Schedule Analysis

There is really no way to really predict a teams record based on their schedule. Look at last year's Pittsburgh Steelers. They had the hardest schedule and when NFL Executive Howard Katz released the schedule last year, he called the Steelers' Front Office and apologized. All Pittsburgh did was win the Super Bowl, so I am not going to give a win or a loss for each game. I do like to look at the primetime games and the road trips and short weeks that can make an NFL schedule a minefield.

Here were the different aspects of the Broncos 2009 schedule that stood out:

1) Denver opens on the road for the 5th consecutive season. I thought that Denver would get the first week at home, but they open at Cincy in Week 1.

2) They only have back to back road games once (12/6 at KC and 12/13 at Indy). Anytime you can avoid multiple road games is a good thing.

3) They have back to back home games twice (10/4 vs. Dallas and 10/11 vs. New England and 11/22 vs. San Diego and 11/26 vs NY Giants).

4) They have two Monday Night games and one Thursday Night game to give them a total of three primetime games in 2009. That is pretty good for a team that had the worst offseason of any team in the NFL and is projected to win a maximum of 5 games next year.

5) They have six 1:00 pm EST early games on the schedule. That has to be the most early games on a Bronco schedule in a long time.

6) Finally, Denver gets to go to the Whale's Vagina earlier then December. The Broncos had to go on the road to SD in December in '04, '05, '06, '07, and '08. Their record 1-4. Denver plays at SD on Monday October 19th.