{"id":1313875,"date":"2019-08-22T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T20:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/joe-flacco-moves-out-west-for-his-comeback\/"},"modified":"2019-08-22T14:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T20:52:00","slug":"joe-flacco-moves-out-west-for-his-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/joe-flacco-moves-out-west-for-his-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Flacco moves out West for his comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Denver Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco takes a break during a combined NFL training camp with the San Francisco 49ers Saturday, Aug. 17, 2019, at the Broncos’ headquarters in Englewood, Colo. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DENVER \u2014 Joe Flacco left behind his doubters and his old team for a second chapter in Denver, just as Peyton Manning did seven years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he\u2019ll probably be hungrier than he has been in a while,\u201d Manning said.<\/p>\n

Flacco acknowledged he feels as though he has plenty to prove following his trade from Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I feel like I\u2019ve got a lot left in the tank and I feel like I can do a lot more than what I\u2019ve really shown over the course of my 11-year career,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m excited that I\u2019m going to have the opportunity here to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just like Manning, Flacco brings an MVP Super Bowl award and a Rocky Mountains-sized chip on his shoulder to the Broncos, who have missed the playoffs every season since Manning retired following the team\u2019s Super Bowl 50 title.<\/p>\n

General manager John Elway insists Flacco is \u201cjust going into his prime\u201d at age 34, even though the veteran QB and one-time Super Bowl MVP was supplanted by rookie Lamar Jackson last season and didn\u2019t play in the Ravens\u2019 wild-card loss to the Chargers.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe is the perfect fit for us,\u201d said Elway, who sent the Ravens a fourth-round pick for Flacco, who\u2019s making $18.5 million this season. \u201cHe\u2019s played in a lot of big games, he has a lot of good football left in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elway said he\u2019s optimistic because new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello brings to Denver the roots of the Baltimore system in which Flacco excelled early in his career.<\/p>\n

Elway also drafted QB Drew Lock in the second round to serve as Flacco\u2019s understudy after cycling through Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Brock Osweiler and Case Keenum following Manning\u2019s retirement in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard position to fill,\u201d Elway said. \u201cWe tried to shake all these trees around here the last four years and quarterbacks didn\u2019t fall out of it. It\u2019s difficult, but we\u2019ve taken a lot shots. \u2026 I\u2019m excited about where we are at that position now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elway helped out Flacco by selecting speedy Iowa tight end Noah Fant and Kansas State guard Dalton Risner in the draft. Receiver Emmanuel Sanders looks just as fast as ever following surgeries on his left Achilles tendon and right ankle. And with Scangarello installing a run-heavy scheme, second-year pros Phillip Lindsay (wrist) and Royce Freeman (ankle) are healthy again and seem primed to become the NFL\u2019s next great 1-2 punch out of the backfield.<\/p>\n

Elway figures the offense, which has sputtered for the last four years, will finally take some pressure off Denver\u2019s star-studded defense, building some leads that will make pass rushers Von Miller and Bradley Chubb even more dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we play as well as we think we can on the offensive side,\u201d Elway said, \u201cit\u2019ll make us that much better on defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some other things to watch as the Broncos try to rebound from their first back-to-back losing seasons since 1971-72:<\/p>\n

FANGIO\u2019S FIRST<\/p>\n

While everyone else was zigging, Elway was zagging, hiring a 61-year-old defense-minded head coach in Vic Fangio while other teams searched for the next offensive guru in the mold of Rams coach Sean McVay. Fangio turned off the music at practice, instituted a no-hollering edict to his staff, got rid of loose practice jerseys, and eliminated rookie hazing haircuts.<\/p>\n

SPECTACULAR SANDERS<\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019 comeback was more complex than he had let on. The 32-year-old speedster revealed this summer that he had surgeries on both ankles in the offseason, one to repair his left Achilles tendon, which he tore in practice last December, and one a month later to fix a severely sprained right ankle, which had bothered him since 2017.<\/p>\n

MUNCHAK\u2019S MAGIC<\/p>\n

Mike Munchak joined Fangio\u2019s staff after being passed over for the head coaching job. His task in Denver is pretty big: fix disappointing 2017 first-round pick Garett Bolles, who\u2019s led the league in holding the last two seasons, and iron out the kinks in new center Connor McGovern\u2019s shotgun snaps, which often end up on Flacco\u2019s shoelaces or the grass.<\/p>\n

NO FLY ZONE 2.0<\/p>\n

Chris Harris Jr. is the only remaining member of the original \u201cNo Fly Zone\u201d secondary that was the backbone of Denver\u2019s Super Bowl 50 run. Elway brought in reinforcements in free agent cornerbacks Kareem Jackson, who\u2019s been moved to strong safety, and Bryce Callahan.<\/p>\n

WEAK LINKS<\/p>\n

The Broncos\u2019 injury epidemic in training camp settled on two positions: tight end, where Fant\u2019s foot injury made him the fifth at his position to get hurt, and inside linebacker, where Todd Davis (calf) got hurt on the first day and was soon joined by fellow starter Josey Jewell (oblique) and top backup Joe Jones (triceps).<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco takes a break during a combined NFL training camp with the San Francisco 49ers Saturday, Aug. 17, 2019, at the Broncos’ headquarters in Englewood, Colo. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)AP | AP DENVER \u2014 Joe Flacco left behind his doubters and his old team for a second chapter in Denver, just as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1313875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 10:09:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}