Mike Shanahan's Shadow Looms Large in Denver

The truth is that the Denver Broncos simply were not very good in 2008.

In all honesty, this was a 6-10 team that came away with lucky breaks at home against San Diego and New Orleans in Weeks 2 and 3.

Embarrassing losses to dreadful Oakland and Kansas City squads surely didn’t help Mike Shanahan’s cause during his post-season meeting with owner Pat Bowlen.

Add in a porous defense, a horrendous record at home, and an obvious regression at the end the season and you have all the makings of a fired coach—regardless of his stature in the team’s history and community.

For all the talk of Shanahan’s shortcomings when it came to his personnel decision-making, it must be noted that the Broncos have turned in excellent drafts in each of the past three seasons.

Take a look at this B/R article and the accompanying chart to see the team’s draft progression over the past eight years and how the team has improved.

The defense was an obvious cause for concern all season.  The numbers speak for themselves, as the unit ranks in the bottom quarter on the league in nearly every statistical category. 

During the team’s utter collapse over the last three games of the season, giant holes appeared again and again in both coverage and the running game. 

Much of the blame falls on defensive coordinator Bob Slowik, but that is shortsighted.  It was Shanahan’s decision to bring in new coordinator after new coordinator to fix the defense, rather than giving a single scheme time to marinate and grow.

While it looks like Shanahan learned his lesson and was planning on bringing Slowik back for next season, it was simply too late to make up for past mistakes.

Take a look at the great defenses around the league.  Rex Ryan has manned Baltimore’s defense for four years, Dick LeBeau has been in Pittsburgh for five years, and Jim Johnson has been in Philadelphia for an even decade.  Each was given the necessary time to develop their schemes and integrate players into the system.

Many have cited the rash of injuries as a cause for the team’s inconsistency this season, but few would question that the Denver defense was pretty ugly, even with Champ Bailey and D.J. Williams in the lineup. 

As for the injuries at running back, it was not the injured running backs’ fault that the Broncos abandoned the run like an unwanted child in nearly every game going down the stretch. 

Despite averaging more than 6.5 yards per carry over the last three games of the season, the team passed more than twice as often as it ran (131 pass to 60 rush). 

While this can partly be attributed to the fact that Denver was often trailing in these games, it is an obvious indicator of the direction the offense was going.

Whether it was the work of Shanahan, primary play caller Jeremy Bates or even offensive coordinator (in name only) Rick Dennison, the running game was never given a chance to establish itself.

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