FanHouse LarryCoyer

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

For most franchises, 12 wins is a banner year; one they can hang their proverbial hats upon. For the Colts, 12 wins is a certainly. They have won at least 12 games in each of the last six seasons. They have also had Tony Dungy as their head coach for the past seven years, but now he's gone. In 2009, the Colts will look for some continuity. Can it be provided by the Jim Caldwell administration?

Though many of the players from the perennially playoff-bound Indianapolis Colts are still around, it's a new era in Colts camp these days. The turnover on the coaching staff has been vast, especially for a team who has seemingly gone 12-4 in their sleep for all of recent memory -- and it goes all the way to the top. With a new head coach and two new coordinators, the players have some adjusting to do.

On the defensive side of the ball, former NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders appears to believe in his new defensive boss, former Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Larry Coyer.

The Indianapolis Colts are one of the premier franchises in the NFL at the present. Since 1999, they've made the playoffs and won 10 games in all but one season. They've won at least 12 games in the past six. They've had offensive coordinator Tom Moore and offensive line coach Howard Mudd in place during that entire timespan. Tony Dungy was the head coach for the past seven. All three have now departed.

Their replacements are Jim Caldwell (head coach), Clyde Christensen (offensive coordinator) and Pete Metzelaars (offensive line coach). Translation: The Colts just drastically downgraded at three very important coaching positions.

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.

Remember a week ago when I posted that the Denver season was defined by defense, not offense? Later on during the this playoff-less post-season stupor, I'll get to dissecting the move to put Cutler in at QB. Afterall, it was a pretty big deal. But it wasn't as big of a deal as the defense that, in the final ten games of the season, could not stop an opponent from driving down the field when it mattered.

The base defense, especially in final-minute situations, was too predictable, too conservative, and well, too basic. The story of the Indy, Kansas City, San Francisco, and at least the first San Diego game was that the defensive line couldn't get near the opposing quarterback, and no one on the sidelines (or up in a box, as the case might be) was adjusting. The story was predictable all throughout the year, and yet the Broncos never blitzed, hurried or even attempted to do more than rush four at the quarterback when it mattered.

I implicated the coaching staff in all of this, and now it looks like someone agrees with me. Coach Mike Shanahan, apparently, because Larry Coyer, the Broncos' four-year defensive coach (and former linebacking coach) is gone.

It'll no doubt be interesting to hear your reactions to this - that is, the fans who prasied Shanahan for being able to win with Plummer early in the season, then begged Shanahan to give Cutler a shot, and then criticized the coach for putting Cutler in and being too conservative with his play calling. So Broncos Country, is this Shanny doing the right thing, or just dumping the blame off on someone else? For what it's worth, my opinion is that this is definitely something that needed to happen this off season.

This is a point that Sam and I disagree on, and he'll post a counterpoint later on, but here's the scenario for me. It's late in the fourth quarter, the Broncos are ahead by a score, and the other team has the ball with two minutes left. Sound familiar? It's the way we lost against Indy and San Diego, and the way we might have lost if the Bengals hadn't miffed an extra point. This years' Bronco defense is fairly good when offenses are in their normal sets. But when they get into their two minute drill, the defense has been powerless to stop teams all season long.

The reason is that our line gets no pressure on the quarterback, and Layer Coyer is too conservative to call blitzes late in the game. Once again on Sunday, Carson Palmer had all the time in the world to sit back and wait for his receivers to find an opening once the Bengals started their last drive from the Broncos' ten yard line. I don't care how good your secondary is - if you give a quarterback, and especially good receivers like Cincinatti has, that much time, they are going to beat you.

During that last sequence, Denver's defensive line didn't get anywhere near Carson Palmer. The key to disrupting a two minute drill is making the quarterback feel rushed - making him really feel the time winding down as he scrambles for his life. And most importantly, you have to get to the quarterback before his receivers find a way to exploit that soft zone, and make him wait to throw until the secondary can recover. But the Broncos haven't done it all season. In fact, they've been down right pitiful at getting to the quarterback, and it's cost the team several games already. It might have cost them this one, too, if Cincinatti hadn't been so self destructive.

In my opinion, this is the team's biggest weakness, and one of the first things Shanahan needs to address during the off-season, either by finding some new personnel or finding a defensive coordinator who's not so conservative late in games. Clearly, Shanny's Cleveland experiment is not working, so the Broncos need to find another way to patch up their D-line if they want to be a complete team next year.