I've had time to breathe. Might have been a little harsh. But no conference championships and 1 divisional championship since 1998 - so it's not like he's been the second coming the past 8 years. He's had a good run, but I think even diehard Bronco fans have to be questioning his ability to motivate a team to play hard week in and week out. So many blowouts.
Only teams with a better record than the Broncos since Elway retired are the Pats, Colts, Steelers, and Eagles. Not too shabby for a guy who can't evaluate talent and who has been passed by.Denver's an incredibly inconsistent team this year, but it's wrong to blame that on Shanahan. There isn't a single starter on the entire line right now who was playing in the same place 16 games ago (heck, Eric Pears is the only guy who was even playing in Denver 16 games ago). The #1 passing option, the guy he was tailoring the offense around, got lost for the season. His top 3 RBs are all battling injuries. His defensive coordinator implemented a scheme which clearly didn't work with the personnel he had, and the defensive line has been churning bodies for years. He lost his defensive captain unexpectedly in the offseason, and both of his starting safeties are among the 5 oldest in the entire NFL. Oh yeah, by the way, have I mentioned that his starting QB just got his 16th career start a couple of weeks ago, and two players died in the offseason? Yeah, the team has been incredibly inconsistent this season, posting some of the most impressive wins of the season mixed in among some of the most disgust-inspiring losses. According to Football Outsiders, Denver's the most inconsistant team of the DVOA era (currently dating back to 1996) by a significant margin... but are you really going to blame that all on Shanahan, or are you willing to acknowledge that the other factors might have played a tiny part in that, too?Shanahan takes a lot of knocks, and most of them aren't even close to fair. The guy has one losing season in a dozen years with Denver, and even that was "only" 6-10. Denver's the only team that hasn't had a top-10 draft pick during Shanahan's tenure. And for all the knocks about his personnel acumen, every trade he's made so far looks like a pretty good deal in retrospect, and is there anyone who doesn't think that his offense has all the makings of being one of the very best in the NFL? He looks like a genius for trading up for Cutler when he already had a very good QB on his roster (this was right after Jake Plummer was coming off of a season with the lowest INT% in the league where Denver went 13-3, remember). ESPN surveyed 5 "football people" who called Cutler the most promising young QB in the league, ahead of Romo, Roeth, and Palmer even. The Brandon Marshall draft pick looks great, and the Javon Walker trade looked great before Walker got hurt. The Henry signing was a bust, but Selvin Young looks great, Brandon Stokley looks awesome, and Daniel Graham's been solid (even if the team would have been better off with Kerney). Bailey and Bly are both studs, Lynch gave several good seasons to the franchise, and Dumervil is a stud in the making. There are some GAPING holes at Safety, Defensive Tackle, and Linebacker, but outside of that, this is not a team lacking in talent. I'm not saying that Bill Polian or Scott Pioli are shaking in their boots at the mention of Shanahan's name, but I think he has to at least be in the top 50% of GMs right now, and the top 5 among coaches.I remember when people were calling for Cowher's head after he went 6-10, too. How'd that one wind up playing out, again?
BusterTBronco said:
Shanahan's biggest problem is that he is a poor judge of talent, both in the draft and the FA market. The Broncos have a few good players and whole lot o bad ones.
what up buster.The horrible drafts that the broncos had in consecutive years several years ago has finally caught up IMO. They have a bunch of old guys that are on the decline, and then a bunch of young guys who simply aren't ready (or capable) of carrying the load. You can fill some holes in FA, but you can't fill the number of holes the Broncos have. They have little depth at multiple positions (LB and WR), have had injuries at other positions (Nalen, Hamilton, Ekuban), and absolutely nobody along the d-line (dumervil is average and thomas, crowder, moss are rookies).
There was a string of really bad drafts where the only quality players to come out were Portis and D.J. Williams, but the recent drafts have been money, and Shanahan's always been one of the best in the league at evaluating undrafted free agents. Also, Dumervil isn't average, Dumervil is a stud in the making. Dumervil is 8th in the league in sacks (just a half sack out of 4th), and unlike a lot of the players ahead of him, he isn't a total liability against the run. Every so often, Dumervil enters "beast mode" and gives a preview of things to come. His future is really, really bright.
A lot of franchises would kill for that kind of consistency.
), and one of which was Sammy Winder... in a season where he got 789 yards rushing at 3.3 yards per carry ( 
). I believe ESPN rated them as the third-worst SB team in history, and this is with Elway. It's not a stretch to say that losing Elway would cost them 2 spots.On the other hand, you'll get no argument at all that if Elway had gotten hurt in the AFCCG, then Bubby Brister would be a superbowl-winning QB right now. That 1998 squad was on autopilot, just rolling over people regardless of who was under center. Whenever I want to argue about how good Elway was, I go ahead and omit the four Shanahan years, because the most impressive parts of Elway's resume all came before that, rings or no rings.
