Sorry I just looked at that roster and knew I had it wrong.

Though there are those of us who vocally dislike him, but I am definitely in your camp in regards to Shanahan. He has done nothing but keep the Denver Broncos a tough competitive team during his entire tenure…not to mention two Super Bowl titles. ;)

From what I’ve seen of the contributors on MHR at least everyone is thoughtful and I am not immune to having my own opinion swayed by valid facts.

Anyway, if one 7-9 season meant, “fire the coach” there would be 15 new hires every year. I think Shanny’s track record deservers the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks for reading Zappa.

suitabe replacement. Sure, he has had his bad moments, but when the torches are lit and the pitchforks are picked up in anger, no one can ever come up with a more appropriate candidate.

Houston and Kubiak seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly, so there is no realistic chance of getting him to come back and run the Broncos.

I think perspective is related a lot to age. If I were a young guy and my team had just lost I would live in the present. As an older guy I don’t get stuck in the present.

Sure last season was painful. But looking at the season from the perspective of being a fan for decades, and you realize that we Broncos fans are spoiled. We are so used to playoff appearences that we don’t realize that most teams rarely see a playoff.

I’m willing to trade the rare losing season for the mulitple chances Mike’s teams give us. The first goal is to get to the playoffs, and the season starts over right there. Shanahan gives us more chances at SBs most years by just getting us to the playoffs. Look at what he did in Plummer’s last year (AFC Championship game), and that was recent!

I look at Mike’s record, not one season. When you look at his record with this team, you can’t really recommend a better coach.

Good call HB!

I think most fans who want to oust Shanahan are 1) Spoiled as ht points out or 2) not aware of what all Coach Shanahan brings to the office every day in terms of knowledge, experience, dedication, and desire.

They are not bad people, just uninformed.

... to add very much that’s new. But I can say I remember the bad old days. Things have never been sweeter than they have been under Shanahan.

I have quit the newspaper web-site comments because of the horrible calls for Shanny’s head. I live in Seahawk-country and after our 7-9 season people here were hoping Mike’s time would be freed up. They were very much hoping because they very much want him in Seattle.

Between logical, critical analysis, and knee-jerk over-reaction. It’s easy to say “OMG 2 bad seasons, fire Shanny!” But that is pretty poor logic. The struggles of the past season are (IMO) the result of some bad drafts 4-6 years ago. Is it appropriate for us to look at those drafts and examine their flaws? Of course! But most here would concur that the last 3-4 drafts have been good to excellent…suggesting a change in fortunes in the very near future. It doesn’t make sense to can the staff that is presiding over such a rebuilding.

Plus…excessive negativity is never good (but neither is excessive optimism, oddly enough.) Mistakes have been made, but the team is (again, IMO) trending up. Shanahan has a legacy of winning, and I wouldn’t trade that for any of the “I’m just going to cover my @$$” coaches out there.

However, I think it’s worth at least pointing out that as a coach and playcaller, he has taken the foot off the gas near the end of the game a few times in recent seasons and we have lost as a result. To me, the Chicago game last year was by far the most egregious. The play calling became extremely conservative (run, run, run, punt--to Devin Hester, no less) once he had adjudged the margin to be enough—it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely on Shanny’s side: I’m very optimistic after this draft, and with players coming back from injuries [specifically Nalen and Hamilton], and a more favorable schedule than last year, I’m certain we’ll surprise more than a few “experts.” Also, I’m by no means a fan of Belicheat and running up the score. Yet, I’d like to see a little more of the killer instinct I saw in years previous, because I think Shanny of ten years ago showed that there’s a difference between killing off a game with an assertive and appropriately aggressive offensive strategy and running up the score, in my opinion.

Re: MattR’s comment. I couldn’t agree with you more. Having suffered through all those Reeves’ Era losses, I’ve grown fairly attached to Shanny’s success, and I have faith that he can take us back there. It’s just going to take a little more time and tinkering.

see Steelers, Pittsburgh. Bill Cowher was HC for 15 years, had 3 losing seasons and a 3-season streak of no playoffs. He was supposedly on the hot seat several times, but they stuck with him and finally won. Cowher won just once, but he will forever remain in Steelers and NFL lore. Shanny has two championships, and it doesn’t matter that they were early in his career or with Elway and Davis. A ring is a ring. And two rings are two rings. The Steelers have a heck of a lot more franchise success than our Broncos, but they went 26 years between championships. So, it’s been 10 years for us. Big deal.

