FanHouse TomNalen

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.

When Matt Lepsis retired after last season and with Rod Smith an unofficial assistant coach, Tom Nalen is left as the only active Bronco veteran who was part of the Super Bowl winning teams of the late 90's. How much longer he'll be able to carry that torch has to be a concern for the team with the news that he had left knee surgery.

Nalen went under the knife yesterday to repair torn cartilage and will miss the rest of the offseason program. He's expected to be ready for training camp in July but recent history suggests that the Broncos would be wise to have a backup option at the ready. He missed all but five games last season with a biceps injury and 37-year-old offensive linemen have a nasty habit of breaking down physically.

They signed Casey Wiegmann from Kansas City over the offseason. He started every game for the Chiefs since 2002 so should be able to step in and handle matters if Nalen isn't ready to answer the bell. Chris Myers, who stepped in for Nalen last season, was dealt to the Texans.

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.

There was one person in the NFL who didn't hear the news that Travis Henry won his suspension appeal earlier this week. Herman Edwards, coach of the Chiefs, was surprised to hear the news when he met with reporters on Wednesday. That's a bit surprising since his team is squaring off with the Broncos on Sunday but I don't mention that to cast aspersions about Herm's scouting work. He probably just figured Henry would be playing and it's not like stopping Henry is the only concern when it comes to stopping the Bronco run game.

Because of injuries the Broncos have started Henry, Selvin Young and Andre Hall at different points this season. Each has had their bright spots which will make it tough for Mike Shanahan to choose between them now that they are all back in the lineup. Henry is built for work between the tackles and has the most experience while Young and Hall are shiftier backs who offer more flexibility in the passing game.

You'd expect the team to turn to Henry, especially since they acquired him to be the feature back. But, even when he's been healthy, Henry hasn't been producing at a very high level. According to Football Outsiders, Young has been much more effective this season. Without Tom Nalen, the Broncos have struggled to create a power running game, which hampers Henry all the more and makes Young the best choice for the offense going forward.

Defensive end Simeon Rice made his name as a pass rusher. Prior to 2007, he registered 121 sacks, including double-digit totals during a five-year stretch with the Buccaneers from '01-'05.

Now, though, the 12-year vet can't even get on the field. Released this summer by Tampa Bay, the Broncos signed the former third-overall pick and promptly declared him unfit to play. Head coach Mike Shanahan doesn't think Rice is fully recovered from an off-season shoulder injury, and for the second straight game, he won't be active. To say Rice is unhappy, would be a ginormous understatement:

Rice made it clear he isn't exactly making plans to seek another stint with the Broncos after his one-year contract, which he signed in September, ends.

"I got two more months here," Rice said. Asked about next year, Rice said, "I'm going week-to-week. Every week seems like a decade. This is the longest year of my life." "I have (121) career sacks, I can't play on this defense?" Rice asked.

That's a great question. According to Football Outsiders, the Broncos rank 28th in defense (22nd against the pass, 29th against the rush). I can't imagine things could get any worse with Rice out there.

But there is more bad news for Denver: with wideout Javon Walker and center Tom Nalen already out, cornerback Champ Bailey looks like a no-go as well. Bailey, who is battling a quadriceps injury, practiced on a limited basis yesterday, and will be a game-time decision.

The Avalanche is Denver's hockey team but it's also a good way to describe the bad news that keeps heading Mike Shanahan's way. A special teams that's special in all the wrong ways, a defense that would struggle against a Pop Warner outfit, a running back who spends more time getting stoned and fathering children than running the ball and a young quarterback who makes one bad throw a game is a lot to work out over one bye week. Especially when that bye week follows a 41-3 humiliation.

It's times like these where you need all the veteran leadership you can get which makes Tom Nalen's loss quite costly. The five-time Pro Bowl center tore his right biceps during the Chargers drubbing and will miss the rest of the season. Compounding the difficulty for Shanahan and the Broncos is that the preferred replacement for Nalen is Ben Hamilton who was placed on season-ending injured reserve a couple of weeks ago.

If Champ Bailey's MRI had come back with negative results you might as well have canceled the rest of the season but there was a small favor when it showed no tear in the corner's quadriceps. The Broncos have a couple of weeks to work out their problems before a very good Steeler team comes to town. Shanahan and company have a lot of work to do and, unlike Denver fans, can't let the Rockies steal their attention from the disappointments on the football field.

The primetime Broncos-Chiefs matchup is tomorrow, people. The quick turnaround leaves a lot of questions unanswered about last Sunday's loss to the Chargers, so I'm going to touch on some of the more pressing issues real quick before we turn our attention to the game tomorrow.

First, what's up with special teams? The Chargers' Michael Turner averaged 36+ yards on kickoff returns, and the short field made a big difference in the game. The Chargers' average starting field position on Sunday was the 33 yard line. Give the Chiefs that kind of field position, and its going to be even worse, which is why the media has been speculating that we might see more starters doing double-duty to shore up special teams - especially with Dante Hall returning punts.

Then there's the issue of Tom Nalen, who was just fined $25,000 for taking a "cheap shot" at Chargers' defensive lineman Igor Olshansky. Olshansky, meanwhile, was fined just $10,000 for punching Nalen in retaliation. All I'm going to say is that this is ridiculous - Yes, it was a spike play, but Nalen was just playing sound football, trying to block Olshansky if something happen and Plummer dropped the snap or something. Okay, Nalen went low - but last time I checked, trying to punch a player is a lot worse than trying to block someone, especially when the block literally didn't do anything. Olshansky wasn't injured, knocked to the ground or anything, so this fine is purely a reaction to the San Diego media, which has exploded this story as if Olshansky had been seriously injured on the play. Needless to say, the Broncos are furious, and Tom Nalen will be appealing this ridiculous sanction.