UPDATE (Tuesday, Aug. 4): Jarvis Moss returned to practice after taking three days off to contemplate his football future.
In 2007, a few months after Mike Tomlin was named the Steelers head coach, the team selected linebacker Lawrence Timmons with the 15th overall pick. The move underwhelmed fans partly because Pittsburgh is perennially in need of offensive linemen, but mostly because Timmons had shown up to his pro day workout out of shape.
But if the Steelers hadn't drafted Timmons, the Broncos would have. In fact, Denver tried to trade up, Pittsburgh balked, and now Timmons is on the verge of becoming Pittsburgh's next great linebacker. And Jarvis Moss, the defensive end from Florida that the Broncos eventually selected 17th overall, is mulling retirement.
It's the latest example that the NFL draft is a crapshoot.
In the weeks and months leading up to the 2007 draft, Steelers fans basically wanted Anybody But Lawrence Timmons. Fresh off an 8-8 performance, and holding the 15th-overall selection, Pittsburgh was too far removed from the "franchise players" that populated the top of the board, but not far enough down to justify taking a guy to fill a specific need (like, say, tackle, guard, or center).
Pre-draft reports had Timmons showing up to his pro day out of shape, and, at 20, he was too inexperienced to contribute immediately in the NFL. Well, the Steelers drafted him anyway, even though fans were clamoring for names like Jarvis Moss, Jon Beason and Anthony Spencer.
Beason has been a legit NFL linebacker from Day 1, and Timmons has had a solid sophomore season. But due to injuries, bad luck and ineffectiveness, Moss and Spencer are still finding their way. Which explains this bit of time machinery via the Dallas Morning News' Tim McMahon:
Some folks who thought DeMarcus Ware deserved the Defensive Player of the Year award pointed out that Pittsburgh's James Harrison had a much better bookend than Ware does in Dallas.
Well, LaMarr Woodley, a key cog in the NFL's top defense, could have been a Cowboy. Instead, Dallas traded back up into the first round to take Anthony Spencer, who went 20 picks ahead of Woodley.
In recent years, the Chargers had the distinction of leading the division in arrests, but the Broncos are doing their best to wrest that title away. Earlier today, FanHouse's Michael David Smith wrote that rookie defensive lineman Marcus Thomas was arrested and charged with possessing a controlled substance. (Thomas' lawyer says, and I'm paraphrasing here, "that [very nice lady] set him up.")
As Adam Rank wrote after Denver drafted Thomas and college teammate Jarvis Moss last April: "Marijuana dealers are excited by the news of Moss and Thomas coming to town, seeing that both players have been suspended for marijuana offenses. It is as if the Broncos put together their draft board on 4/20."
To Moss' credit, he's avoided trouble, but why did the Broncos think Thomas wouldn't do something stupid given his history of, you know, doing stupid stuff?
Last year, after taking Thomas, Denver's general managers Ted Sundquist calmly explained why drafting Thomas wasn't a gamble. Obviously, that blew up in his face, but it sure did sound convincing. Here's what I wrote at the time: "Making the deal even easier was that the Broncos had a first-round grade on Thomas. In that sense, yeah, Thomas was worth a third-, fourth- and sixth-rounder. Assuming, of course, Thomas doesn't pull a Mo Clarett."
As we get ready for the Patriots-Giants Super Bowl, FanHouse is looking back at each team's 2007 first-round pick. Here's a look at the 17th pick in the draft, defensive end Jarvis Moss.
Who Else They Were Rumored To Consider: The Broncos traded up to get Moss, he was their guy.
What We Said At The Time: "The Broncos probably didn't have to give up any picks to move up to take Moss. That was kind of a panic move. But like the Chargers, the Broncos aren't very far away from the Super Bowl, so they can afford to burn some picks."
What Moss Did: Moss didn't do a whole heckuva a lot during his first year. He played just six games before breaking his shin in practice and earning a trip to injured reserve. He was just beginning to break into the top of the D-Line rotation, replacing the veteran Simeon Rice who never made an impact with Denver. Moss flashed the pass-rushing skills that made him a first-rounder but his injury makes it hard to judge how much progress he made in his initial NFL campaign.
There have been many culprits for the Broncos disappointing season but one of the chief reasons is their reliance on roster upheaval. They have developed very few players through the draft, changed coordinators and systems several times and have released 19 players since this season began. That doesn't cover the amount of free agents and trades that have backfired in the Mike Shanahan era, either. So, it was with a bit of surprise that I read Jeff Legwold's column in today's Rocky Mountain News. It seems that the Broncos are regarded as the front runners to land Jason Taylor in a trade if Bill Parcells decides to move his new team's best player.
