I have a lot of thoughts on the Denver Broncos. Thankfully, for you, the reader of this blog, I have not been sharing these as frequently. But now it's time to start expressing some of my thoughts, frustrations, concerns, ideas, and opinions
The Broncos fired Mike Shanahan in nearly two years ago and began a coaching search. At the time, I really liked the idea of hiring a defensive oriented head coach, such as Steve Spagnuolo, who is now coaching the St. Louis Rams. When I heard the news that they had hired Josh McDaniels, I was not excited. He was the one candidate I did not want. His previous job was with the Patriots, who I did not like. And he was younger than me.
But I decided to give him a chance. After all, I was not invited to interview any of the candidates. Maybe he was the guy to turn around the franchise. And my willingness to accept the new guy was validated when the Broncos started the 2009 season on a six-game winning streak.
But now the Broncos have lost 16 of their last 21 games and are officially a bad team. I've been following the Broncos since 1984, and I can say that this is the worst edition of a Broncos team I've witnessed. There have been other bad seasons in that time, but there was always the hope that the team would bounce back the next year. And they usually did. After going 5-11 in 1990, they went to the AFC Championship Game the next season. After going 6-10 in 1999, they made the playoffs in 2000. But I don't really think that there will be that much improvement in 2011 or 2012. I don't know how long it will take them to dig out of the hole they are in.
So there is a lot of talk in Denver about Josh McDaniels' job status. The consensus seems to be that he probably won't be fired because Pat Bowlen probably doesn't want to pay Mike Shanahan, Josh McDaniels, and a new coach all at the same time. But I'm kind of at the point where I'm starting to count straws and wonder how many he has left.
Straw #1 - The Jay Cutler fiasco. You can argue that the Broncos came out ahead in the short term in this deal, but I'm still kind of wondering about the long term.
Straw #2 - Presiding over his first draft, Josh drafts running back Knowshon Moreno with the #12 overall pick when the clear need is for talent on the defensive line. Moreno has been unspectacular. Meanwhile, Brian Orakpo, a defensive lineman picked #13 overall in the same draft, went to the Pro Bowl as a rookie and has 18.5 career quarterback sacks in less than two full seasons.
Straw #3 - Also in his first draft, Josh trades the Broncos' 2010 first round draft choice for a 2009 second round draft choice. He selects Alphonso Smith, a defensive back from Wake Forest. Smith has one disappointing year with the Broncos and then is traded to Detroit before the start of this season for a backup tight end. The pick the Broncos traded winds up being the #14 overall pick. So he used a top 15 draft choice on a reserve tight end.
Straw #4 - After the fast start to 2009, the team completely falls to pieces in the second half of the season and fails to even make the playoffs.
Straw #5 - Probably the best draft the Broncos had in the last 10 years was the 2006 haul, when they selected Jay Cutler, Tony Sheffler, Brandon Marshall, and Elvis Dumervil. Having run off Cutler already, Josh also has a falling out with Sheffler and Marshall at the end of the 2009 season, and both are traded away.
Straw #6 - In keeping with the annual Broncos tradition, Josh parts ways with defensive coordinator Mike Nolan after one season, even though the Broncos showed great improvement defensively in 2009.
Straw #7 - I've made light of Bronco fan's fascination of Peyton Hillis before. Josh basically benched Hillis for the entire 2009 season, and then traded him along with a couple of draft picks to Cleveland for QB Brady Quinn. But apparently there is something to the guy. Hillis already has 13 touchdowns this season for the Browns and is headed for a 1,000-yard rushing year. Meanwhile, the Broncos have struggled to run the ball all season, and Quinn is their third-string quarterback. Oops.
Straw #8 - Josh does tons of trading down and up and all around in the 2010 draft, and winds up drafting WR Demaryius Thomas and QB Tim Tebow in the first round. No one really knows right now if these guys are going to be great players or not. But my point, once again, is that the Broncos need talent on the defensive and offensive lines. They can't afford to spend picks on skill-position players right now.
Straw #9 - Josh cuts off negotiations with Champ Bailey for a contract extension, which likely means that the future Hall of Famer will be somewhere else next season.
Straw #10 - Oakland Raiders 59, Denver Broncos 14.
Straw #11 - And now, the news coming out over the weekend that a Broncos employee secretly taped an opponents practice - supposedly without anyone else's knowledge or consent, but still. It's lucky that the NFL didn't dock the Broncos a draft pick and settled for fining the Broncos and Josh a total of $100,000.
The good news is that at this point, the Broncos are in the running for one of the top five selections in next year's collegiate draft. The bad news is that Josh McDaniels may be in charge of making that pick. Someone stop him before he trades it to the Cowboys for Tony Romo.
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