Thread: Kiszla: How John Elway saved the Broncos from 2019 season that was on the brink of epic disaster

John Elway is still here, in charge of the Broncos’ football fortunes, because Emmanuel Sanders is gone from Denver.

Crazy as it might sound, that’s my theory. And I’m sticking to it.

While rookie quarterback Drew Lock returned the orange sunshine to a dreary season in Broncos Country, I would argue the real turning point for this team was Oct. 22, when Elway made the brave move to trade Sanders to San Francisco.

“Maybe losing a good football player was the best thing for our football team at that time,” Elway said last week, reviewing the highs and lows of a frustrating season that required Denver to rally in order to finish with a 7-9 season.

rest - https://www.denverpost.com/2020/01/0...k-of-disaster/

I have to pay to read whole article.

So excited to hear Cugel’s take.

Elway doesn't coach the team. The personnel decision to bench Gotsis, move Shelby to DE, and start Purcell had a huge impact. Alexander Johnson's emergence had a huge impact. The defense was able to play dominant football, and that was the largest part of the season returning to mediocrity. Drew Lock's mobility combined with Sutton's elite play was the other part of the return to mediocrity from disaster.

Elway, to his credit, assembled the pieces that Fangio needed to get the team back to mediocrity, but crediting a turnaround to a GM is stupid. The team dropped the next game to Indianapolis even. Arguably, Flacco calling out the coaching staff had a much larger impact. I don't need to read the rest of the article to call it a bad take.

Originally Posted by UnderArmour

Elway doesn't coach the team. The personnel decision to bench Gotsis, move Shelby to DE, and start Purcell had a huge impact. Alexander Johnson's emergence had a huge impact. The defense was able to play dominant football, and that was the largest part of the season returning to mediocrity. Drew Lock's mobility combined with Sutton's elite play was the other part of the return to mediocrity from disaster.

Elway, to his credit, assembled the pieces that Fangio needed to get the team back to mediocrity, but crediting a turnaround to a GM is stupid. The team dropped the next game to Indianapolis even. Arguably, Flacco calling out the coaching staff had a much larger impact. I don't need to read the rest of the article to call it a bad take.

Elway doesn't Coach the team, but he shoulda had more capable people who werent learning on the job. Say what we will bout Vic and VJ in the learning processes, that time hurt the Broncos.

VJ was lost in his First two Seasons and Vic didn't look the oart early on either. In fact the jury is still out on Vic. Cuz if they don't go .500 next year he'll be out too possibly.

I actually thought when he said that in his presser it was a very real observation ...... not your typical ra ra bullshit like we wanna work hard to get better - it seemed like he honestly rates he-man but saw he was not great for the team anymore

From article, this is the point of the article:

While rookie quarterback Drew Lock returned the orange sunshine to a dreary season in Broncos Country, I would argue the real turning point for this team was Oct. 22, when Elway made the brave move to trade Sanders to San Francisco.

Originally Posted by Shazam!

Elway doesn't Coach the team, but he shoulda had more capable people who werent learning on the job. Say what we will bout Vic and VJ in the learning processes, that time hurt the Broncos.

VJ was lost in his First two Seasons and Vic didn't look the oart early on either. In fact the jury is still out on Vic. Cuz if they don't go .500 next year he'll be out too possibly.

VJ clearly didn't have the assistants with winning gameplans in place early on, which resulted in on-field discipline issues due to players trying to do too much. These issues lingered into Fangio's tenure, and resulted in guys trying to strip the ball instead of just wrapping up and living to die another down. Offensively, these guys just flat out sucked. There's no other description necessary. This offense never recovered from Manning's absence, and Talib shouting down Okung years ago, so until Lock entered the lineup to give this team hope really no chance whatsoever outside of Lindsay's big plays.

But, the point of this thread to credit a GENERAL MANAGER with the turnaround for trading the best offensive player, which led directly to a loss against Indianapolis... Complete stretch. Allen came in, won one game, then sucked it up. I don't see how Elway's move to trade Sanders led to a turnaround, and the assertion is completely asinine, which is what my post spoke to.

Originally Posted by UnderArmour

Originally Posted by Shazam!

Elway doesn't Coach the team, but he shoulda had more capable people who werent learning on the job. Say what we will bout Vic and VJ in the learning processes, that time hurt the Broncos.

