With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.
From Mike Shanahan's firing to the Jay Cutler trade, the Broncos are almost unrecognizable from the team that finished last season. After three playoff-less seasons, that may not be a bad thing.
The upheaval does make it difficult to predict where they'll look on draft day, however. A new coach and general manager running their first draft don't have a track record to use as a guide, which should make the Broncos a team to watch on April 25.
I mention this to reinforce the importance of the No. 1 pick; get it right and the Lions could emerge from Matt Millen's reign of terror faster than anybody imagined; get it wrong and Detroit's future will look a lot like its recent past.
The hardest thing to figure out about the Broncos' decision to trade Jay Cutler was determining fair value for a soon-to-be 26-year-old quarterback who has established himself as a starter in the NFL. Those deals don't happen often enough to provide a gauge for what's a good return. Making matters more difficult was the public nature of the trade talks, which seemed to back the Broncos into a corner.
Four years ago this April, Aaron Rodgers spent nearly six hours inside Radio City Musical Hall waiting to hear Paul Tagliabue call his name. The former Cal star was considered one of the two best quarterbacks of the 2005 draft -- Utah's Alex Smith was the other -- but the pre-draft speculation had him going anywhere from first-overall to the bottom third of the first round.
The latter turned out to be the case -- the 49ers and first-year head coach Mike Nolan, with the top pick, tied their future to Alex Smith (the decision would inevitably cost Nolan his job) -- and history could repeat itself next month.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
After the uneventful tenure of head coach Mike Nolan, the San Francisco 49ers decided to promote Mike Singletary to interim head coach during the 2008 season.
After a bizarre debut that saw Singletary address his team without pants, the 49ers finished the season on a 5-4 run under their new coach, ending the year with a 7-9 record. Had it not been for a confusing ending to a Monday night game against Arizona, the 49ers would have finished with a .500 record for the first time since 2002. So close, yet so far.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
It's a brave new world in Denver, where the Broncos will take the field without Mike Shanahan on the sideline for the first time since 1995. Josh McDaniels, their new coach, was 19 back then, and has one of the shortest resumes of any head coach in NFL history. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, but it was clear that Shanahan's system was no longer bearing fruit and the team may benefit just from the change of voice on the sideline.
The Denver Broncos are in the midst of some serious turnover on defense. The team flat-out stunk defensively last season, and the Broncos have already overhauled their coaching staff. Now, it's the players' turn to experience some change.
The draft has become one of the biggest events of the year for NFL fans. Maybe because everybody's a winner on draft day, or maybe because hope springs eternal and all that. Whatever the reason, we're fully trying to horn in on the action. Hence our first FanHouse mock draft of the '09 offseason. And we'd like to stress "mock."
When Nolan took the job in Denver, the talk turned to former Redskins and Jaguars coordinator Gregg Williams. He ended up going to New Orleans, leaving McCarthy to what was presumably his third choice for a coordinator.
The third choice for McCarthy is a veteran coach with a ton of credibility around the NFL. Former Carolina and Houston head coach Dom Capers, a very successful defensive coach, is going to take over the Packers' defense.
Last week, we mentioned a report that former San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan was on the verge of becoming the Green Bay Packers' new defensive coordinator.
That report appears to have been premature, as Nolan is headed instead to Denver to run the Broncos' defense under new head coach Josh McDaniels.
With Nolan apparently out of the picture, the Packers now have to move in a different direction.
With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.
In less than two weeks, the Detroit Lions will have the first overall selection in the NFL Draft. Depending on who's telling the story, 
The hardest thing to figure out about the Broncos' decision to trade 
Four years ago this April, 
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
The Denver Broncos are in the midst of some serious turnover on defense. The team flat-out stunk defensively last season, and the Broncos have already overhauled their coaching staff. Now, it's the players' turn to experience some change.
Perhaps it took longer than expected for 
Last week, we mentioned a report that former San Francisco head coach 
