48 Hours: From Silver Linings to Simple Resignation

To actually be somewhat excited for the future. I grew up with my Broncos from the horrendous 60’s and early seventies, so I am probably more patient than most of the current fair-weather fans. It takes time to turn around a decade of missed opportunities in FA and the draft.

We have a good, young core on Offense and HOPEfully the Defense will begin a quality makeover this off-season. Let’s go get a good football GM and HC and move forward full steam ahead!

But I have to disagree with you on Orton, the guy is getting paid to be the QB, if his perfromance is based on how the fans cheer or boo him, then he is not a very good QB. Good QB’s get through good and bad times, and their play shouldn’t be affected by the crowd. To me Orton should be getting better, but last night on the Fan (or maybe Monday), Brandon Lloyd had an interesting comment, and that was that teams knew what play was coming way too much this season, and that the Broncos had been scouted, meaning defenses knew McDaniels tendecies and he wasn’t making adjustments. So maybe that is why we have seen the drop off in Orton.

But I am resigned to prepraing countless mock drafts.

I too think he will pan out as a uniquely great HC for someone else, but as I stated above, I am more patient than most, being a former collegiate HC.

“Who knows, maybe a huge victory over our hated rival will buy him a couple more games as the starting quarterback before the eminent regime change”

Is this a threat or promise.

Not sure we can have a huge victory in this season, esp of a 6-7 team without a 1st round pick.

Would be huge to knock San Diego out of the playoffs, but that game isn’t for a few more weeks. The words huge victory and Raiders or Texans just doesn’t compute.

…John Elway like the Cleveland Browns used their “legend,” Jim Brown, as a figurehead without real authority.

I think Orton is hurt and is playing through it. There aren’t any reports, but he doesn’t seem himself. One hopping passes. Less deep throws.

Screams of a bruised rib or worse.

Pain will force you to make bad decisions because you’re worried about that next big hit ending your season or career.

Orton has to be hurt.

BUT…

He is still not the answer. He isn’t the QB we need. He doesn’t rise to the occasion. He can’t close out games. He’s streaky and reacts poorly to pressure. All of our non blowouts he had a chance to win it for us.

Indy, NYJ, SF, Jax, KC 2 (he had the whole 2nd half). That’s five games. We’re 8 and 5 if he steps up in those games. But he either fumbled, threw a pick, or couldn’t complete a pass in all of those games. You could argue the pressure got to him against OAK too after throwing a pick six on the FIRST play of the game which set into motion a chain of events that essentially ended our season.

He believes in himself until theres something on the line.

It seems we are treading water in recent years, replacing key elements we lose but not adding new elements.

a Superbowl with his last HC. Hire a young OC coming from a franchise with a Superbowl caliber organization, give him magnum authority and let him go! Problem this time was the timing and the alchemy. Very different. I have a feeling that Josh and Pat did not have the same vision and Pat realized this as time went on. I do believe that 2 different truths can co-exist in this scenario. One: Josh is a skilled OC, driven, and may even one day be a great HC. Two: Josh is not a good HC right now, poor people skills and would be well served to go to another team with a solid head coach who is very different from Bellichick and broaden his perspective and HC views.

This may be true, the chanting for Tebow to start and all…Mmm, I’ll have to think on that one Tim thanks…

I really have to say that in the last couple of days I’ve come to the conclusion that the Denver broncos are a team that is adrift.And it was cast adrift by the management. I really did try to stay behind McD, Kyle, and the rest of the team based on the assumption that the ownership is making intelligent decisions and that player/coach development takes time. I was behind McD all the way until the end. Orton, I know, has had an up and down season but he seemed to be playing by himself in some of the games. And I always do think he cares about trying his best. He may not have been able to pull it off but I never bought into the notion that he didn’t give a @#$^ about bad games such as in the smiling episode everyone was so angry over a few weeks back.

When McD got fired it took me a few days to process the info and my own Bronco feelings as well. My Bronco feelings are sort of like a long term relationship is. I love this team and could never change to another team. McGeorge posted yesterday that “the team is being run by fools”. Well it is sort of looking that way. It makes me sad. I always thought the one thing Denver had was solid leadership in the front office. Maybe I’ve been naive all this time. Since I joined MHR it has streamlined so much more information into my little pea brain that I’ve come to question what I thought I knew about the team and football in general. I love the fact that I’ve learned more in this season than in 45 years of watching, going to games, and just being a crazy fan.

