I honestly don't know where I come down on the whole "this is all Elway's fault" discussion. At some point in repeated failure, there has to come a time of accountability for the GM. I don't know that I would support firing Elway after this season, but I would say that this season's disappointment has led me to question whether the time is fast approaching when Joe Ellis needs to seriously consider whether they keep John Elway as President of Football Operations and acting GM. At least a discussion has to take place at some point about Elway surrendering some of his GM powers.
I don't know how the rest of the fans feel about this.
I hate having to admit this because I was as ecstatic as any Broncos fan when Elway came here and we went to 2 SBs under Manning.
But, it's time. The last three years have been brutal and it's not even the records that are the most damning indictment of Elway's leadership.
Reporters asked him "why didn't you draft a QB in the 2018 draft?" at his post draft presser. His answer "We're not kicking Paxton to the curb."
So: The reason they didn't draft a QB in 2018 was NOT because Elway believed that Case Keenum could be the long term answer at QB! I admit I was wrong to think that he might be capable of being the long term answer. He quickly proved me wrong. BTW: Keenum's performance this year is statistically almost exactly what it was in MN. Only the Broncos don't have guys like Kyle Rudolph, Stephon Diggs or Adam Thielen so instead of 13-3, they are 6-7 going on 8-8 or 7-9.
Lots of other fans were guilty of drinking the Keenum cool-aid too. But, Elway NEVER was. When he signed Keenum called him "a bridge QB." But, a bridge to what?
As it turned out, Elway's plan was "a bridge to Paxton Lynch" whom he idiotically refused to admit was trash Every single fan, sportswriter, NFL GM, casual observer could see in April 2018 that Paxton was trash, and would always be trash. There was no point in planning around him.
After Paxton inevitably flamed out, they just went to Chad Kelly. Who also dropped out of the league like a stone due to congenital stupidity leaving them with "a bridge to nowhere."
See, if they drafted a developmental QB, then that guy would compete with Paxton, and they'd have to "kick Paxton to the curb." Obviously so, since Paxton could never out-compete anybody, not even Trevor Siemian.
So, because of Elway's stupidity, they were stuck without a long term plan at QB. They just wasted another year of Von Miller and Chris Harris and Derek Wolfe's careers.
Chad Kelly might have been the fan favorite until his bout of congenital idiocy, but Elway never believed in him as the long term answer. That was always Paxton right up till the moment when Paxton finally crashed out of the league.
That's just point #1 of the "It's really all Elway's fault!"
Point #2 is the horrible draft classes of 2015-2017. You all know that sad story filled with idiotic busts like wasting a 2nd round pick on Carlos Henderson. "He's athletic!" or Brenden Langley who they finally got on the field last game. You saw the result and it wasn't pretty.
Point #3 was hiring Vance Joseph instead of Kyle Shanahan.
Point #4 was refusing to fire Vance Joseph at the end of last season.
Point #5 was refusing to keep Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator and insisting on promoting Joe Woods instead. That wasn't VJ's choice. Elway was promoting Joe Woods before they even hired VJ. Joseph was basically stuck with Elway's choices for assistant coaches last year. After the 5-11 disaster VJ got the chance to get rid of a bunch of them starting with OC Mike McCoy. (Vance's choice Bill Musgrave was not any better of course).
Point #6 was getting rid of Aqib Talib for a pack of chewed Slim-Jims. How much could they have used Talib now that Chris Harris is out for the season, and Roby has been repeatedly browned to a nice crispy crust on both sides and you've got Yiadom as the #2 CB?
I suppose that one could argue that letting Trevor Siemian become your starter was point #7, but that could be blamed also on Vance Joseph. Reportedly Vance wanted no part of naming Paxton as starter so he was stuck with Siemian. Elway would not have permitted Vance to draft another QB and just "kick Paxton to the curb" at any point before August 2018. It sure as Hell wasn't VJ who was insisting on "not kicking Paxton to the curb."
There are other points, but I'll stop now.
I'm not calling for Elway to be fired at the end of the season, but I do think he has to be on the hot-seat after the last 3 miserable seasons of repeated failure and failure to find a franchise QB after repeated attempts.
What do you guys think?