Pat Boo-lan and Josh McFool have ruined what once was a promising young team. All they had to do was fix the defense, but noooo, they had to dismantle the entire team.
Let's look at McFool's decisions so far:
1) McFool lied to Cutler about his desire to acquire Cassel and never apologized or came clean with his intentions. After that, he fired the OC who was Cutler's QB coach and close friend (Bates). These moves cost him a franchise QB. Up until that point all was hunky-dory with Cutler in town to learn the new offense.
2) McFool drafted Moreno last year with the 11th overall pick even though he had previously signed every free agent tail back with a pulse prior to the draft. His most pressing need was for front seven players and passed on Orakpo to take Moreno. Stupid then, stupid now.
3) McFool then drafted Robert Ayers with the 17th overall pick to try to make up for the mistake he made at 11. Ayers is miscast as an OLB. If they had taken Orakpo at 11, they could have taken any one of the USC linebackers at 17.
4) McFool then trades a number one pick in the 2010 draft for the 37th overall pick and takes Alphonso Smith. While Smith might be an okay NFL corner, he's short and slow and couldn't even get on the field in 2009 as a nickel CB. This off-season they have signed more free agent CB's which tells you all you need to know about their long-term feelings on Smith.
5) Then McFool trades two third round picks to acquire the last pick in the second round and takes Richard Quinn, a TE who caught 12 passes in his ENTIRE college career. McFool already had Daniel Graham on his roster as a blocking TE, so what he was thinking is anyone's guess.
6) McFool suspends Marshall for week 17. Why? Even if he deserved it (not clear from an outsiders perspective) he cut his own throat by giving up what little leverage he had to deal Marshall this off-season. Once he made this spat public with the suspension, the die was cast that he would not be able to get a number one pick for Marshall. Again, stupid then, stupid now.
6) McFool makes one good decision: He hires Nolan to be his DC. Nolan does a fine job of turning the defense around, converting the defense to the 3-4 in one season, but McFool couldn't make this one good decision last when Nolan left the staff after one year. While the reasons for him leaving where never made public, it was obvious he and McFool didn't see eye to eye. (It's hard to see eye-to-eye with McFool because he's about 5'2" tall.)
7) McFool makes an enemy of Tony Scheffler, and he will be gone from the team soon. McFool needs offensive pass catching play makers, so of course he would want to rid himself of a premier pass catching TE.
So, I mostly blame Pat Boo-lan for this mess. He fires Shanny because he says Shanny had too much control, and then hires a head coach that needs training wheels to keep from falling down and then gives him the same control that Shanny had. Say what? And to make matters worse, he pairs McFool up with a young GM who has never been a GM before rather than hire someone like Charlie Casserly to offset the inexperience of McFool. I have to think that Casserly would have put the brakes on at least some of this insanity.
So, what is the Broncos outlook? Not bright as long as McFool is running the operation.
