The Broncos have now lost 16 of 21 games. McDaniels has chased away both Cutler and Marshall, drafted Tebow, and now has been caught in a Spygate II. I know the story is that the guy acted alone, but I don’t buy it. Not to mention the way he basically trashed all the assistant coaches in front of Bowlen after the drubbing by Oakland.
I haven’t liked the guy from day one. Are we going to get news of a firing tomorrow morning?
No. Bowlen has never fired a coach midseason. He actually has had only four head coaches in 26 years as owner.
That said, two of those coaches were Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan, and he showed little patience with Wade Phillips .500 record, and I expect that McDaniels will be gone after the season.
Perhaps Bowlen will trade a draft pick to Washington to get Shanahan back. 
Well, he did just lose to the Rams. That can’t help his case.
The guy probably should be fired because he’s got to be in Wade Phillips’ class of terrible management/CEO skills as a Head Coach. He’s probably worse because not only is he incompetent, he’s also an asshole and trades away his most valuable assets.
That said, as a offensive coach he’s been a success. The Denver offense has been pretty good with some really awful players. Orton, for all his success, isn’t a very gifted QB. He’s got a great head and manages a game better than just about anyone going now, but he still has no arm and no feet to speak of. The WRs in Denver are a bunch of has-beens, and while Lloyd is a human highlight reel he’s not lightning fast or big. The Tebow thing was a terrible waste of a draft choice but McDaniels has successfully implemented him as a gadget. Of course McDaniels is to blame for the poor talent on the team, but he’s been effective at scoring points with what he has and under a halfway decent GM he might actually be scary.
That said, his defense is useless and his players make terrible mistakes and mental errors. McDaniels might be like Martz in that he’s his own worst enemy when he gets too much control. They seem to have the same horrific people skills anyways.
This Spygate II thing however is an absolute travesty. That he hired the guy already busted for it in New England eliminates any plausible deny-ability he has. The was almost certainly actively involved in the act in New England and Denver making him a repeat offender. He’s made a fool of Bowlen and I highly doubt he’ll overlook that and I doubt he gets another shot as being an HC. The only way Bowlen keeps him is if he decides it’d be even more embarrassing to fire McDaniels just 2 seasons after cutting loose Shanahan out of the blue considering he’s the one that gave an unproven guy all the power in the world and okayed the Cutler and Marshall trades.
I don’t know much about Bowlen, but I’d be very surprised if McDaniels is fired during the season and I wouldn’t be that surprised if he gets one more year to turn things around.
Had it been the Packers he would have been fired already, but since they don’t play the Coach Killers this season he’ll finish the year out.
Well shut my mouth. Can’t say he didn’t earn it with his results - although I still think the Cutler fiasco was primarily Cutler’s fault.
Wow. I’m amazed that he wasn’t allowed to get through the year. Astonished.
Considering that they did not have a go-to assistant waiting in the wings to take over like Dallas and Minnesota did, I am surprised they did not wait until the end of the season.
The firing has interesting implications. I kept reading and hearing that owners WOULDN’T be making big coaching changes because there was so much uncertainty about a possible work stoppage.
So, if Pat Bowlen fired McDaniels, there are only two possibilities:
Bowlen, one of the most prominent and respected owners, is confident play will NOT stop. Or…
There was more to Spygate, and McDaniels REALLY screwed the pooch worse than is widely known.
I wish I had an animated macro of munchkins dancing around singing that the Wicked Witch is Dead, because that’s the only way to adequately express my feelings.
Spygate cost the Pats a draft pick. The Broncos ought to lose one too, and I might hit them even harder since they blatantly ignored the previous example set.
Spygate cost the Pats a draft pick. The Broncos ought to lose one too, and I might hit them even harder since they blatantly ignored the previous example set.
How much was McDaniels pulling the strings on personnel moves? I know he was at odds with Cutler and Marshall, but ESPN was also kind putting some blame on him for trading away Payton Hillis.
The article I read explicitly blamed him for trading away Payton Hillis. When I read that, my face turned red and then apparently an interesting shade of purple. I don’t think I’d ever been more angry in my life. My husband was quite concerned.
Or the writers are flailing to find something to say, and you’re taking them way too seriously. And what they’re saying, anyway, is that teams may stick with guys because there WON’T be a cancelled season – just lost minicamps and offseason activities where a new coach would be implementing his system. If you aren’t really sure you want to a make a change, or if you already have a good candidate in-house, maybe that comes into it.
But if an owner loses all confidence in a coach (and there is every reason for Bowlen to have done so), there’s no reason to stick with him, regardless of whether or not there’s a stoppage looming.
When you’re picking a coach/GM, you’re hopefully deciding who is going to run your team for the next decade. You don’t base that decision on some short-term one-season competitive advantage.
Why did Mike Nolan leave, anyway? With Nolan and a decent GM, I think McDaniels could’ve been successful.
Late to the party, but wanted to ask: how do you figure?
Here’s my understanding of the situation - tell me where I’m wrong, because it’s kind of hazy in my memory now.
Near as I can tell, neither guy did anything wrong, from the standpoint of getting what they wanted. Cutler wanted to be in a place where he could be the undisputed starter and have the confidence of his coach; McDaniels wanted a QB who wasn’t Jay Cutler.
Both behaved in ways designed to get what they wanted, both were successful.
The difference is that what Jay Cutler wanted was good for Jay Cutler - he has ended up in a much stronger situation than he would have been had he stayed with a coach that didn’t really want him. What Josh McDaniels wanted was bad for the Broncos - they’d be better off with Cutler (and Marshall and Hillis and Scheffler) than without.
To me, the Cutler situation (and the Marshall situation and the Scheffler situation and the Hillis situation) is entirely McDaniels fault because it is his job to understand and manage people. Cutler’s job was to throw the ball, and he did that, and eventually he decided he could do it more effectively elsewhere. And McDaniels acted in ways that made Cutler want to leave. Whether you or I think Cutler “should” have wanted to leave is immaterial - a coach who behaves in a way that consistently drives off good players is a bad, bad coach.
I’m not sure why everyone if harping on Cutler. Orton has been just as good since they got him as Cutler has been, and with the two extra draft picks, I have a hard time thinking it was a bad trade for Denver. The problem is the rest of the team.