So Long, Mike, and Thanks for the Memories

I was/am a huge Shanafan. I will definitely miss having him as part of the Broncos family. Even if we win 10 Superbowls in a row with McD. Teams should be lining up for his services if he decides to coach again.

Each one’s presence does not take away from their collective successes; nor are their accomplishments apart lessened (in my mind).

Elway will always be the greatest Bronco, and unless someone else wins 2 rings, Shanny will always be our greatest coach. I think it’s important to note that Shanny had a lot to do with Elway’s development as an NFL quarterback; it’s not like they first met in 1995.

For me, the two will always be linked; but each deserves their own recognition for greatness.

who had a vision of the direction the Denver Broncos should go. With that vision he brought 2 Lombardi trophies to Pat Bowlen’s office, and gave us some of the most exciting football that we have ever witnessed. With that success he was given the reigns of the whole organization. He was the"Key-man" to a team that showed the world that John Elway “could and would win a Super Bowl”, not once but twice back to back. This was truly a masterful feat to sustain a team 2 years in a row.

Then John Elway, three months after Super Bowl #2 win retires. His great leader was now a civilian in street clothes. So many QB’s tried to fill those great shoes, and they all failed, from Griese to Cutler. The one thing that really caught me by surprise was the benching of Jake Plummer and the introduction of Jay Cutler. The great Head Coach bringing in a rookie QB just out of college.To soon? I don’t know but I was willing to let this rookie carry the clip board for the remainder of the season so could fully learn the offense and grasp the real meaning of NFL QB leadership. I guess the fued between Jake and Shannahan had come to a head, leaving the Head Coach little or no other course but bring in the “kid”. Maybe a bit premature as broncobear pointed out.

Shannahan’s coaching approach seemed be somewhat lanquid in the later years, predisposed, preoccupied, lacking in desire to to get back to the greatness of before. There are teams who would jump at the chance to get him aboard just because of his prior experience and success (Buffalo taking TO). If I was going to hire Shannahan to coach my team thats all he would be. There would be a GM to keep the team organized and it wouldn’t be him. Great post B. 13-3 Baby!!!

I will be the first to say that I will always be grateful to Shanny and what he was able to accomplish in Denver, the SB memories will remain with me forever. Shanny was a great NFL mind and obviously was huge in getting Denver to have a high powered O that will always be remembered (Sharpe, Elway, TD, Eddie Mac, Rod).

More than anything I have to thank BShrout for this article and breaking down why it was a GREAT decision to remove Shanny after last season. The stats don’t lie and since Elway left (along with most of the team that won the SBs) the Broncos have been admired but not for their winning ways. Shanny had the right pieces in place at the right time and looking back I will always wonder if wasn’t lucky more than anything. Look at the times in his entire career when he won it all, Elway and Joe Montana as his QBs and O’s that had amazing talent. I think he has been given a little too much credit. As a head coach he stepped in and used most of the talent that was on the team when he took over and enabled them to win. Would they have won any SB’s without TD? I really don’t think so. That one draft pick has changed the face of Shanny forever.

In the end I want to look to the future, I feel that McD has an incredible football mind and is focused on every part of the game as well as on the type of men that we can all respect and won’t be conflicted in cheering for (i.e. Romo- I will always remember the spitting incident as a low point in the organizations history). These are all things I think Shanny missed. He focused on the offense and went through D coordinators like my son goes through diapers.

The biggest thing in the last few years were the blowouts. Your team is not very good if it is getting destroyed on the field in any game in the season and the last few years the Broncos have been on the wrong side of lopsided games WAY too often.

To sum it all up I am more hope in the Broncos for this season and the years to come than I have had in possibly a decade.

Go Broncos!

This post was largely an attempt at catharsis and closure for me. I appreciate all of the responses, since each one has helped me see Shanahan a little more clearly.

We must remember, as PredominantlyOrange so eloquently said:

He changed the culture and infused the roster with guys who worked hard and played hard. He was truly the mastermind not only on the field but in the locker room.

I think what happened to Mike is that he was allowed to assume more and more control over the team as a whole, which diverted his energies from what he did best: developing quarterback talent and offensive game planning.

I also agree that he will forever be talked about in “with-Elway” and “without-Elway” terms. IMHO, the reality is that without all of the pieces in place (Shanahan, Elway, Davis, the hard-hitting defense, the culture of working/playing hard) neither Mike nor John would be able to boast of even 1 Super Bowl ring.

