FanHouse SamAdams

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.

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.

To get you ready for week 12, FanHouse is previewing all 16 NFL games. Here is the Denver Broncos/Chicago Bears preview.

2007 Records:

Denver Broncos: 5-5 (t-1st in AFC West)
Chicago Bears: 4-6 (t-3rd in NFC North)

Last Week:

Broncos 34, Titans 20
Seahawks 30, Bears 23

When the Broncos have the ball: Jay Cutler had a coming out party against the Titans Monday night and he's got a good chance to continue turning the Broncos season around in Chicago on Sunday. He's getting Javon Walker back at wide receiver to go with Brandon Marshall and Brandon Stokely, while the Bears will be missing Nathan Vasher and will still be playing Adam Archuleta. That leaves their secondary overmatched especially if defensive coordinator Bob Babich insists on rushing just four men and dropping seven. Cutler has the arm to make any throw and the smarts to find the seams in the Cover-2. If the Bears do get a rush, he'll make a play on the run. Travis Henry and Selvin Young have both missed practice but whether its one of them or Andre Hall in the lineup they'll find yards against the disappointing Bears front seven.

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.

The scheme did confuse the Colts at the outset.

"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.

This is much more rumor or fact, but a Ravens beat writer is suggesting that the Browns could be interested in signing recently cut defensive tackle Sam Adams as a run-plugger.

As Aaron Wilson points out, Browns GM Phil Savage has a history with Adams from their days in Baltimore. It would make some sense, as Adams is very similar to current nose tackle Ted Washington--an aging, overweight run plugger who's much better if he's limited to 25-30 snaps a game. If the Browns signed Adams, they'd have two run stuffers to handle first and second downs (although both of them need to be nowhere near the field on passing downs).

Washington actually seems to carry his massive amounts of blubber better than Adams, which explains why he's a more productive player, even if Adams is younger and at one point was a better player. From watching several Bengals' games last year and charting the line play, I doubt that Adams would be a good fit as a starter, but as a backup, he could be a productive addition.

Leave it to a man to be sensitive about his Johnson. The Chiefs were pretty secure about theirs. They couldn't imagine that anyone would think their Johnsons could be perform any better than theirs. Derrick Johnson: a linebacker who covers like a corner, and has enormous upside and freakish speed. Larry Johnson: a powerful running back who can run with the best of them. Surely, no team could brag that their Johnsons are bigger and better than the Chiefs'. Imagine my surprise when I talked to a Bengals fan who believed that his team's Johnsons were better.

The Johnsons will determine who wins this Sunday's game in Arrowhead. In this case, the two biggest keys to the game will be Larry Johnson and Chad Johnson.

The Bengals' defense had no answer for Larry Johnson last year. Larry Johnson romped along for 201 yards. He would have had even more yards, had the Chiefs not yanked him because they were blowing out the Bengals. The Bengals will need to improve upon that performance if they expect to win. What's the best response to a leak? Plug it up with something big, and the Bengals did just that by adding key wall/fortress/continent(?) Sam Adams. But Adams will need to be really good. The Bengals' defense often looked lost against teams that ran straight at them last season and it doesn't help matters that they will need to play without young phenom Odell Thurman. If the Bengals can't account for the Chiefs' Johnson, they could be in for a long game.

On the flip side, the Bengals didn't get much of a chance to showcase their Johnson last year--Carson Palmer was hooked out of the game early to preserve him for the playoffs, so the Chiefs didn't get a chance to see the Bengals' Johnson at his best. The Chiefs' pass defense was atrocious last year. Remember when the Chiefs let T.O. and Santana Moss stomp all over them last year? The Chiefs can't allow Chad Johnson do the same to them. In response, the Chiefs added Ty Law and Tamba Hali, hoping that both would improve a defense that hasn't been good since Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. The Chiefs' supposedly revamped pass defense will get an immediate test on Sunday against the Bengals.

The battle of the Johnsons is exactly what will make this Sunday's game at Arrowhead such a fascinating one. In both cases, it matches up the team's biggest strength against the opponent's biggest weakness. The Bengals' potent aerial attack will do battle against the Chiefs' suspect pass defense. The Chiefs' potent running attack will face off against the Bengals' leaky run defense. Crude as it may seem, the winner of the week 1 matchup between the Chiefs and the Bengals will likely be determined by which Johnson performs better when it counts.