Now for the remander of the season all I wish to see is that the team as a whole show some sign that it isn’t being run by fools. I can’t blame Stuesville or Kyle for it’s failures because it is a team effort. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see Tebow out there. I think all the players need to step up at this point. I’d like to see Quinn out there as well.

I’m still a fan! I am still excited about the coming draft, new coach and season (if there is one). Great post Tim. Go Denver Broncos!

that is tied to the feet of our offense, and we’re been sleeping with the fishes. (RIP Luca Brasi)

I’m not sure what else you need. It sounds to me like you went through all the stages of emotion and now you are back to square one. Regardless of how much help Orton has or doesn’t have, he is not the future of the Denver Broncos moving forward at the quarterback position. If he remains as such, I will still be supportive of the team, in spite of our quarterback, but I simply do not support the decision, bottom line or no bottom line. I’m tired of watching him and his sulking attitude. I’m tired of watching him go 3 and out after 3 and out. I’m tired of watching him hold the ball for an eternity. You are the guy that actually did the research to show just how miserable Orton is when it matters.

I absolutely can not believe you have flip flopped on this issue, but right now I guess it’s totally par for the course for the 2010 season. You can root and support and believe all you want to, it isn’t going to change anything. You are just setting yourself up to get dissapointed again. The track record speaks for itself.

How many chances do you give someone before it’s finally time to just cut your losses?
For me and many, many others that time has since came and passed weeks ago. I’m not going back. SAY NO TO KO.

Who knows if public pressure can get McD canned maybe we can get Bowlen to hire a decent football guy and put Ellis in his place……making different colored tebow jerseys to sell

I agree on all resignations.
1) Bottom line is money. Not qualms about it.
2) I, too, have not been an Orton guy no matter how well he played.
3) Champ has been,well, a champ the whole time he has been here. Even if he has never played in the big game. No way does he sign for less to stay and no way do we pay him what he deserves.
4) It’s crazy the way this has become a battleground with all fans. Bottom line is we’ll never know all the details of why. Kind of like we will never know why Hillis is in Cleveland for sure.
5) Thanks for the link to worleybird’s post. I did a post yesterday on this subject, as you said, it takes way more dedication than I gave mine.

that we give ourselves way too much credit if we believe that our criticisms and disharmony regarding Kyle Orton and the QB position in general have any impact on the outcome….do you think honestly that Kyle Orton plays “less well” because internet posters, bloggers and sportswriters have lost faith in him…despite whether you like or dislike him, give him a bit more credit than that…he is a paid professional, and I doubt our musings even cross his mind.

Also, you said

This team has proven it has absolutely no confidence nor mental toughness, in fact, the only guys I ever saw exhibit any kind of will over this team was Brian Dawkins and Josh McDaniels.

Couldn’t it be argued that if the team did not have any mental toughness, that is in fact a reflection ON THE COACH. I don’t think that anything is ever black or white…and that is the case for McDaniels dismissal…maybe he got a raw deal, or maybe he was not allowed enough time…but clearly, he had some role in the outcome of the season…to hold him blameless is a little simplistic. This team has some serious dysfunctionality…and it appears to THIS naked eye, that the situation is somehow worse than it was when he took over…now maybe it is a process, and maybe you have to hit bottom before you can begin to climb…but come on…he stumbled here…I doubt he can look in the mirror and say this was his best possible effort.

 I said at the time of his hiring, and I will return to it now, I believe that McDaniels will eventually be a good head coach in the NFL…just not as the Broncos head coach…few, if any coaches have success out of the gate…failure is part of the process…add to that his youth, and the fact that he was never a head coach at any level…this was a stepping stone toward greater things for McDaniels…to think otherwise was to reject the lessons of history…this does not make him a bad guy or a pariah…but he does bear responsibility for some (not all) of the problems we have on this team…don’t give him a free pass…if he is the stand up guy he is portrayed as, he would not want a pass…he needed to go through this…this baptism by fire…frankly, I would have prefered if some other team was the “petri dish” for his education, and we got him a bit more seasoned…but, that is not what happend…WE HAVE TO MOVE FORWARD…all this wishing that he was still our coach will not make it so…he is gone, he will likely win 15 Super Bowl rings when he takes over the Patriots in 10 years when Belichik steps down…all part of the BB master plan…“Kid…go get yourself some experience, and then we will have the seat all ready for you….”

For the organization to phrase it their way is definitely for PR. But I believe this to be true and only part of the reason to can him:

giving McDaniels too much power and that he was not equipped for the strains of running the organization from the top down

Better reason here, even somewhat of a contradiction to the quote above:

it was his inexperience and perceived failures that brought him down.

