The end was mercifully quick… for Broncos Nation and for Josh McDaniels.

The Denver Broncos’ 12th head coach was fired on Monday after a disappointing loss to the arch-rival Kansas City Chiefs.  It was the Broncos’ 17th loss in their last 22 games, after Denver won the first six games of McDaniels’ tenure.

How could an era that began with such promise and fanfare go down in flames so quickly?

The Winds of Change

After blowing a three-game lead over the San Diego Chargers with three games remaining in the 2008 season and missing the playoffs, Pat Bowlen decided the time had come to dismiss the most successful head coach in Broncos history, Mike Shanahan.  Bowlen said that the next coach would not have the same power that Shanahan had in making personnel decisions.

After the long interview process, Bowlen offered the job to New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.  At just 32 years old, McDaniels became the youngest coach in the league.  Despite McDaniels’ youth and inexperience, the Broncos gave him the very power they had claimed he would not have.

McJayGate and the ’09 Draft

McDaniels would quickly make major headlines when he apparently contacted his old friends in New England to inquire about the possibility of a trade that would bring quarterback Matt Cassel to the Broncos.  Cassel took over the starting job in New England under McDaniels for the final 15 games of the ’08 season after a Tom Brady knee injury.  Denver’s incumbent QB Jay Cutler was incensed and, after the Cassel deal fell through, demanded to be traded.

McDaniels and Bowlen attempted to smooth things over with Cutler, but things deteriorated to the point that Cutler refused to take either McDaniels’ or Bowlen’s phone calls.  Bowlen had had enough, and traded Cutler to Chicago for QB Kyle Orton and draft picks.

The Broncos’ biggest problem under Shanahan was their defense.  Mike Nolan signed on as defensive coordinator after the ’08 season.  McDaniels signed future Hall Of Fame safety Brian Dawkins as a free agent, and was expected to focus on that side of the ball in the draft.

Instead, McDaniels used his first pick on Georgia RB Knowshon Moreno.  After McDaniels selected linebacker Robert Ayers with the 18th pick, he then made a move that raised a lot of eyebrows, trading a 1^st Round pick in the 2010 Draft to select CB Alphonso Smith from Wake Forest in the 2nd Round.  McDaniels used only four of his ten picks on defensive players.

6-0

The Josh McDaniels Era started with a bang, as the Broncos won their first six games of the 2009 season.  But let’s examine that surprising 6-0 run in hindsight.

Their first win, against the Cincinnati Bengals, was a fluke.  The Broncos were anemic on offense and fell behind 7-6 with just 38 seconds left.  Orton threw a pass to a well-covered Brandon Marshall.  The ball was tipped in the air and caught by Brandon Stokley with only open field in front of him.  Stokley went 87 yards for the score as the Broncos stunned the Bengals 13-7.  It was a win that came purely from luck… and Mike Nolan’s suddenly studly defense.

The Broncos then won 27-6 in their home opener against a weak Cleveland team led by an underachieving, once great in college quarterback.  What was his name again?  Oh, yeah!  Brady Quinn (more on him later). The following week they won again on the road against an awful Raiders team, 23-3.

Then came a tough three-game stretch against the Cowboys and Patriots at home, and the Chargers on the road.

Against Dallas, the much improved Bronco D allowed only 10 points, and Marshall scored the game-winning TD in a 17-10 win.  Then the Broncos beat McDaniels’ old friends from New England 20-17 in overtime.  However, they were helped by the fact that Tom Brady was still not at his best after his injury, and was throwing the ball as inaccurately as he ever has in his career.  The Broncos kept rolling with a 34-23 victory over the Chargers on Monday Night Football, thanks to Eddie Royal returning both a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns… a very rare occurrence.

The Broncos headed to their bye week on top of the world.

Reality Check

Then came the collapse.

The Broncos returned from the Bye and were blown out in Baltimore, 30-7.  They returned home and were dominated again by the Super Bowl Champion Steelers, 28-10.  The next week in Washington, the Broncos were playing well when Kyle Orton was lost with a sprained ankle.  Chris Simms took over at QB, and was awful, as the Broncos lost 27-17.  They returned home for a rematch with the Chargers and were blown out again 32-3.

The Broncos rebounded with a Thanksgiving Night win over the Giants, and a 44-13 drubbing of the Chiefs at Arrowhead.  They would then lose in Indianapolis despite Brandon Marshall’s record-setting 20 catches.  Then Denver really hit rock bottom.

They lost at home 20-19 to the Raiders, led by the worst draft bust in history; JaMarcus Russell.  The Broncos fell in Philadelphia and then at home in a 44-24 beat-down by the Chiefs as the improvement that the defense showed earlier in the year vanished.  Brandon Marshall was benched for the Chiefs game because McDaniels felt he was exaggerating the severity of a hamstring injury and was not giving his full effort to the team.

The Broncos finished the same way they did a year earlier; 8-8 and out of the playoffs.

