FanPost

An optimistic cynic’s view

I’ll admit it….I saw this one coming. Broncos played really well last week, hammering Kansas City and restoring faith/hope/enthusiasm as well as credibility to a franchise that was coming off an historic humbling at the hands of the Raiders and a trip to London to allow the woeful Niners to celebrate on the long flight home.

Then there was this...A Monday night game, with hopes high for the definitive sign that the Broncos had turned things around…a chance to vanquish the hated Chargers and vault over them in the standings…make that Raiders atrocity a distant memory…and the Broncos even toyed with us at the outset of the game with as impressive a drive as you can see from an NFL team….maybe…just maybe, they were back…




Problem is, the Chargers are still a really good football team. When the season is over, they will be atop the standings in the AFC West, as they have been for the last several seasons…they will enter the playoffs on a roll (Perhaps they are already on that roll!)…and once again, no one will really care about their horrible start…a trend that is as predictable as anything ever is in the NFL…Chargers always get out of the gate slow…and ramp it up as the season goes along…and now they are rolling again…we got in the way, and as typified by our late season battles with San Diego the last few years, we got our hats handed to us…

Broncos, on the other hand are "also-rans"…hate to say it…the 6-0 start last season was an aberration…this team is rebuilding…almost from the ground up. Denver fans are not really familiar with the process, and from all appearances, THEY DON’T LIKE IT. We expect to contend, and most of the time the goal is like 12-4….but the reality is that it is difficult to win in the NFL, and the chemistry required for a winning formula is complicated and a bit volatile…and we are several ingredients short.

Fire McDaniels? Maybe someday. Install Tebow? Why, does he happen to rush the passer? Bring back Peyton Hillis? Unlikely to be available. Stay the course? Well only if you can be sure we are on one…

After the Raider game, I was inclined to toss McDaniels out….after this game, not so much. I really am not sure if he is the right coach for the team, but I do know that once you go down that road of revolving doors at coach/GM, that usually means a team begins a long wander in the wilderness (see: 49ers, Lions, Raiders)…perhaps we are better off seeing this through…letting the seeds he has planted sprout and take notice whether they bear fruit…I really don’t know and neither do you. McDaniels is a proven offensive wunderkind who is without question in over his head…he made some rash decisions, though for the most part they were defensible, even smart, but they undermined his ability to "win now" and turned the fan base skeptical. He made some high profile trades and moves in the draft that have either failed to pan out, or have not been given time. Every coach has had failures on draft day and trades that didn’t help the team as expected…The fact that he is risk taker is one of the things I like best about him…most coaches are so consumed by job security that they almost never think outside the box…a willingness to try and fail is far more interesting than someone so afraid of failure that they never really try.

That said, the drum beat is amazingly loud. MHR is just about the last refuge for anyone supporting McDaniels…the national media, the Denver scribes, ESPN coaches rankings….everything portrays a coach sitting on a very hot seat, and with the departure of Childress, there are few who are between McDaniels and the door…In fact, if he is fired, I will be somewhat relieved, because really, I am sick of talking and thinking about it…but if he is to stay, and I would be equally happy if he did, I would like the owner of the Broncos, or his spokesman, to come out and say that McDaniels is the coach for the entirety of this four year plan…that he will be allowed to see this process through no matter the highs and lows, and that until that period of growth and change is over, there will be no change at head coach…and therefore everyone should stop talking about it…not a perfunctory coach affirmation, but a direct statement indicating that there is a plan in place and the plan will not be abandoned mid stream…and if Bowlen is unwilling to make that statement, then in fact, McDaniels should be fired, though I am not sure that a season and a half has been a "fair shake" as far as a new coaching regime is concerned….

There are players in the league older than he is, and this is his first head coaching gig…somewhere in the bowels of power at Bronco Central they had to know that picking McDaniels would mean a longer learning curve…that while he was installing his fancy offense, and getting rid of the malcontents and head cases from the Shanahan years he was also LEARNING HOW TO BE A HEAD COACH…and surely no one thought all that learning was going to be done in a year and a half…tell me the ownership had a plan…that they thought this through. They could have picked a safer coach…one with established credentials and experience…..they could have even stayed with Shanahan…but they knew a change was in order, and surely they knew (though they failed to prepare any of the fan base!) that this change was going to come at a cost and take time…Now is the time to back that up…and mean it! Otherwise they should let McDaniels go. I am neither defending or opposing McDaniels…I am however looking for leadership from the owner. Leadership that affirms that the last season and a half have not been in vain, or if they cannot do that, then they need to admit to making a mistake and that we in fact are back to square one.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.