Except IMO the failures are far from perceived, they were real. Josh needed more help in the FO and with his self confidence or over confidence (which we want as a leader) he didn’t seek it, or seem to show signs of learning on the job. I am quite sure with this experience he will be for the better in the long run and the Broncos will have taken 3 steps back before moving forward.

For the firing with four games left, as I have mentioned in other comments, MAJOR revelations may surface.

I think you are pretty much right on in most of your analysis. You summed up about how I’m feeling as well.
Watching Tebow would be exciting – but I hope that Orton starts all 3 games left this year (for the sake of Tebow’s future and the sake of the Bronco’s future). I agree that the sentiment against Orton – which to me seemed absolutely without base until the last couple weeks – was self-fulfilling in bringing him down. I hate that – I genuinely like Orton. He deserved better from us, even as he struggled at times. He’s still better than about half of the starting QBs in the NFL I’d say.
And I absolutely agree that this team has no idea how to handle failure. Fans, media – everyone. We’ve been spoiled by Elway, then the spots of semi-success since then (Plummer was the 3rd winningest QB in the NFL during his years with the Broncos), so absolute failure leads to overreactions from the fans, media, and ownership. We need patience and perspective – I hope we don’t have to endure a Raider-like run of futility to get there. But without patience we will.
We aren’t one of the worst teams in the NFL, from a talent perspective. But if we aren’t patient with that talent and strategic in what we fix or add, we will become one of those worst teams (like the Bills, Cardinals, or Panthers). And obviously, we can lose to them even if we have better talent.
We have a head start on some of those rebuilding from the bottom teams. But we are rebuilding, and we as fans need to learn to be patient.

You see, this organization does not know how to lose.

They’re learning to do this real fast!

Going back to his days in Chicago. No, I don’t think he is anybody’s franchise QB but he can play. But as has been mentioned, Orton needs all the pieces around him working well to be at his best. He’s not the guy who can rise above a disastrous game and carry the team. The Colts have that guy. The Pats have that guy. Even the Chargers have that guy.

Is Tebow that guy? I don’t know. Should they play him now? I don’t know.

But if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that there’s one thing I do know, and that one thing is that even though the Broncos have frustrated, disgusted and horrified me this year – from Bowlen on down – in ways I was not even prepared to imagine, I will be here supporting them.

I look forward to the next phase, and hope that they get it right this time. When a team is in this state there are two directions it can go. Either a culture of losing develops and you turn into the Lions, the Bills, or the old school Saints and Bucs.

Or, you rise above, aggressively address areas where you are lacking and aggressively promote your strengths. You change, you adapt, you find a way to win.

Let’s hope the Broncos take Route 2.

After Elway got blown out in his third super bowl, (sorry fans, he’s still 2-3 in the big one) was the last time I felt this way about our team. It took eight years until we finally won one.

oh well, perhaps I don’t meet certain people’s criteria for fan, but I love MY BRONCOS anyway. We’ll see how things go after Oakland, and we’ll see if this is one mans team.

That is the key here, folks. Without proper management, you cannot manage a team or it’s players. Don’t blame KO or McD for that matter, analyze the management and you will find the problem.

I’m glad to hear you feel that way, because he earned that blame. McDaniels was a failure as a head coach. He clearly lacked the skills, maturity and temperament the job required. I also believe the “direction” he was taking this franchise was very clear and very disturbing. He will, no doubt, return to the NFL as a coordinator, because that is what he does. I suspect that it will be years before another team welcomes him as their Head Coach.

In the meanwhile, the Broncos and their actual fans will be dealing with the mess which McDaniels has left in his wake. You are absolutely correct in your assertion that the Broncos “…cannot handle the pressure of failure.” and why should they? I cannot recall any competitive enterprise launched with the understanding that “failure” is an acceptable option. The concept, while humorous, is unacceptable and curious.

I too will be sad to see Champ Bailey depart. Certainly, he was one of the greatest trades Coach Mike ever managed…and that really is saying something. However, Bailey has soldiered through one failed rebuilding effort and is on the flip-side of his career. For someone with all the money and acclaim he has amassed, only a legitimate shot at a title will likely satisfy. Wherever he goes, I’ll be keeping an eye out for his future game day highlights and wishing him the best of luck…when he’s not playing the Broncos…:)
.
Regardless of how the final games of 2010 play out, I am confident the Broncos will rise from the ashes and resume their competitive tradition. In fact, I’m feeling very optimistic for the future of our team.

Peace out and Go Broncos!

The best I’ve read in weeks. Needed this badly. Thanks for everything you put into writing this.