7
Jan
2011
Can John Elway return Denver to their days of glory?
Elway spoke to the Denver media on Wednesday (Photo: Denver Post)
There was some fairly big news in Denver this week that seems to be flying under the radar of the national media, what with all the other coaching changes in the league and the build-up to the playoffs. On Wendesday, the Broncos introduced John Elway as their new executive vice president of football operations, in hopes that the Hall of Fame QB can restore his former team to greatness.
As we all know, Elway led the Broncos to 5 Super Bowl appearances including back-to-back championships during his 16-year career in Denver. All week, Denver sports radio has been atwitter from the announcement, with people who believe he can return the Broncos to their days of glory. On the heels of the Josh McDaniels era, which left the franchise as something of a laughing stock, the Broncos fanbase is ready to latch onto anything that might bring a glimmer of hope in turning things around. And there’s no question that with Elway, you’re getting a guy who has no agenda other than winning football games for the city of Denver. The guy has been an icon around Colorado for almost 30 years, from football to car dealerships to steak houses. And he has already injected an air of excitement around the Broncos not seen in ages. Well, in at least 12 years, when Elway went out on top after winning the Super Bowl in January of 1999.
And Elway is clearly a proven winner, having won as both a player and a football excecutive, albeit for the Arena Football League’s Colorado Crush, who he built up from nothing as its co-owner and CEO to win a championship in 2005. During his press conference, perhaps one of the best things Elway said was “I know what I don’t know”, and that he’d work to overcome that inexperience as fast as possible. Although, with a Stanford education (despite the clunky sentence structure in the quote below … I’ll chalk that up to nervousness) and a father who was a career head coach, you have to like his chances at success:
“I do not know everything about this job, but I cannot wait to learn as much as I can about the job,” he said. “I am thrilled to be back with the Broncos, I am thrilled to be back in football. I get on the football field and it makes my heart pump.”
“Why am I here? I love the Broncos,” Elway said. “I understand what the Broncos are all about. They are about the integrity, about the winning and about the things that you do and how you handle yourself.”
6
Dec
2010
Josh McDaniels Fired by Denver Broncos!
(Photo: The Denver Post)
The Denver Broncos have just announced the they have fired Head Coach Josh McDaniels. Running Backs Coach Eric Studesville will take over as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Via the Broncos’ Twitter account:
Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen has relieved Josh McDaniels of his head coaching duties. Details to follow on DenverBroncos.com.
Wow. Just wow. More than anything, the timing of this announcement is the biggest surprise here. Although it comes less than two full seasons after McDaniels took the reigns in Denver, the brash 34-year-old coach seemingly had a cloud of controversy following him since his arrival.
From the very start, McDaniels clashed with talented players like Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Peyton Hillis, and most recently, the Broncos were fined for videotaping a 49ers walkthrough practice earlier this year. After starting off the 2008 season 6-0, McDaniels has gone 5-17 since then (including losing 7 of his last 8 games) to finish his career in Denver with a final record of 11-17. On Sunday, Denver fell to 3-9 on the season after losing to division rival Kansas City Chiefs, and the “Fire McDaniels” chants grew louder in the Mile High City.
Well Broncos fans, you got your wish!
But it seems that Spygate II was the final straw for Bowlen, who above all else, values his franchise’s integrity and reputation as a class organization. And with McDaniels at the helm, it was starting to become increasingly difficult for the Broncos to maintain that image.
30
Nov
2010
Tuesday Morning NFL Notebook: Pat Bowlen Warms the Hot Seat
Big Fur Coat Man rides by night. (Source: SBNation.com)
¶ As C-O-U-R-T-N-E-Y reported earlier this week, AOL’s Fanhouse released a story Monday with quotes from Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen in favor of retaining coach Josh McDaniels through 2011 — but the team has moved into damage-control mode.
Asked directly if McDaniels would be kept, Bowlen initially told Fanhouse reporter Thomas George: “Yes he will. I am not interested in making a coaching change.”
George quotes Bowlen as saying, “I’m very happy with Josh. Josh is doing a good job. I wish he had a few more wins, but we’ve got five games to go.”
After the story went viral, the team hastily issued a release that tempered Bowlen’s support, at least a bit.
“This has been a very trying and disappointing season for all of us,” Bowlen said in the written statement. “We haven’t had the success we had hoped to achieve. Josh McDaniels is the head coach of the Broncos, and you always strive for stability at that position. However, with five games left in the 2010 season, we will continue to monitor the progress of the team and evaluate what’s in the best interest of this franchise.”
29
Nov
2010
Josh McDaniels Will Live to Fight Another Season
McDaniels doing his best Elway grin. (Photo: www.broncostalk.net)
Reports out of Denver are that Josh McDaniels will return next year to coach the Broncos. Although the franchise has been in serious damage control of late with Spygate II and the team’s lousy performance on the field, retaining him is not as big a surprise as people may think. Uncertainty over the league’s collective bargaining agreement has a lot of franchises hesitant to pay a new coach to sit around and do nothing (while paying an old coach to sit around and do nothing).
I also think the Broncos don’t want this to be the next Mike Shanahan (Raiders—>Broncos) or Bill Belichick (Browns—>Patriots) situation. Where McDaniels needs help is in the personnel department. The Broncos have made some wildly bad trades (see Peyton Hillis for Brady Quinn), run some serious talent out of town (see Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall), and wildly over-thought draft day decisions (see trading up for Tim Tebow, drafting Knowshon Mereno, this list could go on).
