Rotoworld has reported that Matt Lepsis, Broncos Left Tackle, will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Does that, in addition to the reports that Tatum was on the sideline with a Turf-Toe problem, mean a significant reduction in Tatum's production?
I'm not all that familiar with the Broncos O-Line, but from Shanny's reaction...
``Anytime you lose one of your top players for the season, it's always a pretty good punch,'' coach Mike Shanahan said Monday. ``It's a knockout punch almost.''
...it doesn't sound good.Thoughts?
Of course it doesn't sound good. Matt Lepsis was easily one of the elite LTs in the game. Losing Lepsis is akin to losing Walter Jones. He doesn't get the pub, but he is absolutely without question one of the top-3 tackles (perhaps even #1), and he gets paid accordingly, too. Anytime you lose a guy you've devoted $9 million dollars of cap space to (something like a twelfth of the total cap), you're going to be hurting.With that said... Denver has some decent depth. They have options, and experienced backups. And there are, of course, two huge points to keep in mind. First off, Denver "survived" for two seasons with Ephraim "I'm so bad I'm even a backup in Houston" Salaam at left tackle. I put "survived" in quotes because one of those seasons was one of the three best rushing seasons in Shanahan's tenure, and the other was pretty darn good, too. The second point is that Denver lost Tom Nalen for 9 games back in 2002, and again they survived just fine. Tom Nalen's a hall-of-fame caliber center.
Is this a hit to Denver's offense? Absolutely. Lepsis was probably the biggest mauler of a run-blocker on the entire line. Still, rumors of Tatum Bell's demise are a trifle premature. I'd hold for at least a couple more weeks to see how everything shakes out, first.