They call this the "off" season

It’s been a busy off season for us Bronco fans. For me the off season started during the 2nd half of the final game against San Diego. That’s when I realized that I’d lost all hope that Shanahan would lead Denver to another Super Bowl.  I had 14 wonderful Shanahan years where it seemed to me that we were so close to a championship every year. I had the belief that the coming off season would be enough to vault us once again thru the playoffs. During that SD game, I couldn’t come up with a reasonable vision of an off season that would turn things around let alone bring a championship. We just didn’t have the talent and Shanahan had blown so many of chances to bring it in that I just didn’t think it would happen. 

Shanahan had to go

Looking back it was probably the loss of Al Wilson that finally did the defense in. But remember we passed on Ray Lewis to draft John Mobley. As a general manager, Shanahan wasn’t bringing in the talent and the schemes weren’t enough to compensate. With our One Cut running system we were able to use inexpensive backs and get league leading results. Since we lost Terrell Davis, we’ve been saving a lot of cap space on running backs. We’ve spent that money on the defense.   This gave us a huge advantage over other teams freeing up several million dollars more to spend on defense each year.  If you assume that Shanahan is an offensive genius and his schemes are good enough to work with less talent this is a shrewd plan. My feeling is that this plan was sound. They did field a high quality low cost offense but even with all that extra money year in and year out they still couldn’t bring in talent on defense. Al those extra dollars meant extra chances on free agents and draft picks. Failing to field a quality defense is even more inexcusable the more money you spend.

Our success rate with draft picks and free agents on defense is way below league average. We’ve let quality players like Keith Traylor leave and brought in some total busts.  You can make a very good case that we had the worst defense in the league.  Changing defensive coaches wasn’t helping matters. I’m further guessing that the Denver defense’s blitz tendencies which have outlasted several defensive coordinators came from Shanahan. Our defense used more 8 and 9 man blitzes than any other team in the league. Defensive players have made comments that they feel like second class to the offense. Shanahan cast a cloud on our defense they were not going to get out from under.

Who’s Next?

From the way this firing played out I’m guessing that Pat Bowlen not only came to the conclusion that Shanahan had to go but also that he wanted to bring in McDaniels.  I say this for two reasons. Even with the problems I see you don’t let Shanahan and those offensive schemes go. I figure you hire a GM with final hiring authority and keep Shanahan as coach. I see no evidence that Bowlen made that offer.  Maybe he already knew Shanahan would not accept it. Given the track record, that’s an extremely selfish position for Shanahan. I feel that Bowlen wouldn’t fire a hall of fame coach without believing he’d sign a better coach.  There was no public pressure to fire him. He was free to wait till the time was right. I figure the time was right because McDaniels was available right at the end of the season. The lure of success around New England lead by its coaching staff was enough to push Pat over the edge and release Shanahan.

Cut-ler

McDaniels comes in with an offensive scheme that might do for quarterbacks what Shanahan did for running backs.  Allowing Denver to use less expensive players at quarterback and free up that money which we can now hope will be spent wisely. Alternatively, fielding a top notch quarterback might produce record setting results. After reading about Cutler constantly over the past couple of months, I’ve come to the conclusion that McDaniels and Bowlen both think that Cutler is not that guy.  The bottom line to this is that Cutler was under contract. He HAD to play for the Broncos the next two seasons or sit them out. He sits out or slacks off and he has no value when he hits the market. Sitting out would still leave the years on his contract. Cutler doesn’t leave unless Bolwen wants him gone. Maybe emotions ruled the day, but you hope Bowlen is smarter than that. My interpretation is that Cutler is the new Jeff George and we got picks and Orton for him.

09 Draft

At first I was very surprised by the draft. As it unfolded I got even more dumfounded. Until I looked over a “current” depth chart did it begin to made sense to me. The key is that we are flush with linebackers including Dumerville and Moss.

1st Round Starters

Raji and Jackson, the two guys they hope would fall were both gone. That left two guys on their board that were projected as starters Moreno and Ayers. They made a play to get them both. Look over the new projected depth chart to see what I mean. Remember we have Davis, Fields, Williams, Bailey, Woodyard, Moss, Dumerville, Crowder all at LB now. They all won’t make the team. We don’t need LBs. We just signed 4 starting DBs and that leaves the DL. You’ve got Thomas on one end and 1 of 4 FA they’ve already signed starting. Giving you a need for either a tackle and an end.  Remember it’s not just the bodies it’s also the salaries. They have a lot of money in LB and on the DL spent already.  None of the linemen with the body type and talent level they were looking for the new 3-4 were left on the boards at 12, except Ayers.  We already have the OL and the running game benefits both the QB and the defense indirectly.

If they end up with two starters from the first round, how much more can you ask for?

2nd Round Key Role Players

With two starters in the bag next up with 2nd string role players. Most important of those is the nickel back. They move up to take the player they project is the best nickel back in the draft. Giving up a number one pick for him is high price if they are wrong. He can be a better player, with a year of experience than anybody they could draft next year. Then with two older safeties and a need to play a third, they grab a safety. The next guy a TE is no surprise. Graham is the 2nd highest paid player on the team and is aging. McDaniels offense uses multiple blocking type TEs and with the new running back, plenty of wide outs and linemen TE is the most valuable role player left.

In the late rounds they’ve picked up players at positions with they are light on bodies as you’d expect. The one pick I don’t like is the non-mobile quarterback. I do like taking a QB, just not a statue.

I am making the basic assumption that Bowlen more or less knows what he’s doing with Shanahan, McDanials and Cutler. The bottom line is Bowlen got his guys. Now we have to see if they he was right. Gotta admit if this was a Shanahan draft, we’d be doomed. Then again trading picks away would be less chances for Mike to draft Marcus Nash or Willie Middlebrooks.

just one fan's opinion