April 21st- sportswriter- Marc Burgess

Less than a day before the 2010 NFL Draft, seems like a small appetizer for the hearty die-hards that actually have to wait till the beginning of fall before the season actually starts. However, the off-season and the draft in particular are forever the key ingredients to building a championship caliber team. More than ever, in an age of big contracts and free agency, fans loyalty or disapproval is often in the face of trade, or a change for the better, as the NFL's continued parity makes any team a threat come fall. For the Denver Broncos, they appear active again this off-season, using this year's draft to build a play-off team. But, it's come at a very hefty price, as 2nd year coach- Josh McDaniels has dismantling perhaps the franchise's best draft in 2006, by trading their top three picks. Only a year after trading Jay Cutler, the franchise's heir to the throne of Elway, the Broncos have traded away most of their All-Pro talent from the ‘06 draft with the recent trades of Brandon Marshall and Tony Scheffler. Marshall, looking back is a steal in the 4th round of the 2006 draft and could end up breaking a lot of NFL records if he continues to catch 100 balls a year. Their #2 pick in the 2006 draft, Scheffler, whose stock almost warranted a 1st round pick last year is still a quality TE. However, Denver's unwillingness to part with Scheffler last year for a 2nd round pick from Philly, ends up gambling and losing big, giving up Scheffler and a 7th round pick for a lousy 5th round pick from Detroit this year. Only LB, Evil Dummerveil and G, Cris Kuper remain talented starters from the killer draft of 2006. Sure, you can't really judge a draft till three years into the future, but based on last year's draft, was Cutler, who they groomed for three years, really worth Robert Ayers and Alphonso Smith? Considering they used Chicago's two #1 picks in last year's draft, as they moved up in the 2nd round to pick up Alphonso Smith by trading this years #1 pick (from Chicago for Culter) to Seattle, it hardly justifies the Culter trade. Nor will a couple of 2nd rounders and a 5th rounder replace the production of Marshall and Scheffler. Sure, defense wins championships, and if these two defensive duds become studs, including all the returning free agency haul over from last year (Renaldo Hill, Brian Dawkins, Andre Goodman, Ronald Fields and Darrell Reid) continue to produce, along with their draft picks this year and free agency acquisitions (Justin Bannan and Nathan Jones) that may be the case. Add Champ Bailey, D.J Williams and Elvis Dumervil to the heart and soul of this defense and they look really good on paper...But, the defense again, fell apart late into the season last year, even with all the talent on paper, including a star-studded secondary. And so, with no Big O, how can they compete? Within just one year, McDaniels and his high octane offensive stradegy has let some of the NFL's most explosive talent slip away due to his inabilty to coach "problem" players or see the talent of others. To date, the loss of key offensive players like Culter, Marshall, Scheffler, Weigmann and P. Hillis is a major loss to a once explosive offense. Or maybe, just maybe, Denver is afraid to win without Elway, or atleast, without giving reign to a high-profile QB like Culter and trying to win with ball control and defense.