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Thread: Why Is Bowlen So Loyal To Shanahan?

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    Default Why Is Bowlen So Loyal To Shanahan?

    Why Is Bowlen So Loyal To Shanahan?

    Since John Elway’s retirement, the Broncos have won exactly 1 playoff game in 9 seasons. In the 2007 season, they won less than half of the games they played. They have made endless personnel mistakes, and paid big money contracts to players who seemed to contribute more to the team’s failures than successes. Dale Carter, Darrel Gardner, Simeon Rice, Javon Walker, Jimmy Kennedy, and others have made many wonder if Mike Shanahan and his staff have a clue about how to evaluate NFL veteran talent. 24 of the 34 players drafted by Denver between 2001-2004 no longer play in the NFL. Only 2 of the 10 that are left in the NFL are still with the team, making many wonder if Mike Shanahan and his staff have a clue about how to evaluate college talent. Why in the world would Pat Bowlen keep paying Mike Shanahan millions of dollars to run this organization? Anyone? Anyone? I’m going to attempt to answer this question with some facts, statistics, and a question.

    Free agents and draft picks in the NFL are gambles. Free agents and rookies are given signing bonuses and a contract. Signing bonuses are guaranteed, and a portion of the contracts are usually also guaranteed. When players get cut and have remaining guaranteed money owed to them, that money counts against the team’s cap. We refer to this money as ‘dead cap space’. Over the last 4 years, NFL teams have averaged just under 10 million dollars in dead cap space. Mike Shanahan is a gambler. For that reason alone, the Broncos are going to be among the leaders in dead cap space. He's had his successes and failures. Football fans normally tend to focus on the failures when a team is struggling. Around the Denver area recently, we hear a lot of talk about free agent pickups like Dale Carter, Darryl Gardner, Simeon Rice, Travis Henry, Michael Dean Perry, and others. Some of the signings you won’t hear about as much these days are players like Ed Mccaffery, Mark Schlereth, Brian Habib, John Lynch, Howard Griffith, Bill Romanowski, Alfred Williams, Neil Smith, and others. Shanahan normally comes out on the winning end of trades. Gerard Warren to the Raiders for just a 5th round pick was arguably a poor trade, but moving Clinton Portis to Washington for Champ Bailey and a 2nd round pick was a stroke of brilliance. Portis has struggled continually with injuries while Bailey has become a perennial pro bowler and future hall of famer. Netting a 3rd and 4th round pick for Ashley Lelie was another masterpiece. If we choose to focus on the negative personnel moves made by Shanahan and his staff over the years, we certainly have room to complain. For the glass half full type of fans, there’s plenty to be happy about.

    Personnel moves aside, let’s take a look at the big picture. When I asked myself what I really want out of my football team as a fan, I came up with 2 things…… 1) Having a competitive team, and 2) Winning championships. Let’s take a look at how Shanahan has done in these two areas.

    Competitiveness:

    I’ve compiled a chart of the 32 teams’ records since Shanahan was hired in Denver.

    Code:
    1	New England Patriots	135-73	      0.649
    2	Green Bay Packers	134-74	      0.644
    3	Denver Broncos	        130-78	      0.625
    4	Pittsburgh Steelers	127-80-1      0.611
    5	Indianapolis Colts	126-82	      0.606
    6	Philadelphia Eagles	117-90-1      0.563
    7	Kansas City Chiefs	115-93	      0.553
    8	Tennessee Titans	114-94	      0.548
    9	Jacksonville Jaguars	113-95	      0.543
    9	Minnesota Vikings	113-95	      0.543
    9	Seattle Seahawks	113-95	      0.543
    12	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	109-99	      0.524
    13	Dallas Cowboys	        108-100	      0.519
    14	Miami Dolphins	        106-102       0.509
    15	San Francisco 49'ers	105-103       0.505
    16	New York Giants	        104-103-1     0.499
    17	St. Louis Cardinals	103-105	      0.495
    18	Cle/Baltimore Ravens	101-106-1     0.486
    19	Buffalo Bills	        100-108	      0.481
    20	San Diego Chargers	99-109	      0.476
    21	Washington Redskins	97-110-1      0.466
    22	Carolina Panthers	97-111	      0.466
    23	Chicago Bears	        95-113	      0.457
    23	New York Jets	        95-113	      0.457
    25	Atlanta Falcons	        94-114	      0.452
    26	New Orleans Saints	87-121	      0.418
    26	Oakland Raiders	        87-121        0.418
    28	Cincinnati Bengals	83-125        0.399
    29	Detroit Lions	        77-131	      0.371
    30	Arizona Cardinals	73-134-1      0.351
    31	Cleveland Browns	50-94	      0.347
    32	Houston Texans	        32-64	      0.333
    As you can see above, the Broncos have the 3rd best record in the NFL during Shanahan’s tenure. Their average record per season is 10-6.

