Free Agency Starts At Home: The Denver Broncos Five Biggest Player Decisions

Assuming they get a new collective bargaining agreement done, NFL Free Agency is scheduled to begin on March 3, 2011.  I'm going to go through every team between now and then and identify their top five free agents and try to determine what should be done with each player, be it resign them or let them walk.  I'm going team by team in draft order and the Denver Broncos are the second team on my list.

The Broncos nearly had a lost season this year.  The team went 8-8 in 2009 and people expected them to be able to compete in the weak AFC West this year, but the Broncos managed just a 4-12 record.  They had the worst defense in the league in both yards and points allowed.  Head Coach Josh McDaniels didn't even make it to the end of the season.

Fortunately, their season wasn't a complete loss because of Tim Tebow.  Tebow was made starting quarterback at the end of the year and showed that he could succeed in the NFL like he did in college, despite not being a great traditional quarterback.  With the quarterback of the future in place, new Head Coach John Fox has to decide what players he needs to keep to help Tebow and the Broncos win.

NFL Assistant Coach Changes: Josh McDaniels Leads List Of Best Assistant Hires

Every year in the NFL the head coaching changes get all of the publicity, but most of them are delegators.  The assistant coaches are generally the ones who work directly with the players and call the plays on Sundays.  This past off-season the Bears hired Mike Martz as offensive coordinator and Mike Tice to coach the offensive line.  After some early season difficulties, the Bears offense has produced over the second half of the season and they are in the NFC Title game

This list is going to take a look at the top five coaches who have the potential to produce similar results with their new teams next year. Most of them, like Martz and Tice, are one time head coaches who are going back to being assistant coaches and are driven to hopefully get themselves positioned for new head coaching jobs down the road.