Trying not to live in the past

After some serious reflections regarding the past few months in Bronco land, I am hopefully at a point to move forward from this debacle.  I have mused to why this all transpired, why a supposed offensive Guru and QB friendly coach was not able to reach his most talented player and be able to convince him that working together would be much more beneficial than opposing each other.  Why one of the league’s most calm and likable owners was not able to step in and come with a solution that would benefit the team today and five years from today.  Why a young QB who has had an offense built around him and would be set to explode into the stratosphere be willing to do everything in his power to escape to another team rather than seek a peace.   I think it all stems from a lack of being able to let go of the past and embrace a future.

The game of football is an interesting juxtaposition of theories and ideology.  In one vein we state, this is a team game, it takes 53 guys working as one to win.  I agree with that statement.  Yet, when we look at the game, we all now that you need great players to become a great team, regardless of the whole team effort or ideology.  It is hard to say that any one team doesn’t work harder or more together than any other team in the league, there are some teams that obviously have a lack of chemistry and struggle working together, but by in large most teams in this league work relatively well together.  What separates a team from another team is usually not teamwork or dedication to the team, it is the quality of the players at key positions.  Take a team like Baltimore, a team with a plethora of defensive playmakers, yet had lacked talent on the offensive side of the ball.  Input a quality young QB in Joe Flacco and the team became instantly better, did the team work any harder than they did last year or was it having an upgrade in talent in a key position?  Take a team like Pittsburgh, a team that had continually been a playoff team year in and year out, had routinely been in the AFC title games year in and year out, but had failed to get to the SB or win one for over 25 years, insert a quality QB and the team wins a SB and now has won two, did they work any harder or better as a team than they did prior, no, but they definitely had an upgrade in talent in one position.  Many point to the Patriots as the ultimate “team” philosophy, yet that is giving a severe disservice to the players that have been a part of their recent run, guys like Brady, Bueschi, Harrison, Dillion, Brown, Graham, Symour, Wilfork, Samual, Law,  and the likes are great players, not merely cogs that you can replace on the free agent wire.  Do they function well as a team, yes, but they obviously have superior talent to most teams in the league.

So what does the earlier paragraph have to do with letting go of the past.  Obviously the Broncos past is most closely tied with one player, John Elway, for better or worse.  Elway set the standard for not only most of the fans, but also for the owner and past coaches.  Elway was what we deemed as the epitome of what a franchise QB is and should be.  Often we seem to overlook key points in Elway’s career in which many in Denver thought he should be benched in favor of guys like Tommy Maddox or traded to get the plethora of picks, because he was deemed a loser by many, someone who couldn’t win the big one.  An obvious disservice to the fact that he was able to take what was arguably an 8-8 team in most years and take them to the Super Bowls on multiple occasions.  However, it is also a disservice to also claim that the 80’s Broncos were “bad” teams, those bad teams had talented defense lead by a mastermind in Joe Collier that were continually near the top of the league in total defense.   But the obvious conclusion was that regardless of the talent on defense, for the Broncos to win a championship, they needed a more complete offense and complete team that would not put the burden on Elway to win, insert Mike Shanahan and development of the zone blocking scheme and Bobby Turner ability to find a guy like Terrell Davis.  The Broncos became a better team but they also increased their talent level.