    Let’s take a look at the second category: Winning Championships. Shanahan and the Broncos have won 2 during his time here in Denver. That ranks second, bested only by the New England Patriots (3). 8 other teams have won a single Super Bowl, 22 teams have not won any, and half of the teams in the NFL have had a losing record between 1995-2008. The numbers are what they are, and as promised I’ll leave you with a question to help answer my original question.

    If the current 32 owners were given an opportunity to hire a coach/gm for the next 13 years, and were guaranteed to have an average record of 10-6 and win 2 Super Bowls during that span, how many do you think would say no?


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    nice piece.

    Its also fun to point out that the cowboys havent won a playoff game since.....96- or right in there. People jump all over the broncos for having 1 playoff game since elway left, yet the boys havent won a playoff game since before our last superbowl.
    The Plan at the moment:

    Draft: Trade a 3rd and 6th this year to a team to move up and get a 2nd next year (this will happen).

    Players I want:
    Jake Ferguson (Jake Butt) or Jelani Woods or Jeremy Ruckert or Cade Otten (owen daniels) at TE- All 4th rd or later.
    Troy Anderson LB 3rd/4th rd (yay Timmy!)
    Neil Farrell, JR DL- run stuffer- bye purcell

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    Its kind of hard to be 130-78 if you are as bad as some make you out to be in drafting and free agency.

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    IMO people also need to remember how difficult it is to win a championship. I have a friend who got to talk to Rick Dennison through a church function a couple of years ago. Dennison told him everything the Broncos do is about winning. A lot of people like to second guess Shanahan for his personnel decisions, game planning or play calling, and that is the nature of the business. As fans we have that right, but the simple fact is he's forgotten more football than all of us on this board know combined. I know none of us would have his record if we were the HC of the Broncos
    Last edited by tripleoption; 06-07-2008 at 09:22 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tripleoption View Post
    I know none of us would have his record if we were the HC of the Broncos
    Try telling that to some of the people here.


    Like tripleoption said, Shanny has forgotten more football than all of us put together know. Bowlen is loyal to him because he has no reason not to be. That's as simple as it can be.
    "Milk is for babies. When you grow up, you have to drink beer" -Arnold

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    Quote Originally Posted by underrated29 View Post
    nice piece.

    Its also fun to point out that the cowboys havent won a playoff game since.....96- or right in there. People jump all over the broncos for having 1 playoff game since elway left, yet the boys havent won a playoff game since before our last superbowl.
    Not only that but look at the Lions, Bengals, etc. Those teams have gone decades with losing seasons. I dont think people truly understand what that means when it comes to being a winning franchise. In our playoff losses we have lost to a QB who we all know will go to the HOF and we eventually lost to the Super Bowl Champion Steelers and Baltimore Ravens in the other ones. Thats not really something you need to hang your head down about. Sometimes you just get beat by better teams. But overall, Shanahan has done a great job with this franchise we just need to find and regain the chemistry on and off the field to go that extra mile.

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    Hopefully this year will be the turnaround. Shanny should start calling the shots again with the playbook, where we go back to multiple formations of the same play... that was the elusiveness that typically won us games in the late 90s... and I hope Bowlen and Shanny still realize this.

    Jay is certainly intelligent enough to run a complex offense (it's fitting that the offense run by a Stanford boy come back to be run by a Vanderbilt boy) that certain other quarterbacks couldn't muster, and the schemes were always the kicker. We have enough running backs to put multiple players in the backfield, enough WRs to throw in some ridiculous motion, and finally a line that can handle a few bigger defenses.

    Bowlen is smart to give Shanny at least a year or two to switch back to the Shanahan scheme, even if it means we get some awful GM play for the next few years
    Quote Originally Posted by OaklandRaider View Post
    But what can you say to an intelligent Raider fan?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ziggy View Post
    If the current 32 owners were given an opportunity to hire a coach/gm for the next 13 years, and were guaranteed to have an average record of 10-6 and win 2 Super Bowls during that span, how many do you think would say no?
    Great piece.