My beloved Mets have one once in my lifetime, and that was 22 years ago. Us Mets fans are STILL reliving those moments. Sad, but quite true. I wasn’t even a fan yet last the Islanders won, 25 years ago. Frankly, I hope Shanahan sticks with the Broncos for another 20 years. This concept of being competitive every season and having at least some worthy reason to think we’ve got a chance to go all the way? It’s for lack of a better term REALLY NICE. Most other teams’ fans do not have that luxury. Sure, the Colts and Pats are where we were 10 years ago. But think about what THEY used to be like pre-Manning and pre-Bledsoe. They were both a complete and utter joke. The Broncos? They haven’t fit that moniker in my entire LIFE.

Shanahan is quite deservedly still the man, in my mind at least. HBBeough, I agree with all of your points. We are so lucky to be Broncos fans. Don’t anyone forget it.

I will be a Shanahan backer until the day he decides to call it quits. It’s not based on nostalgia either. Sure I appreciate him taking our team and John Elway to the promised land of Superbowl Champions. I still get goosebumps every time I hear Dave Logan’s voice, “Pass is going to be . . . incomplete! Denver holds! Denver’s going to win! Oh, baby, they’re going to win this thing! Are you kidding me?” Admit it, you got goosebumps just then too, I did writing it. Those were great times, but what is more amazing to me is that somehow coach Shanahan was able to piece together a team captained by Jake Plummer and take them to the AFC Championship game. He took a bunch of castoffs and took them farther than anyone else could have. We got through the “cap hell” that kills off many a championship team with only 1 losing season. And given our moves this year, our cap situation should vastly improve in the next few years.

We picked near the end of the draft for so long and we spent money on players that didn’t work out, but we still remained competitive while other teams who had similar success dropped way off and had to go through a complete rebuilding. We’re mad when our rebuilding year is 7-9 instead of 3-13. Spoiled indeed we Bronco fans are. We had a very young team last year, QB’d by a guy who had diabetes and lost 35+ pounds, we had injuries galore including half of our OL out (Nalen and Hamilton out with Lepsis never regaining his pre-injured form), our #1 WR out, our #1 RB sidelined for most of the year, and yet we were still somewhat competitive.

I’m excited for this year to see what coach Shanahan can do with a team that has a bunch of guys who have the character to give it their all, every down, 60 minutes each week.

is that threads like this make me proud to be a Bronco fan and just completely prove that MHR is the best thought out, most insightful Broncos site in existence! Thanks to everyone who posts regularly from us guys who read regularly!

I am to a Shanny supporter no matter what. I was not happy when Bowlen would not give Mike what he wanted in 1993 and gave the gig to Wade. I knew that was gonna end badly. Sure enough it did. But I was also glad to see that nobody hired him. You could tell right away with Shanny that it was a different team in 1995. It was a waa great to see him start to load that team, and develop a running attack. I am in the camp to say without Shanny Elway may have never gotten a ring. No knock on Elway but I think Shanny brought to the Broncos the right mindset and a GREAT offensive scheme. Plus any coach that can, with Plummer as your QB make it to the AFC title game is a GREAT head coach. But he did see the writing on the wall. Jake had 4 turnovers in that game and right then he knew he needed a QB. As what Steve Young said during that draft now Shanny has a QB he can trust. Too me that speaks volumes. I look at what he has done so far this offseason and I think its a better team than it was last year at this time. Plus when its said and done Mike will have the last laugh on all his skeptics.

Plus I still get goose bumps watching Elway do his helicopter. Man that was AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Because my name is Mike and I just pretend that you talking about me….just kidding. Really! I’ m just kidding!

Shanny brought something to this team, and I’m not sure what it is. Some sort of intangisomething. I wonder, back when blogging had not yet exploded, did Shanny keep things, and his players, away from exposure and exploitation. Did he stick up for people back then …I don’t know. We had a strange team back then. The best QB talent ever (as far as I care) but getting old. A slow wide reciever (Shannon), but big enough to ‘pretend I’m a tight-end’. A big reciever (Ed)-too slow to be a wide or a slot-but he did. An undrafted Reciever setting records for undrafted recievers ( Smith to the Hall). We did have the best one-cut, “See-Ya!” back, in the history of the NFL. (Davis to the Hall). We had one of the best ever offensive lines…but they could not talk…all mutes. Go figure.

I’m not sure what Shanny brings to this team. It is an intangisomething..and I think we will start seeing it work.