After Elway retired, the franchise was in an obvious state of flux, the coach in Mike Shanahan had learned from the 49ers and looked at the Cowboys, and determined that championship teams don’t rebuild, they reload.  After watching Baltimore and Tampa Bay win Super Bowls with average to below average QB’s, and St. Louis win a SB with a former grocery store bagger, and New England win with a 6th rounder who was a back up to Brian Griese, the emphasis went away from drafting and developing a franchise QB, but rather develop a lower round guy or bring in a vet and coach them up.  And so it went, no concerted effort was made to look at the long term, only to try to fill holes.  And then after the AFC championship loss to Pittsburgh I think there was a fundamental change in Mike Shanahan approach, he realized that for Denver to be a consistent Championship team, they needed a consistent playmaker at the most valuable position and hence was the drafting of Jay Cutler.  Shanahan had saw that teams like Baltimore and Tampa Bay did not have long term success with changes at QB, and that despite the limited pedigree of a guy like Brady, he definitely was a franchise QB; capable of not only managing a game, but of winning a game when he needed to.  Shanahan looked to rebuild the offense into a younger version of the 1998 teams, dominating offensive line, talented WR’s and TE, and was looking for a late round dominating RB.   However, the one thing that Mike would not or could not change from the past was his ability to give up personnel power; which, I feel was his ultimate undoing.  Many can speculate that Mike may have lost the team (which he may have), but I believe that ultimately Pat Bowlen fired Mike Shanahn because he did not want to relinquish control of personnel decisions.

Enter the coaching search, McDaniels had obviously had some very recent success at the Patriots being an offensive coordinator, but the choice baffled many do to the obvious glaring needs on defense.  However, I think that in McDaniels, Bowlen saw a young Mike Shanahan, someone that could take control of the team, input a style from a successful organization and bring instant success to the franchise.   The one thing that may have been somewhat misleading in that assessment, in that Mike Shanahan did borrow many things from the 49ers as far as personnel approach and institution of the West Coast offense, yet Mike Shanahan made his system uniquely the Broncos system, no one had used a shotgun approach to the west coast offense and implementation of zone blocking power running scheme was uniquely Mike Shanahan doing.  Mike figured out how best to use the talent that was here and mix that with other things he had learned in San Francisco.

Now comes a possible trade for Jay Cutler to land Matt Cassel, to what degree the Broncos initiated the trade or contemplated it will be subject to debate for the coming decade, but we can agree that it did happen.  Now the reasoning can vary from we were exploring every option to McDaniels having and unhealthy man crush for Matt Cassel, but I think it stems from McDaniels philosophy learned in New England.  A misguided notion that all players are replaceable, after the success with Matt Cassel, McDaniels believed much like Mike Shanahan did after Elway retired that he could win with a limited QB, provided he could upgrade other portions of the team.   McDaniels had seen success from a solid defense, offense weapons in Welker, Moss, and Watson, and a QB that was close to being cut before the season started, why not look at trying to relive the Patriots past season, to many that would be seen as a success.  McDaniels had also seen that dealing with players that may be unhappy meant one thing, basically that all players were expected to submit regardless of time with the team or their talent, if you want to understand the “Patriot” way ask the likes of Ty Law and Asante Samual, Dion Branch, to what happens with unhappy vets.  McDaniels to was concerned with having the past define his present, he knew one way to deal with things and that was the approach he used, to force a submittal by Jay Culter or to get rid of the Jay if he would not submit unconditionally.

Now comes to Jay Cutler, say his opinions and actions were generated by a mistrust of a franchise or to some misguided Spengalli manipulations by an agent, but I think everyone can agree that Jay was upset.  Jay too looked at the past, he looked at John Elway, he understood that he would be filling that role in Denver, fair or unfair.  And with that role had always come a certain understanding that the QB caries more responsibility than any position, and is judged more harshly by the fans and media to either living up to or not living up to his predecessor.   He also had a belief that franchise QB’s were more valuable than others on the team, due to what they mean not only to the team but to the community.  That has not only been true here, but in other teams as well.  He was not able to let go of this past and see that a change in the philosophy of the Broncos organization had occurred when we imported the “Patriots” way.

