WR Jabar Gaffney Has A Great Opporunity

The resume is there - playoff games, Super Bowl, the catches, the yards, the testimonials from the likes of Bill Belichick about the way he plays.

But in eight previous seasons in the NFL, Jabar Gaffney never has led his team in catches, or receiving yards. He may finally be in position to change all that. With Brandon Marshall taking his off-the-field baggage and three 100-catch seasons to Miami, the Broncos are a team with an opening for a go-to guy in the offense.

"I'm looking at it the way I've always looked at it, going in like I was the No. 1," Gaffney said. "Just waiting for my opportunity to make more catches, have more impact, more chances to make more plays.

"I'm a team-first guy; that's what keeps me around. So you just embrace the opportunities you have. If it happens to be more catches, more opportunities, more balls coming your way, then you try to make the best of it and be ready for it."

Gaffney isn't the biggest receiver on the Broncos' roster, and he isn't the fastest, but if knowledge is power, he may be the most powerful.

He played in Josh McDaniels' offense in New England before he arrived in Denver last year, and he is proficient at as many as five wide receiver spots, depending on how deep the coaches go into the playbook to open up the formation.

"(Gaffney's) always where you need him to be and where you expect him to be," Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton said. "And he does that at every spot. As a quarterback, if you know what you're getting from a receiver, that's always going to help."

Belichick, renowned for tossing praise around like anvils, once described Gaffney as "a tactician." He is a player who can beat you with his head as well as his feet and hands.

When Marshall was benched by McDaniels for the 2009 season finale, it was Gaffney who was Orton's leading target in the ill-fated season-ending loss to the Chiefs. In a game when the Broncos elected to throw the ball 56 times against the league's 31st-ranked run defense, it was Gaffney who finished with 14 catches for 213 yards.

In Gaffney's favor, the Broncos have a reasonably easy schedule, but as number one receivers go, he's one of the worst. Gaffney is currently at 56 in our rankings. He might be worth a spot start against an easy opponent, but that's about it.