After an ugly contract dispute led to the Denver Broncos shipping the irascible Brandon Marshall out of town, it seemed like the Broncos had turned the corner on contract issues. As The Denver Post points out, the team has recently handed generous contracts to Elvis Dumervil (five years, $61.5 million) and Kyle Orton (one-year extension, $7.6 million). That’s why it seems odd that the Broncos have inexplicably backed out of a contract offer for fan-favorite Champ Bailey before he and his agent had a chance to fully review it.

“I am disappointed, because I want to be here,” Bailey says. “We know that, they know that. What’s the issue here, really?”

It would be unlike Bailey to let the situation affect his play, and that’s good for the Broncos heading into Sunday’s tough matchup against the Baltimore Ravens on the road. Broncos defensive lineman Justin Bannan knows the Ravens well, having played four years in Baltimore before signing in Denver this year as a free agent. He tells The Baltimore Sun it was hard to leave the Ravens and a community he liked, but he’s loved Colorado since his time as a star at the University of Colorado.

Too bad Bannan can’t pitch in on the offensive side of the ball, where quarterback Kyle Orton seems to be carrying the load all on his own. Even though he’s leading the league in passing, there are reasons for concern, as USA Today writes. The Broncos’ bottom-ranked running game has the potential to make the team one-dimensional, a major liability going against a defense as tenacious as the Ravens’. It doesn’t help that Denver’s leading rusher, Knowshon Moreno, will likely miss another week with a bum hamstring (via ESPN).