How does Bowlen fit into this, he obviously was put into the worst position in not undermining his coach yet supporting his franchise QB.  Initially I thought him remaining silent through the initial coarse of the whole debacle was really the only way he could accomplish this.  He could not fire or reprimand his coach since that may instantly been seen as capitulating to a players demand.  Yet, I am sure that he too has seen the similarities between John Elway and Jay Cutler and did not want to lose the player, hence the very terse press release, “The Denver Broncos will not be trading Jay Cutler”.  So what changed, why change the stance, the reason could be as simple as Jay did not return his phone calls for ten days.  And that may have been it, but in all reality, Jay Cutler was under contract for three more years, he had not missed any mandatory meetings, and he had publically said he did not intend to miss any.  Why not let things cool down and discuss things at the first mandatory meeting?  I think this too goes back to the past, to the Reeves and Elway relationship, Pat Bowlen had watched his franchise player in John Elway be unable to function effectively with his head coach due to the mistrust between the HC and player.  He saw the past and feared that this relationship (Cutler and McDaniels) was doomed to a similar fate.  I think Pat Bowlen ultimately did not have any issues with Jay Cutler, he said after the trade that he likes Jay and had no issues with his on field performance or stuff off the field.  I would argue that Pat Bowlen tried to put Jay in the best position while not hurting the Broncos, he traded him to the Bears for a simple reason, to try to show that there was no hard feeling between Pat and Jay, why else trade him to his home town team?  You may claim that was the best offer, but I am guessing they could of gotten a much better offer from Cleveland, Washington, Detroit, Tampa Bay, New York, or Washington had they waited and leveraged teams against each other, but teams like New York weren’t even in the game, which leads me to believe that Pat wanted Jay to go to Chicago first.  Basically the Chicago offer accomplished two things, it ended the distraction before the draft, and it was good enough that people in Denver would be satisfied that Denver got fair value.           

Now comes the point where I think myself and others have to move on from the past.  We cannot expect another Elway, we had a Jay Cutler, and who knows, we may land a Colt McCoy or Sam Bradford in a year or two, but we will never have another John Elway.  Just because a QB does not match that perception of John Elway by the fans does not mean he is a bad QB or someone who cannot become or be a franchise QB and become a HOF QB.  We don’t need to latch on to the Patriots past, no matter the success, we are not the Patriots, we are the Denver Broncos.  As much as we want to laud the success of McDaniels at the Patriots, that team did not win the Super Bowl the last time they were there.  The true measure of success (besides the wins and championships) will be the ability for the head coach to make things the Broncos way, to have the league copying us, not us copying them. 

This trade will obviously be looked at for years and probably even decades to come, right now we have no way of knowing what the ultimate fate will be, we can not dwell on this trade, even if it will be hard to not look back and ponder what if.   Dwelling on this trade, no matter which way it ends up, will ultimately cause greater division in fans as one side will be telling the other side I told you so.  I don’t want to live in that past, I want to move on, I want to be excited about the upcoming season and not rehashing tired debates that solve nothing. 

Review of all things with a critical eye may cause some pain and discomfort for those who wrap themselves in a banner of Bronco fandom.  As some would say, fan is derived from fanatic, and sometimes reasoning with a fanatic is an exercise in futility.  I will always respect a different opinion, and I may (and often do) disagree with opinions, but I am ready to move on and not live in the past, regardless of the outcome of this trade.  I will still have an opinion regarding the coarse of actions of the Broncos, but I do not fault a fan in supporting or opposing the coarse of the ship, season ticket holders are not the only ones with a vote.  Many will obviously try to put the best spin on any move of the organization, I can respect the passion and hope, but without critical thought or opinion, then we doom ourselves in being nothing more than the mindless Raider or Charger fan, and no one wants that.   The past can help shape us, but hopefully it does not define us or the feelings that we share.  I will love the Broncos for a simple point, it is not what they have done (championships, SB, players) it is what they have meant to a community, not only Denver, Colorado, and the Rocky Mountain region, but for fans throughout the US.  The Broncos represent the spirit of those fans and people, they are something that I could take pride in being part of, if only a small part.  I will move on from the past and hopefully we all can move forward and not live in the past.

Go Broncos

Best of luck to Jay Cutler