VJ was lost in his First two Seasons and Vic didn't look the oart early on either. In fact the jury is still out on Vic. Cuz if they don't go .500 next year he'll be out too possibly.

VJ clearly didn't have the assistants with winning gameplans in place early on, which resulted in on-field discipline issues due to players trying to do too much. These issues lingered into Fangio's tenure, and resulted in guys trying to strip the ball instead of just wrapping up and living to die another down. Offensively, these guys just flat out sucked. There's no other description necessary. This offense never recovered from Manning's absence, and Talib shouting down Okung years ago, so until Lock entered the lineup to give this team hope really no chance whatsoever outside of Lindsay's big plays.

But, the point of this thread to credit a GENERAL MANAGER with the turnaround for trading the best offensive player, which led directly to a loss against Indianapolis... Complete stretch. Allen came in, won one game, then sucked it up. I don't see how Elway's move to trade Sanders led to a turnaround, and the assertion is completely asinine, which is what my post spoke to.

Its like the old Broncos offenses led by McCoy and Musgrave with garbage QBs was like a mish mash of concepts with no actual way to execute them.

Well, GM John had the impact that affected the turnaround......that he had.

Sanders trade?

It had the impact that it had....which was little in the turnaround of things.


He hired Vic. He brought in the players. He made the trades. He accumulated the draft assets. He managed the cap and contracts.

Fact is, if we let go of Flacco and Leary, we gain another 19 million in cap space....if you cut Heurman another four making it 23 million....which then brings us to 93 mil.

Thats a helluva lot of cap space, which brings great flexibility which is the soil you want to be in during the offseason.


So Elway is mid turnaround........but seemingly on the way up.

Originally Posted by WARHORSE

Well, GM John had the impact that affected the turnaround......that he had.

Sanders trade?

It had the impact that it had....which was little in the turnaround of things.

He hired Vic. He brought in the players. He made the trades. He accumulated the draft assets. He managed the cap and contracts.

Fact is, if we let go of Flacco and Leary, we gain another 19 million in cap space....if you cut Heurman another four making it 23 million....which then brings us to 93 mil.

Thats a helluva lot of cap space, which brings great flexibility which is the soil you want to be in during the offseason.

So Elway is mid turnaround........but seemingly on the way up.

Pretty much this.

I'd doubt if getting rid of one disgruntled player mattered all that much. . .

Originally Posted by WARHORSE

Well, GM John had the impact that affected the turnaround......that he had.

Sanders trade?

It had the impact that it had....which was little in the turnaround of things.


He hired Vic. He brought in the players. He made the trades. He accumulated the draft assets. He managed the cap and contracts.

Fact is, if we let go of Flacco and Leary, we gain another 19 million in cap space....if you cut Heurman another four making it 23 million....which then brings us to 93 mil.

Thats a helluva lot of cap space, which brings great flexibility which is the soil you want to be in during the offseason.


So Elway is mid turnaround........but seemingly on the way up.

Cut Jake Butt too.

Originally Posted by Shazam!

Cut Jake Butt too.

No need. Jake has never been healthy enough to make it to the season. If he stays healthy this year, then fine. He can make the roster. Might even be good in two TE sets.

But, if not, if his knees explode in training camp again raining shrapnel all over the field, then he'll be cut. It's not as if he's making all that much money on his rookie deal.

It's true that Emanuel Sanders wanted out and they traded him. But, Kizla never bothered to even show how that could have turned the season around. It's not as if they would have won more games with Sanders or that losing him cost them anything.

Locker-room cancer? No indication he was that.

Originally Posted by Cugel

Pretty much this.

I'd doubt if getting rid of one disgruntled player mattered all that much. . .

For a young team it does.....the attitudes of Wolfe, Harris and sanders haven't been good for the LR.....that's a reality and its a problem in sports when your LR has leaders that are so negative. Wolfe turned it around this year, because he had a good year and Cleary likes Fangio. Harris is selfish and salty and has been since the NO fly zone got broken up. He will be missed but it will kinda be like the Sanders thing.....Sanders was missed but again his void allowed Sutton to blossom....

The LR mentality and vibe matters as a coach of a team sport myself its way bigger then people realize....its minimized on this board far to much....