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Denver Native (Carol)
01-03-2009, 11:02 AM
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/02/replacing-broncos-legend-is-tough/


One was a long shot, a former college receiver with a thin resume and not much older than some of his veteran players.

The other was a flashy college coach known as much for his plastered hair as his devotion to football.

What Mike Tomlin and Jimmy Johnson had in common was their ability to succeed following an NFL legend, something the next Broncos coach will hope to do after shocking firing of Mike Shanahan on Tuesday.

Tomlin, in his second year after taking over for Bill Cowher, guided Pittsburgh to a 12-4 record and the AFC North Division title this season, and he has the Steelers primed for another potential Super Bowl run. Johnson, who took over in Dallas when Tom Landry was unceremoniously shown the door, went on to win back-to-back Super Bowls with the Cowboys.

"When you have (Ben) Roethlisberger in place and Jay Cutler in place and (Troy) Aikman in place, all of those (transitions) become a lot easier," said NFL.com senior writer Gil Brandt, who was personnel director under Landry.

Still, Brandt said, the odds are that replacing Shanahan won't be easy.

"Coach Landry always said, when you're going to replace somebody, be sure that who you're replacing them with is better than the guy that was there," Brandt said. "All you have to do is look at the coaches that failed and (know Denver) had a proven commodity. They might get a proven commodity (again). I'm not sure. But I just think Mike was special."

Though Steve Mariucci won division titles, he never could duplicate the success the late Bill Walsh and George Seifert had in San Francisco.

Washington still is trying to regain its luster of the golden days under Joe Gibbs during his first go-round.

And one could argue the Cleveland Browns never have gotten it together since the Paul Brown-Blanton Collier days, though John Elway helped change that course of history.

Whomever Broncos owner Pat Bowlen ultimately chooses will have some big shoes to fill, what with Shanahan leaving as the winningest coach in franchise history with two titles.

"It's going to be tough," said former Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe, who won two Super Bowls rings in Denver and a third with Baltimore. "The measuring stick is his record. Granted, the last few seasons have been .500. But he's got two (Super Bowl) trophies in the lobby. It's like replacing John (Elway). You just can't get anybody to replace John."

Following Elway

Some would argue that the Broncos still haven't replaced Elway, even with Cutler's rocket arm and cocky attitude.

Denver has gone through eight quarterbacks who've started games since Elway retired after the 1998 season, and Cutler is 17-20 in his 21/2 seasons.

"Until Jay Cutler learns how to protect the football around the goal line, this program will live and die with him," said former quarterback Joe Theismann, who went to two Super Bowls under Gibbs and won one. "Mike Shanahan put a lot of faith in Jay Cutler. And he's very talented. But somebody has to teach him the things to do to win. It's not a knock on him - it's part of the growth process. He's going to have to do this for Pat Bowlen to achieve what he wants."

Players who know Bowlen see more than a man with an open checkbook and a year-round tan.

"I think there are people who underestimate his competitive nature," said former defensive end Alfred Williams, who recalls rehabilitation days at the facility trying not to be shown up by Bowlen on the Stairmaster. "He may be very quiet and in the background, but it's always with the understanding that this thing is about winning."

To that end, former safety Tyrone Braxton sees Bowlen's role changing with the departure of Shanahan.

"Mike always had his thumb on everything. Now it will be time for people to step up and do their jobs," Braxton said. "I think Pat will get more involved, like a Jerry Jones."

Braxton doesn't believe it will be a quick fix.

Williams, though, is hopeful.

"I hope the next guy . . . can get a good grasp on the players' intent," Williams said. "It's one thing to be a pro athlete and another to be a professional athlete. We've got to have more professional athletes who play with their heart and soul to win on Sunday."

He thought back to when Shanahan was hired in 1995.

"He wasn't a celebrated head coach when he got to the Broncos," Williams said. "But he became one. Pat Bowlen will find another one who's capable. If not, he'll get rid of him quickly. I just have a lot of respect for his willingness to do what it takes to win."

Bowlen showed as much, even as he choked up.

"I may end up regretting this decision," he said during his New Year's Eve news conference. "But right now, I am very comfortable with this decision that we've got to go in a different direction."

Pluses in Denver

Brandt said it certainly is an attractive job.

"You've got a quarterback. You've got a left tackle. You've got some good offensive linemen. What job is more attractive? Detroit or Denver? Cleveland or Denver? Jets or Denver? This is a quarterback-driven league, and when you've got a guy like Cutler, you've got something going for you."

While the shock value of Shanahan's firing rates up there with that of Landry, Brandt said nothing should shock him anymore.

"If you would have . . . told me that Tony Sparano is going to win 10 more games than the year before (at Miami), or that Mike Smith, as a head coach, was going to do what he did (in Atlanta), I would have told you you were crazy," Brandt said.

"But picking a head coach is somewhat like picking the winning lottery. It ain't easy."

kabroncos
01-03-2009, 12:01 PM
I agree,
It will be tough to find a replacement for Mike S. Remembering back to the days when we we're always getting beat by Oakland before Red Miller and then the frustrating years under Dan Reeves and Wade Phillips. I think a lot of the fans have gotten spoiled by the success of the last 14 years.

NightTrainLayne
01-03-2009, 12:39 PM
. . .Williams said. "It's one thing to be a pro athlete and another to be a professional athlete. We've got to have more professional athletes who play with their heart and soul to win on Sunday."



You can say that again Alfred.

