At almost every opportunity to throw the Broncos defense of 2008 under any passing Greyhound, first-year Broncos coach Josh McDaniels has instead offered something on the order of:

"We want to make the whole team better."

Good thing. Because with a draft board full of hopefuls staring them in the face, a closer look at the Broncos' special teams numbers from the past year reveals almost as big a job as repairing a defense that has surrendered 400 points in back-to-back seasons.

The Broncos weren't ranked higher than 13th in any major special teams category, and they were ranked higher than 23rd in just one — punt return average at 9.8 yards per return, checking in at 13th.

Beyond that is a long road of ugliness. Consider:

* The Broncos were 23rd in kickoff returns (21.83-yard average).

* They were 28th in kickoff coverage and 28th in punt coverage.

* And they were 30th in their average drive start after kickoffs, 19th in opponents' average drive start after kickoffs, 30th in getting punts down inside the 20, 30th in field-goal percentage, tied for last in blocked kicks (zero) and tied for last in special teams takeaways (zero).

Put all of that as well as several other major components together you have one of the worst teams in the league on special teams. So much so when Rick Gosselin, long-time NFL columnist for the Dallas Morning News crunched all of the above numbers with plenty of others in his annual special teams rankings – an much-anticipated read for special-teams coaches around the league – the Broncos settled in at 31st overall in the league when the math was completed.

That puts the Broncos in the league's basement on special teams to go with the fact they were one of the worst teams in the league on defense, just one of three teams that has surrendered at least 400 points in each of the last two season – Detroit and St. Louis were the others.

That's two thirds of the well-worn three phases of the game which coaches near and far speak of when assessing how things are going.

And it also means those expecting a quick fix, that the Broncos offense can simply overcome blemishes that run that deep, may need two scoops of patience. And when Broncos general manager Brian Xanders floated the idea of trying to acquire more draft picks recently, that too is an indication of just how big the job will be to dig out when money's also tight.

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With the opening of free agency Friday morning, there is still the air of potential disappointment for most players who currently find themselves on the open market.

While the big-ticket guys like Albert Haynesworth is certainly to find something to his liking, others will find a cooled market low on cash.

Many teams with newer stadiums are staring at rather substantial debt service as well as the prospect of unsold seats, lost marketing deals from perennial heavyweights like General Motors and in some cases, even sagging local broadcast rights, if the economy doesn't pick up steam.

Head coach after head coach, general manager after general manager at the league's scouting combine hinted at a far more frugal approach this time around. Of course folks have heard that song before only to see teams like the Broncos lavish a $2.5 million signing bonus on a wide receiver (Keary Colbert) last March who had one touchdown catch in his previous three seasons combined or see the Raiders toss around cash they had to borrow to pay punter Shane Lechler and cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.

Agents and players would argue the league's chief revenue stream – network TV money – will not be altered this year. That is true and the NFL Players Association acting executive director Richard Berthelsen continues to say "there's enough money to go around" as the union prepares to dig in for labor talks with the league owners in the coming months.

But with even the ultimate money talks guy – Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones – feeling the pinch of a lost naming rights deal and the burden of putting plenty of his own money in a new stadium, the new watchword is "value."

McDaniels even outlined the Broncos approach this way:

"I think what we're looking to do is accumulate a roster where their value off the field equals the value on the field. That's really the goal. So if a player earns a tremendous amount of money, that's fine as long as he's producing at that level. I think that's every team's goal, but that's certainly our goal is to try to pay people what they're worth.

"I think there are a lot of players who are worth a lot of money and if some of those players are attracted to us and would fit into our system then we might have an interest in them too. I think the goal is not to have everybody at a smaller salary, it's to make sure you get the players there who are going to fit into your system and you place a value on them and they perform at that level."