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LINCICOME: Reality check of fantasies

Published September 6, 2007 at midnight

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All football is fantasy football before the NFL season starts and never more necessary than this year in Broncoland.

How do we fantasize thee, let us count the ways.

• Fantasy 1: Jay Cutler is ready to lead the Broncos.

The silliness of expectation is no better illustrated than the early comparisons of Cutler to a familiar NFL great, not John Elway, but Brett Favre.

This is because of Cutler's daring and arm strength and self-assurance, all terrific attributes for a quarterback to have, but not necessarily compatible with the caution and deliberate game-planning of Mike Shanahan. Adjustments will be made.

Favre had a good five years of apprenticeship before establishing his greatness, and he still never quite learned what should be done in place of what could be done. Elway, too, did not settle into his legend until the famous Drive in Cleveland, some four years into his career.

Cutler has until the first snap in Buffalo.

• Fantasy 2: D.J. Williams, a better athlete, will be every bit the middle linebacker that Al Wilson was.

Wilson will be missed more than any other departed Bronco, a man whose fearlessness and daring held together a defense soft up front, unsure on the sides and susceptible in the back.

His willingness to mix it up surely contributed to the neck injury that has removed from the Broncos their leading tackler, defensive captain and emotional leader.

According to no less an authority than Shanahan, it is a lot harder to play outside linebacker than inside, which is why Shanahan should stick to offense.

• Fantasy 3: Travis Henry will be the usual ground-grabbing running back for the Broncos, avoid injury and even if he doesn't, there is always Mike Bell.

The string of productive runners since Terrell Davis has created the myth of the plug-in Broncos running back, when what might come in more handy is a plug-into-the-end zone running back, which Henry is supposed to be. Otherwise, it's the little flare to the fullback or a field goal.

Henry, with only one relatively injury-free season, did not even make it through the preseason, where not Bell became the fall-back guy, but Cecil Sapp, and if Sapp becomes a 1,000-yard back, no one will ever dispute that it is the Broncos system and not the Broncos runner.

• Fantasy 4: Two Brandons at wide receiver are worth one Rod Smith at age 30, or even 33.

Javon Walker is, as expected, the guy Smith used to be, except for, you know, going across the middle and making the clutch catch and suckering the secondary into the occasional long one.

Brandon Marshall and/or Brandon Stokley are supposed to take up the slack, which is like asking two sandwich bags to be a backpack.

• Fantasy 5: The secondary is the best in the league based on credentials and experience and not, on the other hand, creaking down the backside of their careers.

In actual age, the Broncos defensive backfield is older than farming, or to give a holiday, it will be 128 years old by Thanksgiving.

Two of the most recognizable Broncos are there in big-play corner Champ Bailey and camera-ready safety John Lynch, with fresh face Dré Bly at one corner and once-fringe free agent Nick Ferguson the other safety.

The difference between seasoned and stale is a bad Sunday.

• Fantasy 6: Out of sheer numbers and draft picks, the defensive line will find someone who can (1) rush the passer (2) clog up the middle (3) apologize later.

From having defensive linemen falling all over each other, the Broncos shrank to defensive linemen simply falling out, from injury (Ebenezer Ekuban) to fed up with (Gerard Warren), leaving the remainders no closer to a cohesive, functioning unit capable of stopping the run or getting to the quarterback than such disorder would suggest.

The likely starting defensive line of John Engelberger, Jarvis Moss, Sam Adams and Amon Gordon would be entirely different from the line that started the last game of last season, not that there's anything wrong with that.

• Fantasy 7: Every new Bronco is better than every Bronco he replaces.

In fact, there will be at least 10 new Broncos starters, not including Cutler, who is almost as raw as a fresh wound. All of this to play a tougher schedule than the one Shanahan gave up on last year.

Make this one 9-7 and no playoffs again. And that might be a fantasy.