Josh McDaniels the New "Teflon Don"

The “Teflon Don” finally went down. No, not John Gotti; I’m talking about former Denver godfather Mike Shanahan.

After a late-season collapse that saw the Broncos miss the playoffs by dropping their last three games, Shanahan’s firing doesn’t qualify as a major shock. However, many people doubted his firing would ever come. After all, he survived for years longer than he should have on the fumes of those two John Elway-led Super Bowls.

Perhaps Broncos owner Pat Bowlen’s “cleaners” were finally able to recover all those pictures of him performing unnatural acts that Shanahan had managed to squirrel away.

In Shanahan’s place, Bowlen installed the hungry man’s Charlie Weis, former Patriots offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels. Bowlen also learned his lesson about the division of responsibilities, making Brian Xander the team’s general manager.

The recent history of Bill Belichick’s former underlings isn’t overwhelming. Weis, Romeo Crennel, and Eric Mangini have all either been fired or threatened with firing recently. But while McDaniels is young (32) and somewhat inexperienced, he has a line on his resume those others can’t touch: QB Matt Cassel. I would be far more skeptical of McDaniels’ coaching abilities if not for his guidance of Cassel.

It’s one thing to call plays for Tom Brady and Randy Moss, two of the all-time greats, but it is another matter entirely to coach up Cassel, who hadn’t started a football game since high school. McDaniels helped Cassel go from a shaky, unsure benchwarmer to a franchise player who posted a 95.0 QB rating in the second half of the season. That’s only .2 behind Drew Brees. Not too shabby.

For this reason, among others, McDaniels will be the right man for the Broncos.

QB Jay Cutler and wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal provide the talent for an attack comparable to New England’s, so McDaniels shouldn’t be making a big philosophical leap in play calling. Expect the Broncos to pass like crazy even if they can find a running back that can stay healthy for two plays in a row.

McDaniels will be calling the plays, of course, and his filthy assistant in that department is “offensive coordinator” Mike McCoy. McCoy served as Carolina’s QB coach and “passing game coordinator” over the last several years.

Does anyone know what the hell a “passing game coordinator” actually does? Act as a punching bag for Buddy Ryan?

Anyway, considering that Carolina’s only decent pass play over the last several years is to send Steve Smith on a post route, McCoy should be content that he’s got a paying job. BTW, Mike, Coach McDaniels takes two sugars in his coffee.

The Broncos made a good decision in hiring in Mike Nolan to be defensive coordinator, a position he is far better suited for than head coach. Nolan went 18-37 in three-and-a-half years as the big chief in San Francisco, and was mercifully fired midway through last season.

He really earned his stripes as defensive coordinator of the Ravens from 2002-04, helping restore the unit to its ferocious glory after the post-Super Bowl youth movement.

Prior to that, he served as defensive coordinator for the Giants, Redskins, and Jets between 1993 and 2000. Those defenses trended towards the upper half, statistically speaking.

Nolan has his work cut out for him considering all the holes on the Broncos’ defense, but he should be used to it by now, considering what he was working with in San Francisco. If he can get the squad at least into the teens in overall defensive ranking, he’ll deserve to have his salary frozen in 2010, which is the best you can hope for in this economy.

Denver is reportedly $37 million under the salary cap, so maybe they can fill a few of those holes to help Nolan out.

Unlike many other new coaches, McDaniels is coming into a situation with a good deal of upside. Problems at running back aside, the Broncos offense is potent and features a franchise QB. While the defense is a major concern, the issues there are truncated by the overall weakness of the AFC West. Denver’s only real competition in the division (besides themselves) is San Diego, a team that has issues of its own.

McDaniels steps into the fray with Belichick’s seal of approval and three shiny Super Bowl rings to lend him credibility. With the talent already on the roster and the elements of surprise that a new Broncos game plan will bring, expect McDaniels and the Broncos to perform well in ’09.

Mike Gilbert is a staff writer at RotoExperts.com and co-host of “Sports Smack” on Blog Talk Radio every Friday from 7-8 p.m. ET. You can reach Mike at [e-mail] or follow on Twitter: @Rotoboom.