While McDaniels isn’t soley responsible for these moves (they do have a GM, Brian Xanders), a lot of their personnel moves clearly have McDaniels’ name all over them. McDaniels has made a ton of mistakes, but my guess is that the Broncos also think he has learned from them and will look to build on what he has learned rather than starting over all over again. The timing of it also telling: saying he will return next year in the face of SpygateII and an increasingly hostile fan base shows that a lot of people (or, at least, people that matter) within the Broncos’ organization must still believe in McDaniels.
28
Nov
2010
Spygate II hits Denver; Broncos fined for taping 49ers practice
(Photo via NYDailyNews.com)
UPDATE: check out this fascinating tweet from Jay Glazer, which presents some serious implications for Bill Belichick’s Patriots:
Just reported that Josh McDaniels in staff mtg on fri said latest video tape scandal isn’t like SpyGate bc that was practiced & coached.
__________________________________
The big news this weekend is that the Denver Broncos and head coach Josh McDaniels have each been fined $50k for videotaping six minutes of a 49ers walkthrough practice on October 30th. This was just one day before the two teams met in London at Wembley Stadium … a game which Denver lost. The Broncos have fired video operations director Steve Scarnecchia, who was responsible for taping the practice.
According to the Broncos, nobody on their staff actually watched the video, but they admit to failing to report the incident to the league, thinking it was simply an internal matter. On Saturday, McDaniels released a statement in which he denied any role in the recording, but apologized for not reporting it sooner:
“We certainly did not view or do anything with the footage, and he was made aware that it was something we didn’t condone in our organization. I failed to follow through and report it to the proper individuals in our organization and with the league.
“This incident is in no way representative of what the Broncos stand for, and in no way representative of what I stand for as the head coach of this organization — and for that, I take responsibility. I understand the punishment that the league has handed me and our team, and we have addressed this situation with our entire organization to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
As we all know, before becoming the head coach of the Broncos, McDaniels was a member of the Patriots staff. In fact, he was the offensive coordinator there in 2007, when the original Spygate scandal broke under Bill Belichick. And Sarnecchia himself was a member of the Patriots video crew from 2000-2004. So once can’t help but wonder if this is starting to become a pattern. But the punky young coach maintains his innocence in this case, saying that Sarnecchia acted alone. But do NFL video guys make a habit of recording things without direct instruction from someone above them?
29
Aug
2009
Free love: Cutler’s return to Denver
It’s just a preseason game, but Jay Cutler’s return to Denver tomorrow pits a cranky, irritated fanbase against a punkish, moody quarterback–who used to be their punkish, moody quarterback. For the Bears, it’s a third preseason game–then get out of town. For the Broncos, and their fans, it cuts deeper. Beyond crushing Cutler and ending his season with a mind-blowing concussion, it’s just a game of sticks and stones–the Broncos fans still have to enter 2009 with Kyle Orton at quarterback (doubt many Bears fans are ringing their hands over that reunion).
It seems like a bear would rather spend time in Colorado than Chicago--but that would make too much sense, of course.
Moreover, Denver has bigger fish to fry than Cutler. The “sense of entitlement” void left by Cutler was immediately filled (and then some) by Brandon Marshall, perhaps the most tedious player west of Ochocinco. Josh McDaniels, who has been bathed in drama since taking the job, took a stand in suspending the flagrantly lazy, diva-like Marshall–and it may have earned back his respect with the team.
If something doesn’t feel right in Denver–beyond the exodus of star power–it may be the fact that the team’s schedule includes the Patriots, Steelers, Colts, and the NFC East. Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen, however, is not dismayed, at least openly. He told the Denver Post’s Mike Klis, “I’m really optimistic about — not so much we’re going to win 12 games or anything like that — but optimistic that we’re going to be a good football team,” Bowlen said. “I like what I see. I’m really happy with my staff and the coaches. I’ve got to know most of them pretty well. I’ve watched how they interact — it’s a good buzz going around this upstairs floor.”
We wonder if the state’s rich supply of Coors could have something to do with that.
31
Mar
2009
Cutler done with Broncos
When children coach children
Breaking News on TV here in Denver. Per CBS 4, Broncos president/CEO Pat Bowlen says that they will accommodate strong-armed but whiny QB Jay Cutler’s request to be traded:
“Numerous attempts to contact Jay Cutler in the last 10 days, both by Head Coach Josh McDaniels and myself, have been unsuccessful,” Bowlen said in the statement. “A conversation with his agent earlier today clearly communicated and confirmed to us that Jay no longer has any desire to play for the Denver Broncos. We will begin discussions with other teams in an effort to accommodate his request to be traded.”
Wow. Now it’s clear that Josh McDaniels came into Denver, wanted to bring in Matt Cassel as “his guy”, and has proved himself to be a pretty big ass since he got there. I mean, the guy is only 32 himself, so he’s going to be younger than some of his players, and let’s just say he’s off to a bad start in the leadership department. But Cutler sure is making it hard to take his side in all of this. He and McDaniels had one meeting for 20 minutes to try to resolve their differences. Twenty Minutes!!! I’ve had longer meetings to figure out what to order for lunch, and these guys can’t put aside their immature BS and talk for a whole half hour to try to figure this out? And how many hundreds of millions are involved here?
And then Cutler just decides to stop returning texts from the CEO of the franchise. R&R has just discovered the contents of Cutler’s last text to Bowlen ten days ago: “Josh iz SOOO LAME! I’m out. L8R!”
Congratulations Jay, you got your wish. Have fun in Detroit.
