FanHouse JimBates

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.

That didn't last long. Jim Bates, hired a year ago to shore up the Broncos defense, is now out of a job. The Denver Post's Bill Williamson writes that Bates and head coach Mike Shanahan reached a settlement on the remaining two years on Bates' contract. (Pithy version: Shanny canned Bates.)

"I'm very thankful for the opportunity and very saddened that things did not work out," Bates said in a statement. "I had the opportunity to stay, Mike has been very fair with me, and the final decision, for the Broncos and for me, was to step aside."

The early favorite to replace Bates is Bob Slowik, currently the Broncos' assistant head coach-defense.

As I wrote last week, the writing was on the wall with Bates. His seven-in-the-box approach to rushing the football never worked, and it even caused football savants like Bernie Kosar to question what the hell the Broncos were doing.

Maybe Bates wasn't given enough time to make it his defense; the guy did have success in Miami and Green Bay. Whatever, he won't be out of work for long. Four teams are currently looking for head coaches, and those head coaches will also need a staff of assistants. I can't imagine Bates doesn't show up somewhere in 2008.

It looks the Broncos could pull a "Cam Cameron" on on first-year defensive coordinator Jim Bates. Bates had success at previous stops in Miami and Green Bay before coming to Denver 51 weeks ago, but this year has been a disaster. As the Rocky Mountain News' Dave Krieger notes, here's what head coach Mike Shanahan said when Bates was hired:

"There's no way if we had (gone) to the playoffs that those guys would be here because they had so many other opportunities," he said of Bates and defensive line coach Bill Johnson.

So in a way, it's Shanahan's fault -- both directly and indirectly -- that Bates was brought on. If he had stuck with Jake Plummer, the Broncos almost certainly would've made it to the postseason, and some other team would've snatched Bates up before Shanny got the chance.

Instead, Plummer was benched, Cutler took over, the Broncos missed the playoffs and here we are.

From the beginning, Bates' seven-in- the-box base scheme didn't work here. In fact, during the preseason, Cleveland Browns broadcaster Bernie Kosar wondered aloud why a team with cornerbacks like Champ Bailey and Dre Bly wouldn't take advantage of their man coverage ability by moving a safety into the box to help against the run.

Look, when Bernie Kosar can game-plan you from the press box, you're probably not doing something right. Who knows how this ends up, but the Broncos might want to make sure they have a go-to guy if they can Bates. I mean, when this dude is back in the mix, it's definitely a sellers market.

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.

Travis Henry may have won a reprieve from the league but, as much as he might help the running game, he isn't going to solve the team's biggest problem. That would be the defense, a unit that is on pace to be the worst in the last four decades of Bronco football. They rank 31st in the league in scoring defense and 27th in the league in yards against, a combination that makes it very hard to win football games, regardless of who is running the ball.

What makes it worse is that the Broncos brought in a new defensive coordinator in Jim Bates and several new players to fit his system, only to see their defensive play take a giant leap backward. This isn't the Browns or Dolphins, this unit was expected to be good this season.

"Heck, yes, it's embarrassing," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. "All the talent we have in this room? Definitely, embarrassing. But it's a total team effort when it comes to points. It's not just defense, I'll say that."

Bailey's right about the need to spread the blame. Poor special teams play and too many turnovers lead to points just as surely as poor tackling and ineffective scheming.

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.

Since converting to the Browncos defensive line philosophy, Denver's pass rush has among the worst in the league (they finished 26th and 32nd in sack rank, according to Football Outsiders). Thankfully, the Broncos have pulled the plug on the Cleveland-to-Denver experiment (well, kinda ... Courtney Brown and Mike Myers are likely out, but the club did sign Alvin McKinley to play defensive tackle; at least he's a new face from Cleveland), but is there any reason to think the pass rush will be any better in 2007? Apparently, there is:

[I]n new defensive boss Jim Bates, the Broncos might have made their most significant pass-rush addition since, well, Elvis Dumervil in last year's NFL draft.

Check out Bates' résumé: In 1999, Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor had 2 1/2 sacks in his third NFL season. The next year, his first with Bates, Taylor had 14 1/2 sacks and added 18 1/2 in 2002.

The article also cites Trace Armstrong going from 7 1/2 sacks in 1999 to 16 1/2 in 2000. It's hard to believe Bates is solely responsible for all the improvements, but you have to think it's not completely an accident either: "We play different techniques with our defensive ends," Bates said. "There's several ways of doing things, and we always adjust to the personnel."

Whatever, this has to make Dumervil very happy. If my calculations are correct, there's a good chance he could break the all-time sack record by Week 15 or so.

Well, Shanhan's already been busy this off-season. Following up on the earlier story about the firing of Larry Coyer, yesterday Shanahan also fired defensive line coach Andre Patterson, which I also think is a good move. The line was far in a way the weakest link in the Broncos defense. They were never able to rush four and get any pressure at all on quarterbacks, and Coyer was too predictable and wouldn't call a blitz to make up for it.

Mike Shanahan's new people have now moved in. Taking over as defensive coordinator is defensive back's coach Bob Slowik. I don't know a lot about Slowik, but I think promoting the person who runs one of the best parts of the defensive is, inherently, a pretty solid idea. However, Shanahan also brought in Jim Bates, a 14-year coach in the NFL, to be assistant coach of the defense, and word on the street is that he'll have most of the defensive control, just like Mike Heimerdinger, the assistant coach of the offense, has more control of the offense than the current offensive coordinator.

I don't honestly know a ton about Bates. He was the interim head coach during the 2004 Miami debacle, but his most recent stint was as Green Bay's defensive coordinator. Of course, it's hard to know how much his season at the Pack reflects how good he is, because that team's great defensive tradition has fallen on hard times recently. But what we do know is that Shanahan has been connected to Bates for some time. Bates' son works as an assistant for the Broncos, so it's plausible at least to think that Shanahan has been targeting him since earlier this year when the defense started its collapse.

The one thing I want address about this is that while I agree with the defensive shakeup in general, I don't think that's where the work needs to end. Larry Coyer and Andre Patterson weren't solely responsible for the lack of defense late in the season. I think Shanny's Cleveland experiment has failed. The Broncos need some new personnel on the offensive line, and Shanahan shouldn't stop overhauling the defense until we have the players and the coaches that can put the Broncos in a position to be successful rushing the quarterback.