2010

After the disappointing second half of 2009, Mike Nolan left the Broncos because of what was termed “philosophical differences” with McDaniels.  Linebackers coach Don “Wink” Martindale was promoted to defensive coordinator, the fifth man in five years to hold the position.

One of the surprise stars for the Broncos in Shanahan’s final year was running back Peyton Hillis.  He had rushed for 129 yards in a win against the Jets before tearing his hamstring against the Chiefs, ending his season.  Despite coming back healthy, McDaniels somehow didn’t see anything worth keeping in Hillis.  He carried the ball only 13 times in ’09, and was traded to the Browns for Brady Quinn.  McDaniels traded away two more stars when he sent Marshall to Miami and tight end Tony Scheffler to Detroit for draft picks.

In the 2010 Draft, McDaniels again made headlines when he traded up to the 25th pick to select Florida QB Tim Tebow, one of the greatest players in college football history.  There were questions about Tebow’s mechanics, and many wondered if he was worth a 1^st Round pick.  But his work ethic and character fit McDaniels’ blueprint of what a quarterback should be.

Again, McDaniels ignored his team’s defensive woes during the draft, using only three of nine picks on defensive players.

Alphonso Smith, for whom McDaniels had sacrificed a 1^st Round pick, never panned out and was traded to Detroit before the season began, a major admission of failure from the head coach.

The Broncos lost their opener in Jacksonville, and then rebounded in their home opener with a win over Seattle.  In week 3 the Broncos outplayed the Colts at home, but managed only six points in five red zone possessions in a 27-13 loss.  The Broncos won on the road in Tennessee to even their record at 2-2.

Strange Parallels

Then, once again, the collapse came.

For the second straight year the Broncos traveled to Baltimore and were blown out, this time 31-17.  After giving up a late lead to the Jets and falling 24-20, the Broncos once again hit rock bottom at home against the Raiders.

The Broncos were completely humiliated on their home field by their old nemeses, losing 59-14, and the fans’ anger against McDaniels intensified.  The Broncos traveled to London and lost to the 1-6 49ers, dropping them to 2-6 going into the Bye Week.

Denver was ranked dead last in the NFL in rushing, averaging well under 70 yards per game.  Meanwhile, Peyton Hillis was putting up huge numbers in Cleveland as a featured running back.  Brady Quinn, who had been inaccurate and ineffective in the preseason, was parked firmly on the bench as the 3rd QB on the Broncos’ depth chart.

Denver appeared to have turned it around after the bye week with a 49-29 blowout of the division-leading Chiefs.  But hopes of a late-season run were dashed when the Broncos were again dominated by the Chargers the following week, losing 35-14.  Five days later, McDaniels’ reputation took the worst hit yet.

Spygate II: Denver

The day before the Broncos played the St Louis Rams in Denver, McDaniels was fined $50,000, and the Broncos $50,000 more, after a Broncos assistant was revealed to have videotaped a 49ers practice the day before the game in London.  McDaniels had failed to report the incident to the league.  Josh claimed that video assistant Steve Scarnecchia, who was part of the Spygate scandal in New England while McDaniels was O.C., acted independently and that he never viewed the tape.  Many in the fan-base and media did not buy his explanation.

The Broncos lost to the young Rams, 36-33, in front of the smallest crowd in Invesco Field history.  McDaniels was losing the fans, but Pat Bowlen said that McDaniels would remain coach for the rest of the season.

The Broncos traveled to Kansas City with a chance to play spoiler to the Chiefs’ playoff hopes.  Knowshon Moreno was having the game of his life with 161 rushing yards, and the Broncos trailed just 10-6 with 4 minutes remaining.  McDaniels could have run the ball with his hot back or used play-action to open up the field. Instead, he had Kyle Orton, who was having his worst game of the year, drop back for two straight plays, throwing an incompletion and taking a sack.  The Broncos punted two plays later, and Orton threw another incompletion on the last play as the Broncos fell to 3-9, out of playoff contention for the fifth year in a row.

The End

Pat Bowlen had finally seen enough.  The day after the loss to the Chiefs, Bowlen fired McDaniels as head coach.  That amazing 6-0 start was nothing but a distant memory.

To be fair, I don’t believe Josh McDaniels is solely to blame for the Broncos’ downfall.  Pat Bowlen must accept a lot of the blame for giving so much responsibility to such a young coach.  Being a head coach in the NFL is difficult enough without the pressure of building the roster through free agency and the draft.  McDaniels was in over is head, and that is not his fault.  It takes years of experience to have that kind of power over an NFL franchise and be successful… experience that McDaniels has yet to gain.

From a coaching standpoint, I believe McDaniels is a good offensive mind, but he needs to make better use of the running game.  I know that the Broncos have a young offensive line, and Moreno is seen as an underachiever, but I have always felt that McDaniels was too quick to abandon the running game when they got off to a slow start.  There were too many times that the Broncos threw the ball 35-40 times compared to only 15-20 running plays.  McDaniels wanted to throw the ball all day long, and that usually is not a successful formula unless your quarterback is named Brady or Manning.

