Vance Joseph was a first year head coach who never felt entirely in command of his coaching staff, and put too much trust in his assistants to coach and game-plan. Locker room strife pervaded the Broncos locker room and the result was a 5-11 season. There have been coaching changes and the roster will be addressed throughout the rest of the off season.

Tom Coughlin: Lesson about free agency: The target age of potential signings should always be players who are 26 or 27 years old. The theory being that those players still have their best football in front of them, while having shown they have the tools in their first four/five seasons to be a nice contributor and maybe more. Pay for what's coming, not for what has been.

Offense: RT Menelik Watson: "will be back" (6'5 310). Picked up WR Demaryius Thomas' option and WR Emmanuel Sanders is coming back. RB CJ Anderson remains in limbo. GM John Elway evidently prefers not to totally give up on former first-rounder (quarterback) Paxton Lynch. Lynch will serve as the direct backup to new starter Case Keenum. It will be Keenum's job to put points on the board and protect the football. It is unlikely Denver will add to the position with the No. 5 overall pick, but Lynch must make significant strides. Billed as a three-year project coming out of college, Lynch is entering his third NFL season. T Jared Veldheer will slot in at right tackle and his experience and leadership should make the Broncos' line better.

Defense: DE Derek Wolfe is moving forward with the team. Denver had three corners playing over 70 percent of snaps last year which will make corner back a draft/free agent priority with CB Aqib Talib being traded. The Broncos defense has to get past the old excuses of the past if the team is going to rise above the failures of last season. CB Tramaine Brock was added to be the nickel corner back (one-year contract) and ILB Todd Davis (three-year deal) keeps the inside linebacker duo intact. DL Clinton McDonald was added to provide depth for the defensive line as more of an interior pass rusher than a dominant run-stuffer. S Su'a Cravens is a young and extremely talented box safety/nickel linebacker hybrid.

Traded: CB Aqib Talib to LA Rams for a 5th round draft pick. Traded Pick 182 to Arizona for T Jared Veldheer (6'8, 321). Swapped fourth and fifth round Draft picks, an additional fifth-rounder this year and a conditional 2020 sixth round pick in exchange for third-year Washington safety Su'a Cravens.

Free Agency: The Broncos tendered exclusive rights free agent DE Shelby Harris, the potential successor to Derek Wolfe. The Broncos also tendered ERFAs WR Jordan Taylor, LS Casey Kreiter, OT Elijah Wilkinson and linebackers Zaire Anderson, Joseph Jones and Jerrol Garcia-Williams. In addition, the Broncos placed a second-round tender on RFAs Shaquil Barrett (OLB) and Matt Paradis (C). WR Bennie Fowler, was not tendered. The Broncos picked up WR Demaryius Thomas' $4 million option, retaining him for the next two seasons.

Signed: QB Case Keenum ($18-$20 million a year); CB Tramaine Brock (nickel); ILB Todd Davis; G Billy Turner; K Taylor Bertolet; LS Christian Kuntz; DL Clinton McDonald (two-year deal); S Su'a Cravens. P Marquette King

Lost: ILB Corey Nelson; TE Virgil Green; WR Cody Latimer

Draft: no round 6 or 7 pick

Combine: Players who performed well and should be on the Broncos radar: Penn State RB Saquon Barkley; Florida DL Taven Bryan; Texas Tech WR Dylan Cantrell; LSU WR D. J. Chark; Fordham RB Chase Edmonds (explosive film); Penn State TE Mike Gesick; UCF LB Shaquem Griffin 40-yard dash (4.38 seconds); UTEP G Will Hernandez; Boston College edge rusher Harold Landry; Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield; UCLA OT Kolton Miller; Maryland WR D. J. Moore.

Mock Draft: I wish I had a crystal ball to see what Elway will do in the draft. but the best I can do is forecast my choices in a plausible draft. Pick 5 G Quenton Nelson; 40 OT Chukwuma Okorafor; 71 CB Donte Jackson; 99 QB Luke Falk; 106 NT Joshua Frazier; 113 RB Kerryon Johnson; 149 DL Trenton Thompson; 160 WR Equanimeous St. Brown.

Denver no longer has the veteran talent to carry it 100 percent of the time. The Broncos did the job of developing their Draft classes in Elway’s first four years, but from about 2015 on, they has not been equal to the task. We can chalk it up to the high turnover in coaching staffs, pre-Draft ineptitude and coaching dereliction. The onus is on Vance Joseph and his staff.

End.