I am a Bronco fan who would like to think it's different but I am beginning to wonder whether Shanahan's time as Bronco coach is nearing an end - I feel that his message may have lost the effect in the locker room, especially by the end of the year. Wearing two hats I think is affecting the team as well, it's difficult to balance praise and then get tough on contracts and cuts. So if they stumble down the stretch I expect a showdown regarding his job responsibilities.
Not a chance in hell. Shanahan is the coach in Denver for as long as he wants to be the coach in Denver, and thank God for that. Look at how long people in Pittsburgh were wondering whether Cowher's message was getting old.As for his job as the de facto GM... well, a GM's job is assembling talent, end of discussion. I believe that, year-in and year-out, Denver is one of the 10 most talented teams in the league, which would suggest that Shanahan's doing a pretty darn good job there.
So you are happy with 1 playoff win in 8 years? With some of the best talent in the league? So what's missing? If you have the talent shouldn't you be able to coach them to victories, (heck I'd like to get in the playoffs first and not get slaughtered). Cowher at least made a few championship games. Bowlen will come around when the fans start getting fed up and if they fade down the stretch it will come. The 49er game was not pretty last year and I started to feel the bloom come off the rose. Fan passion is starting to fade in my opinion and Bowlen may see that soon.I also don't know about some of his GM moves - bad contracts to Griese and Plummer. Willie Middlebrooks, George Foster, Ashley Lelie, Deltha O'Neal in the draft - it's an average job at GM and at coach since Elway and Terrell have been gone.
Playoff wins are overrated as a measure of a coach, since the sample size is so ridiculously small. Don Shula once went 8 years without a single playoff win, and then made the superbowl twice in a 3-year span. Chuck Noll had two playoff victories in the final 12 years of his career. Paul Brown didn't win a single playoff game in the final 15 years of his career. Don Coryell went seven years without a playoff victory and then made two straight AFC Championship Games. Tony Dungy gets 2 playoff victories in 7 seasons in Tampa, then gets sent to Indy while his replacement wins a SB, branding Dungy as a choker who sucks in the playoffs... and I'm sure we all remember how that turned out. Mike Holmgren went 7 seasons without a playoff victory before guiding Seattle to the superbowl. Bill Parcells is another guy who is widely considered one hell of a coach- would it surprise you to learn that he only has one playoff win in his past 7 seasons? Dan Reeves went 5 years without a playoff win, then went to 3 SBs in 4 years, then had 2 playoff wins in 8 seasons, then went to the SB again. Do you really need me to go on, here?Yes, I'm happy with what Mike Shanahan has done since Elway left town. He's had 1 losing season in 8 years- a feat matched only by the Indy Colts and the New England Patriots. He's made the playoffs a very respectable 50% of the time during that span, which is quite an accomplishment for what was essentially a REBUILDING PERIOD. Keep that in mind- Shanahan REBUILT THE DENVER BRONCOS and only had one losing season in the process (a still-respectable 6-10). Shanahan has more SB appearances than losing seasons. Denver is the only team in the entire NFL who hasn't had a top-10 pick in the draft in the past decade (Denver hasn't had one since 1990). He's
ONE YEAR removed from a 13-3 season and an AFCCG appearance. No franchise in the NFL has more wins since Shanahan came to Denver. Hell, even if you want to, for some absurd reason, entirely ignore the Shanahan/Elway era, Denver has more wins since 2000 than any franchise other than New England, Indy, Pittsburgh, and Philly. The playoff wins are low because Shanahan had the misfortune of playing in the dominant conference during that span (they'd be much higher if he were in the NFC), and also because he had some unlucky draws (Indy twice, who they struggle against, and New England only once, who they routinely beat down).
Also, if you want to focus on the mistakes that a GM made, you can make anyone look pretty stupid. Hell, Scott Pioli once tried to build a defense that started Duane Starks and Monte Beisel, and he let all of his receivers leave without even attempting to resign them until he was forced to make Reche Caldwell his go-to guy. If you want to evaluate a GM, the *ONLY* fair way to do it is to ask yourself how talented the team is. Denver is routinely one of the ten most talented teams in the NFL, so Shanahan logically MUST be a top-10 GM.
Most importantly, though... who is out there who is better than Shanahan? Maybe Cowher... MAYBE... but that's it. Even if you are sick to death of him, ANYONE ELSE DENVER COULD POSSIBLY HIRE WOULD BE A DOWNGRADE, and why on earth would you want your team to downgrade coaches? You might not think he's a Bill Belichick, but I have news for you- Belichick is already hired, and he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Do you honestly think Denver could do better than Shanahan, and if so, with whom?
Why did he have to overturn the roster if he was such a great GM? I'll tell you why here are his draft picks for three years where these picks should be paying dividends this year - maybe one player in all of that in DJ and Darrent(RIP - but in fairness he got owned in the Colt game last year) - but it is mostly garbage.
