November 18, 2008 11:09 PM

Broncos Inbox -- Nov. 19

Welcome, the Broncos Inbox is open and leading off is a flurry of regulars who were fired up about the Broncos linebackers in the Atlanta game . . .

Q: Early in the season, Mike Shanahan referred to Wesley Woodyard as a future starter. With each passing week, it becomes more and more obvious that he needs to be on the field. With the Broncos locking up D.J. Williams for five more years at the same position, what are the options to get Woodyard on the field? Before the draft, he was viewed as a possible safety prospect. Does Denver see him that way? Or, would they possibly ask D.J. to shift positions yet again?

A: The Broncos were happy as well with how the linebackers played against the Falcons. They went in with the top priority being to stop, or at least slow, Atlanta running back Michael Turner and they did it with five backups playing on the defense, including all three of the linebackers to go with cornerback Josh Bell and safety Calvin Lowry.

Woodyard has certainly grabbed their attention overall. They like both his passion and the composure he shows on the field.

He's aggressive to the ball and closes with the kind of speed that is difficult to find. Certainly when Williams is ready to come back he will be in the defense - they consider Williams and Champ Bailey their two best players on defense. They could get Williams back into the middle if they decide it's worth trying to play both Williams and Woodyard in the defense at the same time.

Woodyard is likely a little too small to play the strong side on a consistent basis or in the middle and to put Williams on the strong side would be, once again, putting him at a position where he wouldn't always play to his strong points, which are his pursuit skills and open field explosiveness.

He is one of the fastest big linebackers in the league and consistently having him smashing into the tight end, at least to me, is really taking away what he does best. I liked his play in the middle after looking back through the games of '07 and thought he could have stayed there this season, but they wanted to move him back to the weak side and he has certainly played well there.

But if they want to play Woodyard when everybody's healthy, they'll likely have to move Williams to do it. A lot to ask of Williams again, but it would be an indication of how much they want Woodyard in the defense if they even consider moving Williams back into the middle.

They were likely still a couple weeks away from that kind of decision.

It would be interesting to see how Woodyard would fair as a strong or free safety, but that may be an offseason type of move if the Broncos even consider it worth trying. That's not something they'd think about at the moment because they are trying to get through a season and win a division, etc... and aren't really looking to experiment with much if they don't have to.

The player to watch in all of this is Nate Webster. Mike Shanahan has consistently said, unlike some other head coaches, that a player can lose his job because of injury if another guy comes in and plays better than the player who got hurt.

He has consistently done that over the years and if the defense continues its recent play over the next couple weeks, Webster, like Niko Koutouvides, could find himself watching others play. Koutouvides filled in for Webster to close out the Cleveland game, but the Broncos elected to give Larsen the nod at middle linebacker against the Falcons and thought enough of what Larsen did to have now moved Koutouvides to the backup spot on the weak-side where he is already behind Woodyard and would also be behind Williams as well when Williams is ready to come back.

They'll be looking at Larsen hard in the middle over the next couple games as well. His 40 times weren't great before the draft -- he ran 4.85 and 4.91 in his 40s at the combine and ran two 4.8s at his campus workout a few weeks later - so he is going to have to continue to show he can get to the ball when teams know he's going to be in the defense.

The Falcons didn't know he would be playing so wouldn't have had anything special to come after him in the gameplan. The coming games will be different now that people will have a chance to look at him.

But Larsen is a quality finisher; he hits through the target and gets the ballcarrier to the ground. They really like that and it's why he's now playing on defense after spending the first nine games of the regular season on offense.

He may have had the chance to show a little more in training camp, but he had a death in his family - so he returned to Arizona for a few days -- and he had an injury as well so they didn't get as full a look as they might have had he not missed any days.

As far as Winborn, there are few players on the field right now the Broncos are happier with than they are with Winborn. He can play all three linebacker spots and has when needed as well as now handling the defensive signals in the earpiece in his helmet and making sure the front seven is aligned the way they should be.

He's making tackles, having few assignment errors and while some folks are turned off by his celebrations after some rather routine looking plays from time to time, the Broncos like his enthusiasm in practice during the week and he's come up big when they've needed him as well.