So, who will be the next man to lead the Broncos?  How long will it take for this once proud franchise to rise from the ashes?  The next several months should be very interesting in Broncoland.

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Mike Nolan, former Broncos defensive coordinator

Mike Nolan and the Denver Broncos “mutually agreed” to part ways today, according to Mike Klis at the Denver Post.

This doesn’t appear to be a firing, it appears more like a knowledgeable football guy jumping off of a ship that might be sinking faster than anyone realizes. I really REALLY want to give Josh McDaniels the benefit of the doubt here, but it seems like people can’t get away from him fast enough. Coaches are bolting from Dove Valley faster than a Tiger Woods sponsor. (Spare me the groan, I know it was a bad joke. I’m just beside myself here.)

The one area that the Broncos significantly improved was the defense, and Nolan was instrumental in that. Wasn’t he? Or was Josh just pulling the strings and Nolan got sick of being a puppet in a puppet regime that was fast degrading into a comedy of errors?

The long and short of it here is that Nolan was exactly the kind of guy the Broncos needed. Once teams figured out how to beat this defense, he kept most of the games respectable, given what he had to work with. I’m even more concerned at the mass exodus that’s happening. By the time McDaniels finishes his reign of terror here, there won’t be anything left. Even more worrisome, is that it appears he’s leaving in favor of Dean Pees, a 60-year old former Patriots coach (SHOCK!) who finished the season in ill health.

This is getting comical folks. Don’t think for a second that Denver isn’t the laughing stock of the NFL right now. The joke is on us, and McDaniels is the punchline. He may do fine. This team may improve over its 8-8 finish. But I’m finally staking out my position here – I no longer respect Josh McDaniels as a head coach in the NFL, and I will continually call for his dismissal. I can no longer support the mockery he has made of the NFL franchise that I love.

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Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels

Josh McDaniels was named the new Head Coach of the Denver Broncos on January 11^th, 2009.  Nine months later, the New Look Broncos will try for their fifth win in five tries.  And they’ll do it against McDaniels’ old team, the New England Patriots.

In the slim margin of time between now and October 11^th, media yak and barroom chat will celebrate the timely resurgence of Brandon Marshall, the dominance of the Denver D, and the passable competence of Kyle Orton.  But as much as the players deserve their due congrats, the Denver coaching staff is most directly responsible for this amazing remaking of the Broncos.

McDaniels worked to keep continuity by retaining much of the Shanahan-era staff, but made decisive changes at key positions.  Mike Nolan, formerly the Broncos’ linebacker coach under Dan Reeves, was brought in to work the transition to a 3-4 defense.  Secondary Coach Ed Donatell and a host of free-agent pick-ups were tapped to remake the Broncos’ pass defense.  And Wayne Nunnely joined existing staff to work the D-line into a functional unit.

The result has been an average of just over 8 points allowed per game by a defense that has kept Denver’s struggling offense close enough to win.  Close enough to manufacture decisive fourth quarter drives in two of four games.  And as much as a fresh scheme may have helped this defense wake up from years of mediocrity, the real story is the work ethic that every player now takes into every play.

Each play is contested, missed tackles are forgotten and corrected, linebacker & safety pursuit is quick and effective.

There could be no better indication going into the 2009 season that these re-imagined Broncos were on the right path than seeing a competitive defense take the field week after week.  We have instead seen a physical, dominant defense carry Denver to the finish line through an opening salvo of four consecutive wins.

Josh McDaniels is likely not very surprised with his own mastery of his team.  After all, he chased off ego competition in Jay Cutler, installing the unimpressive Orton.  But wait… Kyle Orton is 17-2 in home games in his NFL career.  He’s a proven winner going back to college.  He has not fumbled or thrown an interception yet this season.  But he has thrown two miraculous catch-and-run game-winning passes in two highly competitive games.  In two blowouts Orton has managed the game well, or well enough to at least McDaniels’ liking, if not to that of Broncos Nation.

Another personality brawl resulted in much media chatter about the end of Brandon Marshall as a dominant Broncos receiver, but the most recent chapter of that story has The Beast hearing his number called when the team needed a big play down at home to Dallas late in the game.  The narrative continues to hug-filled celebrations between the supposed-to-be rivals that spilled over into a post-game press conference.

Doubters are certainly still many.  The Cowboys have struggled to find a rhythm & an identity this season, and the Broncos exploited that.  Denver’s previous three opponents range from miserable to spotty.  But the fact is that the Broncos are playoff-worthy at best, and competitive versus any opponent at worst.

Ask an average Broncos fan nine months ago what their bare minimum expectations were for this season, and the answer would have been a passive remark about finishing close to .500.  Now we see a team that leads the division by two games whose play gets a little more crisp, a bit more defined each week.  The ceiling is indeed high for this new era in Denver Football.

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