Legwold argues that missing out on Patrick Kerney in free agency last season was part of the reason for the Bronco slide and acquiring Taylor would remedy that. Kerney would indeed look good on the Broncos, he'd look good on any defense, but that's not a good enough reason to pick up Taylor.
Quick fixes aren't the salve for Denver's wounds. As good as he is, Taylor will be 34 and the Broncos need to focus on developing the players they already have. He would also cost them high round draft picks, which the team needs to start taking more seriously.
2007 Records: Denver Broncos: 3-4 (3rd in AFC West) Detroit Lions: 5-2 (2nd in NFC North)
Last Week: Packers 19, Broncos 13 Lions 16, Bears 7
When the Broncos have the ball: Jay Cutler could be in for a long day. His gambles -- he's a gunslinger, remember? -- are paying off at 50/50, with eight interceptions against eight touchdowns. The Lions, meanwhile, have a surprisingly good secondary that is allowing yards but also producing the big play with a league-leading 13 interceptions, many of which have come at crucial times and crucial parts of the field. Statistically otherwise, however, the Lions are near the bottom of the pack on all levels of defense, but those numbers are skewed by two blowout losses.
Mike Shanahan's decision to gut his defense and bring in Jim Bates as a new coordinator hasn't resulted in much success for the Broncos. Fixing that unit has been a priority during the bye week and will continue to be a focus as the team steels itself for a visit from Pittsburgh on the 21st. I wonder if they will make a radical change along their defensive line.
As mentioned earlier this week, Simeon Rice hasn't worked out at defensive end and the team thought so much of starting tackles Sam Adams and Amon Gordon that they benched them for the game against the Colts. John Engleberger is a textbook place holder at the end opposite Rice but the only guy playing really well has been Elvis Dumervil. They drafted three defensive linemen this April so why not scale back the veterans and give the trio of Tim Crowder, Jarvis Moss and Marcus Thomas a chance to improve what's been a lackluster unit?
The ex-Gators Thomas and Moss were big talents whose character questions on draft day dropped them into Denver's lap. It's hard to think they would do a worse job than Gordon and Engleberger against the run and Moss could really add some pressure on the quarterback opposite Dumervil. Crowder, a second rounder, was active for the first time last week and should see increased time as part of the rotation. There will be growing pains but it will be to their long-term benefit to get the rookies on the field more.
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.
"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.
The Denver Post's Jim Armstrong draws some comparisons between the Broncos first-round pick, defensive end Jarvis Moss, and some of his new teammates. If you're a Denver fan, you might want to turn away:
Moss weighed 216 -- same as punter Todd Sauerbrun -- after battling a mysterious bone infection early in his college career (insert "Sauerbrun's head's so big from juicing that he has to paint his helmet on" jokes here);
Moss benched 225 pounds 16 times at the Combine; quarterback Jay Cutler busted out 23 in 2006, and 175-pound cornerback Domonique Foxworth had 16 in 2005. Denver's second-round pick last month, Tim Crowder, squeezed out 32 reps. Oh, Crowder's a defensive end too. None of this speaks to what kind of NFL player Moss will be, but, well, I'm guessing the Panthers didn't have to think about such things when they drafted Julius Peppers.
Don't worry, though, defensive coordinator Jim Bates offers these reassurances: "He hasn't played that much football, but with his upside and his aggressiveness, the guy could be a special pass rusher." See, nothing to worry about.
Seriously, it's impossible to tell what type of player Moss will be based on his bench press. Last year, Ohio State's Mike Kudla threw up 225 43 times, went undrafted, signed with the Steelers, and was cut in training camp. And he's still looking for work. And hell, Maurice Clarett only managed 19 reps and look how his career turned out. Oh, wait.
It's not very often fans get to peek behind the curtain and learn the hows and whys a team drafts the players it does. In this article, Denver general manager Ted Sundquist shares a lot of interesting nuggets about the 2007 draft -- specifically why the team traded up four spots to take Jarvis Moss. I wrote earlier that the Broncos had their eye on three players in the first round. After two went off the board on consecutive picks, the team made a move for Moss. But did they panic? Nope, not according to Sundquist:
To say, 'Well, you could have waited until 21 to get Moss,' well, we thought that about the other two (Harrell and Timmons being picked)... Who's to say that Moss would have been there at 21? So we went and got our guy, end of story."
To swap first-round picks with Jacksonville, Denver had to give up a third- and sixth-rounder. Isn't that kinda steep to move up four measly picks? To quote myself above: Nope. Mr Sundquist, if you please:
UPDATE (Tuesday, Aug. 4): Jarvis Moss returned to practice after taking three days off to contemplate his football future. 
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