Denver Native (Carol)
01-03-2009, 12:46 PM
I agree,
It will be tough to find a replacement for Mike S. Remembering back to the days when we we're always getting beat by Oakland before Red Miller and then the frustrating years under Dan Reeves and Wade Phillips. I think a lot of the fans have gotten spoiled by the success of the last 14 years.

Great points - AND :welcome: to Broncos Forums

Shazam!
01-03-2009, 02:22 PM
Oh PLEASE. Touche!

KRIEGER: Step down from Shanahan isn't inevitable
By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News
Published January 2, 2009 at 8:27 p.m.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/02/krieger-shanahan-firing-might-be-foolish---or/

Local sportswriters in 2019, assuming there still are local sportswriters in 2019, will very likely conclude that firing Mike Shanahan was a mistake.

That's because his successor, by the law of averages, is unlikely to have a record as good as his. Shanahan is tied for 15th on the list of career NFL coaching victories. He won 62 percent of his games with the Broncos. That will be hard to match.

The list of legendary coaches succeeded by less-legendary coaches is long and distinguished. And, of course, undistinguished, too.

The most common reflex throughout the years has been to hire the departed legend's defensive coordinator. The Packers did this after Vince Lombardi, the Redskins after Joe Gibbs (the first time), the 49ers after Bill Walsh. Phil Bengtson and Richie Petitbon didn't work out so well, but George Seifert won two Super Bowls for the Niners. As in baseball, one out of three ain't bad.

Wade Phillips is the Forrest Gump of this category, having replaced his father, Bum, in New Orleans, Marv Levy in Buffalo, Bill Parcells in Dallas and Dan Reeves in both Denver and Atlanta. As it happens, he's not available to perform this stunt for a sixth time - at least, not at the moment.

Unfortunately, naming your defensive coordinator generally requires a respectable defense. The Broncos don't have one of those, so this option is out. Far from being a candidate to replace Shanahan, defensive coordinator and old friend Bob Slowik is possibly one of the reasons for his departure.

But the disappointing successor is not always a defensive coordinator. The Vikings replaced legendary Bud Grant with Les Steckel, an offensive assistant.

On the bright side, a step down is not inevitable. The Steelers replaced Chuck Noll with Bill Cowher, a young defensive coordinator from another organization. Compared with Noll's four Super Bowl championships in 23 seasons, Cowher's one in 14 still represents a decline, but, like Shanahan, he won 62 percent of his regular-season games.

The Cowboys replaced legendary Tom Landry with a hot young college coach, Jimmy Johnson of the University of Miami, who also happened to be a former college teammate of the man doing the hiring, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Landry won two Super Bowls in 29 years. Johnson needed only five seasons to win as many.

So it's possible that Broncos owner Pat Bowlen will be able to find a "10," to use his own description, to succeed the winningest coach in Broncos history, but the odds are against it. The history makes it likely a review of the won-loss records 10 years from now will make the Shanahan firing look like a bad idea.

But that doesn't mean it was. As usual, the numbers don't tell the whole story.

Bowlen's inability to articulate just why he chose to fire Shanahan now, after saying for years he could stay as long as he liked, had two possible root causes.

One is his preference to keep private differences private. Shanahan is the same way. Even in his final news conference, he refused to discuss what went wrong with his 29th-ranked defense. To the end, he was not going to acknowledge mistakes or internal differences publicly.

It's been suggested that Bowlen wanted a reduction in Shanahan's executive portfolio or changes in his defensive staff. He denied both, but given the tight-lipped nature of the organization, that doesn't tell us much.

The other possible reason Bowlen didn't explain just why he fired his old friend is that he couldn't. When a single executive acquires all the power and titles within an organization, as Shanahan did with the Broncos, an arrogance of authority develops almost inevitably.

It happened to Reeves, too. In fact, Shanahan chafed under Reeves' omnipotence as much as anyone chafed under his.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Lord Acton wrote more than a century ago. Often, despite the best of intentions, the omnipotent executive becomes an autocrat, stifling dissent, sometimes inadvertently, through intimidation. The absence of competing views, in turn, becomes an impediment to the pursuit of excellence.

Shanahan's refusal to admit that his team had become defensively helpless was a reflection of this phenomenon. Were he to walk into the current Broncos situation with no previous experience here, it's my opinion that Shanahan would replace almost everything he found on the defensive side of the ball in short order. But because everything on the defensive side of the ball, like everything else in the organization, is a result of Shanahan's own design, he had too much pride of authorship to do what needed to be done.

Sometimes, as Bowlen suggested, an executive can simply be in a place long enough. Sometimes, the burden of past decisions becomes a prison that prevents the clarity of thought a fresh perspective can bring.

That doesn't make it any easier to find a successor as good as the original. And it doesn't change the likelihood that Shanahan's firing will one day look like a mistake.

But that won't make it so. Sometimes, the weight of the history itself is reason enough.

Medford Bronco
01-03-2009, 03:38 PM
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/02/replacing-broncos-legend-is-tough/



"Until Jay Cutler learns how to protect the football around the goal line, this program will live and die with him," said former quarterback Joe Theismann, who went to two Super Bowls under Gibbs and won one. "Mike Shanahan put a lot of faith in Jay Cutler. And he's very talented. But somebody has to teach him the things to do to win. It's not a knock on him - it's part of the growth process. He's going to have to do this for Pat Bowlen to achieve what he wants."

."

Could not agree more.

You could have Vince Lombardi, Shanny 1996-1998 and Chuck Noll
coach this team and if we continue to turn the ball over at critical times.
we will not improve.

this and our D has to improve before we take it back to the next level

good call Joe T:salute: