The Denver Broncos on Friday signed free-agent guard Dylan Gandy, Head Coach Mike Shanahan announced. As per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Broncos also on Friday waived guard Isaac Snell.

Gandy (6-foot-3, 302 pounds) is a fourth-year player who spent his first three professional seasons with Indianapolis. Selected by the Colts in the fourth round (129th overall) of the 2005 NFL Draft from Texas Tech University, Gandy has played 42 career games with 14 starts in the regular season.

The 26-year-old also has appeared in six career playoff games (1 start), including the Colts’ victory in Super Bowl XLI during the 2006 season.

In 2007, Gandy saw time in 10 games for Indianapolis and recorded one start at right guard. He appeared in all 16 regular-season games, starting a career-high 11 contests at left guard, for the Colts’ Super Bowl XLI-champion team in 2006 that allowed an NFL-low 15 sacks and averaged an AFC-best 379.4 yards per game.

He played 16 games (2 starts) for the Colts as a rookie in 2005.  At Texas Tech, Gandy started 20 games during his four-year career. He received honorable mention All-Big 12 Conference honors after not allowing a sack as a senior. Gandy, who attended Pflugerville High School in Pflugerville, Texas, was born on March 8, 1982.

I sent out an email to one of our more decorated Broncomaniacs here at Mile High Report in the hopes of capturing some of the emotion and intrigue of our earlier years in the league.

We are fortunate to have members here like firstfan, TrinidadJack, Broncosfanstuckinsd, and others who are able to give us youngsters a glimpse into the past.  A glimpse of what it was like to be a Bronco fan when the team struggled to win more than four games in a season.   A glimpse of the pride and love the fans had for this team.

This is my first real interview of someone since the ninth grade, so be kind!

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Well, it looks like you guys are ready to go.  You've got an area set up that is suitable to your scouting work, and you have lined out many of the supplies that you will need to have on hand.  Don't worry if you haven't thought of everything...  because you haven't, but you are going to have plenty of time to get the process fleshed out, and what you do have in place is bound to save time and make the whole process a lot more enjoyable.  And if the rest of the membership are like me, they can't wait to see the kind of work you are going to do.

So at this point I would like to take a look at some very basic guidelines for setting up your scouting 'system.'  There is no right way, only better ways and worse ways, and if at any time you see a method that can be improved on, feel free to outline it in the comments.

If you're ready, I'll meet you below the fold, and I hope you have been playing around with your database software, because that is the first task we are going to tackle.

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Here's a Thursday edition of Horse Tracks.  Enjoy!

What's a good way to sell your brand of green chile?  Have former Bronco Mark Schlereth promote it.  See here

A Dallas Star knows what Cutler is going through.  See here

This article talks about the Broncos regaining the fans "blind faith".  See here

Here's a story on what Eddie Royal's impact could be last year.  See here

Dave Kreiger talks about how it's not easy for an athlete to call it quits.  See here

AFC West

The conquered fader nation signed a former Buc DE.  Let's hope they have as much luck as we had with another former Buc, Simeon Rice.  See here

The Missouri Indians are going ro release Greg Wesley.  See here

NFL News

The Patriots accepted an apology from the Boston Herald for reporting falsely about  the team taping the Rams before their first championship.  Better late than never right?  See here

Not to be outdone, Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa) wants an independent probe of this scandal.  Gee, the Senate can't get an energy policy to reduce gas prices or solve the many other problems this country has, but they can waste time on this.  No wonder Congerss has the lowest approval ratings ever!  See here

That's all I have.  Have a good day!

There has been much discussion in recent years about the ability of an African American to quarterback in the NFL.  Prior to the new millennium, the Warren Moon’s and Randall Cunningham’s of the world were more exceptions to the rule rather than a rewriting of the rule.  It wasn’t until the late 90’s and into our current time that African American quarterbacks finally began to be taken seriously by NFL teams, scouts, coaches, the media, and everyone else in America.  There is no longer any debate that African Americans are every bit as able to command and lead at the quarterback position, nor is there any debate that a person is unable to grasp complex schemes and systems based on their race.

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Defensive Tackle was a position of need heading into the 2008 NFL Draft for the Broncos.  Just days before Draft Weekend, the Broncos secured DeWayne Robertson from the New York Jets, but still felt the need to inject some youth to the position by selecting DT Carlton Powell from Virginia Tech.

via media3.washingtonpost.com

Recently, Carlton was nice enough to answer some questions from members of MileHighrReport.com.  We thank Carlton again for taking the time to help us get to know him, and thanks to everyone who posted questions here at the site --

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Welcome to another edition of MHR Tech Tips!

In the third installment of the series, we will learn how to make your post look good by learning how to put pictures in your posts!

Note how I have a picture at the top of my article. I'm not an artist. MHR staff member Sirsam (our resident artistic/graphics professional) designed it. But how did I get it on my post? How do I get pictures of players or illustrations of football formations on a post?

It's not a secret. I'm a computer illiterate, and I can do it. I'm going to help you be able to do it to. If you get stuck, or have problems, this is the place to experiment and ask questions. All of the members here are glad to help anyone who wants it. Let's get started!

Click the button that invites you to read more of the story so you can read the rest...

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This is a transcript of Jim Goodman's conversation about the draft from this fanshot put up by JonT .  I've taken some liberties with some paraphrasing here and there, but the heart of what he was talking about is there.  I thought this would be useful for any members who aren't able to watch videos on their CPUs, or who haven't had time to watch the whole video (its over 40 minutes long.)  Enjoy!

Jim Goodman

Director of Player Personnel

About getting ready for the draft:

The process takes 12 months, we start in May, when the National Scouting Service that we are a member of, gives us approximately 1000 names.  We go over thsoe names and give grades to them and distribute the names to our seven area scouts, and all of those guys have to get scouted, and reports have to be written on every one of those guys, plus any guys that  start to come out in their senior year.  So you'll end up doing anywhere from 1200 to 1400 reports a year, in order to get your 9 guys.

From there we have the season, the bowl games and feature games, and then the combine, and then we have a series of meetings between the scouts, between the scouts and coaches, and we take about a month to get that list narrowed down to around 300 names, and we end up talking about those 300 very specifically.

The hardest thing about evaluating, period, is what is in a guy's heart.  What makes him a player?  What gives him the will to succeed?  To see a guy's will to win and what he is willing to do to succeed, is the hardest thing for us to do.

On the hectic nature of draftday:

Actually, when the draft is going, it is real calm.  We have a game plan, and we go through every conceivable scenario beforehand, we get an idea of where guys could possibly go.  We will rank guys, so that we can say, "Ok, coach, if this ones gone and this ones gone, what is your game plan here?"  We are doing constant drills like that all the time, so that we can have a gameplan to go to just like in a football game.  But you always have to keep an eye on guys whose value is too high to bypass.  For example, you may not need a RB, but if you look up and see a can't miss guy, well, you had better take him.  But by the same token you have to know what your needs are, so you want the best choice for your need, but you need to ask yourself, "Is there a value here that is too good to pass up?"  That happens every round.  I remember a guy that really got my attention was Spencer Larsen, our 6th round choice out of Arizona, just a great kid, a guy that has his head on right, such a good player who plays with all his might, gives all he has every play.  He's a guy we look at and say "HE is going to make it at his position," so I'm really excited about him.

On Ryan Clady:

Ryan is a great athlete.  You don't see many 6'7" 300 lb tackles, that are that athletic and have that kind of foot quickness, that have that good of body quickness.  People just aren't made like that.  This guys has 37 inch arms, a great wingspan, a great range to kick step out of, to protect the backside of a QB, so he has probowl potential.  He has the potential, and the game has only begun with him.  He's got it all.

On Eddie Royal:

Eddie is a guy we looked at as a premier returner.  He is as good as I have seen.  he reminds me of Figures, of Devon Hester, but he is a good WR, don't let his return ability stop you from seeing that.  He is great in the seam and does very well getting off press coverage and getting after the deep ball, so we think there is a lot of upside.

Quietly, somewhat too quietly, the NFLPA and Owners sat down last week to begin looking at a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.  In NFLPA Chief Gene Upshaw's weekly 100 Wordson the NFLPA website, the embattled Union Head had this to say about the proceedings --

We met with NFL negotiators last Thursday in New York. Attendees included owners Jerry Richardson and Pat Bowlen, the League’s financial team and its new outside attorney, Bob Batterman. The NFL discussed the 32 teams’ financial condition and how the CBA has caused every club to lose money. They are attempting to gather financial information to share with the NFLPA. We made it clear that we are willing to discuss their financial condition, but we cannot expect our players to embrace the NFL’s position without the owners providing audited financial statements. This is just the first step in the process.

As many of you know, Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen is an imporant part of this process, being the League's point-man in negiations with the Players' Union.  Many have wondered if the virtual belt tightening within the Broncos was in direct correllation to the impending labor unrest.  The team has denied the fact, but one has to seriously wonder if the man charged with proving to the Union can effectively do that if his team isn't showing signs of fiscal prudence.

On the flip-side, it is easy to get a read on Gene Upshaw's stance.  The guy is fighting for his job, and with Kevin Mawae, the NFLPA President, saying no change in leadership would be made while there is CBA unrest, it is safe to say Upshaw will let these negotiations rattle on as long as possible.  Something to keep your eyes on to be sure.