    It's the big picture that I have also been trying to point out to Broncos' fans the last couple of years.

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    And these bad boys.

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  17. #10

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    Nice article, Ziggy!

    If the current 32 owners were given an opportunity to hire a coach/gm for the next 13 years, and were guaranteed to have an average record of 10-6 and win 2 Super Bowls during that span, how many do you think would say no?
    That says it all.

    A lot of times, people like to point out that Shanny looks for scapegoats. I just think he's uncompromisingly brutal when it comes to putting up the best team he can for Bowlen and Denver. If that means firing a loyal guy like Coyer, letting go of fan favorite and lifer Elam, or making Lynch compete for the starting job, he'll do it. It may not seem nice, but it probably makes the team stronger in the long run ... well, except for hiring Bates for the D.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tned View Post
    Great piece.

    It's the big picture that I have also been trying to point out to Broncos' fans the last couple of years.

    And you aint alone.

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    Long story/short, he's one hell of a coach......
    "Tuning ... into each other ... lift all higher”
    “I’m just different!”

    Sign Garbage Minshew.

    Draft
    1st round— Cooper Dejean CB
    2nd round— Jack Sawyer OLB
    3rd round— Will Shipley RB
    4th round— Ricky Pearsall WR
    5th round— Ladd McKonkey WR
    6th round— Cash Jones RB
    7th round— Carson Steele RB

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    Great coach that has overcome is vast failures in the personnel area..

    But I think that Pat has put the game on the line that no more screw ups like he has had in FA over the past 4-5 years and the total lack of have great drafts in many of the post super bowl years..

    I know that I've have been seen as negative towards mikey, sorry since his super bowl years after losing 4 to 6 HOF players, he has not performed at near the level of that three year period.

    2007 #23 with a 7-9 record missed play offs

    2006 #10 with a 9-7 record

    2005 #2 with a 13-3 record got asses kicked by PIT at HOME

    2004 #7 with a 10-6 record ass kicked by INDY for second year

    2003 #10 with a 10-6 record ass kicked by INDY

    2002 #12 with a 9-7 record

    2001 #14 with a 8-8 record

    2000 #5 with an 11-5 record

    1999 #24 with a 6-10 record

    1998 #3 14-2 kicking ass all over the place won super bowl

    1997 #4 12-4 won super bowl.

    1996 #1 13-3 lost to JAX in stunner at home

    1995 #14 8-8 missed playoffs

    remember until 2006 SAN sucked so that was two gimmes each year and about the same for OAK..

    We played in a rather weak division..Competetive but we dominated OAK and SAN and split with KC..

    Had we not dafted so poorly for many of those years there is little doubt in my mind we would have won a couple more rings and probably 2 more wins per year over that time frame..

    Your correct almost any owner would love to have mikey as their head coach.. But I'll bet most would not put up with his GM side..

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jrwiz View Post
    Your correct almost any owner would love to have mikey as their head coach.. But I'll bet most would not put up with his GM side..
    There is one potentially fatal flaw in your logic. If Shanny hadn't been running the show, the team very well might not be 3rd in wins during his tenure and have two SB wins.

    Would they have drafted TD? Would they have made some of the veteran FA moves that pushed them over the SB hump?

    There are many questions, but I don't see how you can so easily assume that if someone else wore the GM hat that all the past 'good' things would still have happened, but the teams would have been 'better' and achieved more.

    Maybe yes, maybe no.

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  26. #15

    Default I'm with Jrwhiz . . . .

    One AFC West title since 1998 is awful. I'm sorry, but Shanahan is not a great HC. A great HC wins Division Titles. One Division Title since 1998 marks Shanahan as a poor head coach, actually.

    Shanahan hasn't proven anything at all since 1998. So what if you win regular season games? Regular season wins mean nothing. TITLES is what counts. SD and Oak have won back to back AFC West Titles since 1998. Denver has not. SD won 3 out of the last 4 AFC West Titles with Drew Brees and Philip Rivers at QB and two different HC's. Oakland won consecutive AFC West Titles with Rich Gannon at QB and two different HC's.

    Shanahan is actually pretty crappy as an HC.
    Last edited by Acedude; 06-08-2008 at 12:31 AM.

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