2005 1 2 24 56 Darrent Williams DB Oklahoma State
2 3 12 76 Karl Paymah DB Washington State
3 3 33 97 Domonique Foxworth DB Maryland
4 3 37 101 Maurice Clarett RB Ohio State
5 6 26 200 Chris Myers G Miami (FL)
6 7 25 239 Paul Ernster K Northern Arizona
2004 1 1 17 17 D.J. Williams LB Miami (FL)
2 2 9 41 Tatum Bell RB Oklahoma State
3 2 22 54 Darius Watts WR Marshall
4 3 22 85 Jeremy LeSueur DB Michigan
5 5 20 152 Jeff Shoate DB San Diego State
6 6 6 171 Triandos Luke WR Alabama
7 6 25 190 Josh Sewell C Nebraska
8 7 24 225 Matt Mauck QB Louisiana State
9 7 46 247 Brandon Miree RB Pittsburgh
10 7 49 250 Bradlee Van Pelt QB Colorado State
2003 1 1 20 20 George Foster T Georgia
2 2 19 51 Terry Pierce LB Kansas State
3 4 11 108 Quentin Griffin RB Oklahoma
4 4 17 114 Nicholas Eason DT Clemson
5 4 31 128 Bryant McNeal DE Clemson
6 5 22 157 Ben Claxton C Mississippi
7 5 23 158 Adrian Madise WR Texas Christian
8 6 21 194 Aaron Hunt DE Texas Tech
9 7 13 227 Clint Mitchell DE Florida
He has made some decent trades, some ok free agent signings but the Cleveland line fiasco is another reason he's rebuilding this year. So really it is a very average job at GM.
SSOG - you are really good on covering Broncos and I always read your stuff - it's good. But as a Bronco fan you should expect better and right now I say Shanahan has been doing an average job based on my expectations. Whether it is his message or methods something isn't right and if this season doesn't end on a strong note, those of you who have been under the belief he is doing a good job will be in a shrinking minority.
There are a lot of reasons why he had to overturn his roster. Part of it is injuries (bye bye Al Wilson, Darrent Williams, Courtney Brown, Dwayne Carswell, Rod Smith, and Ben Hamilton), part of it is defections via free agency (which happens to the best of franchises, and claimed Reggie Hayward, Trevor Pryce, Bertrand Berry, Kenoy Kennedy, Mike Anderson), but a large part of it is just a willingness to trade players in order to get BETTER players in return (so long Portis, Droughns, Tatum Bell, George Foster, Ashley Lelie, Deltha O'Neil). And a lot of it is just replacing players with better players, such as Javon Walker, Champ Bailey, Dre Bly, John Lynch, Sam Adams, Jay Cutler, Daniel Graham, Tony Scheffler, Eric Pears, Jarvis Moss, Simeon Rice, Marcus Thomas, Brandon Marshall, et al. It's not an indictment of the Denver Broncos, it's a fact of life in the free agency era- outside of a very small core, all teams are constantly churning their rosters from year to year. Denver's more active in free agency than most, so they're probably the WORST team to judge based solely on draft success (along with the Washington Redskins). In fact, that's a very apt comparison- Denver's like the Washington Redskins, except much better in the draft, much better in free agency, and much better at managing the cap.As for the drafts... 2005 netted Darrent Williams and Dominique Foxworth, who were both starter-caliber CBs. It also netted Chris Myers, who is currently a starting guard. Not a bad haul at all. 2004 netted D.J. Williams, who is a beast, and Tatum Bell, who ran for 1,000 yards in Denver and was instrumental in the acquisition of Dre Bly. Also, those "decent" trades you mentioned were hardly just "decent"- he acquired Champ Bailey, the best defender in the entire NFL, as well as Javon Walker, who is likely a top-5 WR, and Dre Bly, who is another stud- and lets not forget that the acquisition of Cutler was done through three more trades (since Denver never has a top-10 pick, thanks to Shanahan's consistent greatness). The Cleveland line "fiasco" was hardly a "fiasco"- it netted two very solid starters (Warren and Ekuban) as well as a high-quality backup (Lang) for the salary cap cost that it would have taken to keep Reggie Hayward (who hasn't done a whole lot in Jacksonville, in case you haven't noticed). The reason Denver is rebuilding now is because they're going through a DRASTIC SCHEME CHANGE thanks to the addition of Jim Bates, and their previous D-Linemen did not have the requisite skillset to play that scheme. Free agency has also netted John Lynch, who has made multiple pro bowls in Denver while earning pennies on the dollar, as well as Travis Henry, Mike Bell, Cecil Sapp, Selvin Young, Daniel Graham, Brandon Stokley, Simeon Rice, and Ian Gold- all quality contributers to the franchise. In addition, you've totally neglected the fortification of the offensive line, which is continuing Denver's tradition as the "longest running success story in the NFL". And you also neglected the 2006 draft, which brought in Cutler, Marshall, Scheffler, and Dumerville (what a haul!), as well as the 2007 draft, which brought in Moss and Thomas. In short, yeah, Shanahan had bad drafts in 2003 and 2004 and a middling draft in 2005, but it takes a lot more than a couple of bad drafts to make someone a bad GM.
The fact that Mike Shanahan, who has won 60+% of his games this decade, is doing an "average job based on your expectations" just shows how unreasonably high your expectations are... and how did your expectations get that high? Oh yeah, Shanahan raised them to that level by being such a great coach and GM. Through 12 seasons with Denver, Shanahan has 123 wins- a mark only bettered by Joe Gibbs (124 wins in his first 12 seasons with WAS) and matched by Don Shula (123 wins), and Shanahan only needs 7 wins this year to pass Gibbs on the list for best record through 13 years. Of currently active head coaches, only Tony Dungy and Joe Gibbs have a better career winning percentage, and this isn't just a result of the Elway era, either. Shanahan's winning% since 2000 is 63.1%, which is actually ABOVE HIS CAREER AVERAGE. He's got a 62% winning rate in the playoffs. If you want to argue that he can only win in the playoffs when he has a franchise QB and RB, let me ask you what Cutler and Henry are.
Seriously, the fact that we even need to have this conversation makes me sad.
(No way Jone's is a rookie is he?)
DJ Williams a beast? 
Holy hyperbole. The only tricky thing here is where to start.Foxworth starting-caliber CB? 
Holy hyperbole. The only tricky thing here is where to start.
