Dead Arm Syndrome: a condition characterized by a complete lack of strength in the upper arm. Despite hosting the NFL's second most productive offense in 2008, averaging just shy of 400 yards per game, and the third best passing offense in the league, the introduction of Orton as the starting quarterback puts the kibosh on the productivity. Orton has a weak arm, relies heavily on check-down passes and makes bad decisions. In terms of supporting cast, the receivers are a huge upgrade from his days in Chicago with Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal, but Marshall wants out so be sure to keep a close eye on this situation. Also, new head coach and signal-caller Josh McDaniels runs a spread offense, so he'll need to rely on Orton probably more than anyone would ever want. I don't expect the offense to suffer immensely with a solid new batch of runners, but it definitely takes a dive from last season.

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It's been more than four months since Pat Bowlen fired close friend Mike Shanahan. The subsequent search to replace the man who gave Denver 14 years and two Super Bowls was, at times, bumpy. It got bumpier after Bowlen settled on 32-year-old Josh McDaniels.

A fresh-faced Bill Belichick protégé, McDaniels had coordinated up the most explosive offense in NFL history: the 2007 New England Patriots. As often happens when coaches relocate, McDaniels wanted to bring in his "his" players to run "his" system. Hours into free agency, the Broncos inked former Pats wideout Jabar Gaffney. And then, after Denver tried to acquire Matt Cassel, incumbent Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler demanded a trade, things got messy, and, ultimately, the Broncos ended up with a couple first-round picks, Kyle Orton and a lot of questions.

No team has been more active in free agency than the Broncos. They've signed 12 players, including wide receiver Jabar Gaffney, who followed Josh McDaniels to Denver from New England.

And while adding Gaffney seems innocuous enough -- he's a role player and that's it -- apparently, the Patriots took umbrage at McDaniels pilfering from his former employer on the way out the door. So much so that, according to Brad Briggs' sources, they decided to send Matt Cassel to Kansas City instead of Denver, and created the whole Jay Cutler melodrama in the process. Good times.

Earlier this week, the National Football Post's Mike Lombardi suggested that a team looking for a Wes Welker-type player should give serious consideration to trading for Saints restricted free agent Lance Moore. It would take a second-round pick, which seems eminently reasonable given that's what the Patriots gave up to get Welker.

No one's yet made a play for Moore, but on Thursday, New England sent a fifth-round pick to the Eagles for Greg Lewis. A seemingly odd move, until you consider that Lewis is in the mold of Welker and Lewis -- a smallish, elusive slot receiver who also plays special teams (noteworthy distinction: Lewis excels on the coverage teams, not as a returner like Welker and, to a lesser extent, Moore.

The Broncos went through a decade's worth of running backs last season, and maybe that's why they're overcompensating for it during the first week of free agency. Denver has signed 10 players since last Friday, including running backs Correll Buckhalter, JJ Arrington (even if temporarily), and now LaMont Jordan. If nothing else, there will be no need to summon Tatum Bell from the Cellphone Hut.

Despite not being a great real football team in 2008, we always knew one thing about the Denver Broncos: They really matter in fantasy football. You're talking about a team who amassed the second most yards in the league. Only two teams passed for more yards, and -- despite the neverending assembly line of running backs -- they managed to average 4.8 yards per carry on the ground.

Heading into 2009, the team will have a different look. For of all, for the first time since I began playing fantasy football, their head coach will not be notorious alleged fantasy-hater, Mike Shanahan.

On the first day of free agency, the Broncos landed wideout Jabar Gaffney and long snapper Lonnie Paxton, both formerly of the Patriots. New head coach Josh McDaniels also wasted little time in shoring up one of the league's worst defenses a season ago: Denver inked safeties Renaldo Hill and Brian Dawkins.

And today, the rebuilding process continues: according to Denver's CBS4, defensive tackle Darrell Reid and linebacker Andra Davis have also been signed.

It happens every offseason. A team hires a new head coach, and he ends up remaking the roster in the image of his former team often with many of the same players. For Josh McDaniels, the guy tapped to replace Mike Shanahan in Denver, it's no different; the former Patriots offensive coordinator wasted little time in recruiting a couple former New England players.

On the first day of free agency, the Broncos signed former Patriots wideout Jabar Gaffney a four-year, $10 million deal ($3 million guaranteed). His role in Denver should be similar to that in New England: a third or fourth wide receiver who creates matchup problems for opposing defenses. Brandon Marshall's still the go-to guy and Eddie Royal proved he's a worthy No. 2 receiver. Gaffney and Brandon Stokely will see the field in multiple-wide receiver sets.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

Even though they lost franchise quarterback Tom Brady to a knee injury in Week 1, the Patriots managed to finish with a rather impressive 11-5 record in 2008. Impressive because they did so with a quarterback (Matt Cassel) that hadn't started a game since he was a senior in high school.

In most years, an 11-5 record is a lock for the NFL's postseason, but the Patriots became the first team since the 1985 Denver Broncos to miss the playoffs with such a mark. They already started the offseason by placing the franchise tag on Cassel, and it remains to be seen if they intend to trade him off to the highest bidder, or keep him around is a rather expensive insurance policy.