I just hope that should Shanahan choose to return to coaching, that it’s not in the AFC west, or in the AFC at all. Just kidding. I hope that if, no make that when, he returns to a coaching position that the owner and the general manager of his new team structure Shanahan’s work environment so that they are able to empower his strengths, and not simply cede control because he’s “Mike Shanahan.”

I want to bring up something has been nagging at me a little bit lately when reading MHR and it was only today that I finally put my finger on it. There seems to be a commonly held belief by some folks around here that it was time for Mike Shanahan to go because he had become stale, or that the game had changed but he hadn’t, or even that “the game had passed him by”, implying that the rest of the league had figured Shanahan and his system out.

I distinctly remember reading an in-depth article several years back that highlighted the way Shanahan always challenged himself and his staff in the offseason to identify weaknesses and seek contstant improvement in all facets of running the team. Everything from how they did business in the front office, to the playbook, to the team’s conditioning, everything. The classic analogy he used was that of the big, successful business that gets ahead, gets “comfortable” then slowly but surely dies after being overtaken by it’s hungrier competitors. Shanahan wanted to avoid that by staying open to ideas, staying nimble, and never resting on past success. I remember being quite impressed when I read that Shanahan ran the football team much in the same way a good executive runs any successful business.

So I am surprised that so many here regard Shanny as just an old curmudgeon, stubbornly stuck in his ways as the game passed him by. According to some, he was utterly unable to evaluate a defensive player to save his life (oh, except for Al Wilson, or Darrent Williams, or Elvis Dumervil, or Trevor Pryce, or that time he traded for Champ Bailey…), and so drunk on his own power he couldn’t value any opinion but his own. This just doesn’t seem to fit with anything I’ve read about him or what many people thought about him (before he was fired, anyway).

So could it be that Shanahan’s act wasn’t actually stale? He always sought ways to improve all aspects of the team. He had the team in the AFC Championship game just 3 years ago. He had a young, up and coming stud QB and a pretty loaded offense. Roethlesberger’s early success changed everyone’s expectations of what a young QB could be in the NFL. Cutler could no longer be expected to take time to develop, he had to be good NOW. Never mind that he is just now entering the phase in his career where the game slows down for most young QB’s, where they stop making dumb plays and start really excelling. Remember Elway’s first few years? (Ahem.) Anyway, within another year or two, with a couple good defensive drafts and astute free agent pickups, Shanny and Cutler just might have had this team on track to compete for a championship again.

I’d say the difference between Shanahan teams of the first 10 years of his run and the teams of the last 3 or 4 was that you used to almost never see a Broncos team get blown out. Yeah, they could lose games they shouldn’t, they could gamble and lose, they could just have an off day and lose, but you never saw them give up and be embarrassed. The difference the past few years was that they were getting blown out by teams like Detroit. Blown out when the entire season was on the line vs. SD. Blown out on national TV. I think blowouts happen when you lack leaders on the field. When you lose guys like Rod Smith and Al Wilson. I think the blowouts are what finally sealed his coffin with Bowlen, and that was really what cost Shanny his job, not his inability to adjust or embrace change.

Yes, I get that this is all water under the bridge now. I just get bugged when people change history to fit their current perspective. Shanny wasn’t perfect, but let’s not mischaracterize him or what he was.

Thanks,
-Creamy

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…for some reason reminds me of Bob Hope….when celebs actually loved this country.

Shanahan was an awesome planner and game day coach. As he grew he knew he needed to delegate some of that but he really wanted it all. It kind of looked like it consumed him the last couple of years. He actually looked like he mentally gave up early on a few games, historically very uncharacteristic of his driving style. His linkage to Elway was HUGE, he was Elways QB coach, Offensive coordinator and Head coach. He was close to the heart of the Elway-Reeves fued and did what he could to be innovative before going away for a while. After his return we had the major move from that funny orange team with Elway to take them to the Super Bowl and get shipped to a serious player. I wonder if when Elway retired Shanahan felt that need to move on to the bigger things and lost the control of the playbook which really became stale and predictable at the end. No matter what as a Bronco fan you gottta love and respect what he did for us, it’s time to turn the page to the new era which will start better than most prognosticators believe.

haha prob my fav quote (shanny talking to TD)
but what i love about mike is he was never afraid to call the same play twice or to go for it on 4th and such

This ship was sailing upright then all of a sudden the ‘gales’ of injuries started to blow. The waves of poor defense swept over the bow. Pushing, ever pushing this ship of fools until it was thust upon the rocky reef of San Diego defeat. Before the ocean of media lamblasting began to rush in, all I could say was, Here I Am Stuck On This Ship Of Fools.