Larsen and Woodyard likely couldn't push him out of the lineup right now, even when Williams comes back. At least that's the current climate that Winborn, Williams and one of the other two - Woodyard or Larsen - would be at the third spot.

But things could change when it's really time to make those decisions and the way the injuries have happened, there's always a chance they have another and have to make yet another adjustment.

Al Amatore in San Diego led a double dip about the running back situation . . .

Q: Don't you think that Tatum Bell will be used by Shanahan to help create enough (in the) rushing offense to take the pressure off (Jay) Cutler?

A: As far as Hillis, a couple things happened. When I broke him down before the draft it was easy to see he had quality hands and his strength numbers were good and obviously the versatility was something that made him popular among scouts.

Some couldn't decide where they would play him and that always makes some general managers nervous when it's time to use a pick in a seven-round draft on a guy if there is no consensus about where to play him.

A lot of teams saw him as a receiving tight end that could play as an H-back in some offenses. Others saw a fullback and a lot of teams simply won't use a draft pick on a fullback any more because a lot of teams are spreading things out on offense and believe they don't have enough downs for a fullback to play to make drafting one worth their while.

Hillis ran a 4.66 40 on the electronic clock at the combine and dropped that to a 4.57 in his on-campus workout - so those numbers were fine. But several scouts who were at the Arkansas workout - and teams sent a ton of people because McFadden and Jones were there - said Hillis dropped some balls in passing drills.

With so many people there for that one workout, he may had slid a little more because of that.

Workouts impact a player's standing for some teams more than others. Some personnel people consider them pressure-packed affairs where it's good to see how a player reacts to that kind of situation.

Others believe you can't simply discount what a guy did in games if he has a sub-par day in one part of the workouts.

But in the end the Broncos did what teams that draft well can do, they got late value on a quality prospect. And they knew what they wanted to do with the player once they selected him.

It's why two of their last three drafts have had such a big impact on what the team is doing right now.

As far as Bell there is some thought among those with the team that the time out of the league - the Lions cut him before the season opener -- showed him that football is not a forever deal. I think they see a little better work ethic from him right now and they think he arrived in a little better shape than they expected him to be in.

So I would think they would increase his workload as they go on over the next few weeks, especially with Selvin Young still a question mark with the groin injury.

No small sign that running backs coach Bobby Turner had Bell in the game Sunday to close things out. It shows they have confidence in him.

Papi, with a nod toward the defense, asked . . .

Q: With all problems Denver has at safety, why didn't the team consider promoting Josh Barrett to the active roster? Is Barrett really that raw?

A: Barrett, who ran a 4.35 40 on the electronic clock - at 223 pounds - at the scouting combine, certainly has the measurables. But he is raw in terms of what people saw from him at Arizona St.

A lot of scouts thought he needed improvement on his angles he took to make the play and some believed he was going to be limited in the NFL as far as working in the open field in 1-on-1 situations.

He'll have to show he can have impact on special teams in training camp next summer and that will be the first thing that gets him on the field.

He has had some medical issues as well that forced some other teams to shy away. He had two different shoulder dislocations in his college career and had a surgery to repair each of them.

He also played several games with a cast on his right wrist.

And finally Robert Johnson in Kilmichael, Miss., took a look ahead . . .

Q: Do you think Patrick Ramsey will be Jay Cutler's backup in 2009 or do you think the Broncos will replace Ramsey with another veteran quarterback?

A: That probably depends on what doctors, and Ramsey, end up deciding what the course of action will be for his right (throwing) elbow.

He is wearing a brace on the elbow right now and is slated to find out in the coming weeks what will come next. If the elbow shows signs of improvement he won't need surgery.

However, there is a scenario where he would need not just surgery, but Tommy John surgery to replace a ligament. If he were to have that surgery he would likely miss all of the 2009 season in his recovery.

So what his future is as far as next season will depend on what he elects to do. If he ends up having Tommy John surgery the Broncos would have to then decide is they are comfortable with Darrell Hackney being Cutler's backup, as he is at the moment, or if they would need to go out and find another veteran to put behind Cutler.

That's it and thanks.

--Jeff Legwold

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