Mcdaniels Must Be Feeling The Pressure

Anybody starting a new job in a new city has to deal with pressure but Josh McDaniels is taking that pressure to new levels. 

Right off the bat we are talking about a young coach taking over the position held by Colorado icon Mike Shanahan. Under Shanahan, the Broncos' bad seasons consisted of missing the playoffs by a game or two. The organization and the fans are not accustomed to a two, three, or four win season, followed by top five draft picks.

This means that McDaniels does not have the luxury of coming into town and winning six games and being a hero like some other new coaches in the league. He must meet, or exceed the production displayed in recent years to be considered even remotely successful in the eyes of the fans and the media. 

Not only does McDaniels get the privilege of taking over as vice-president of the state of Colorado, he gets to start his first season with a brutal schedule of defensive powerhouse teams. 

Nobody has played yet so it is too early to predict which teams will overachieve and which teams will experience season altering injuries, but regardless there is another heaping helping of challenge on McDaniels' high-chair tray. 

Add to all of this, the attention he brought upon himself during the Cutler fiasco, as well as the poor draft, he has not cast himself in a positive light. 

The most impressive thing about coach McDaniels through this whole process has been his steadfast nature in the face of critics. It would have been easier for him to draft all defense, every round, and the media would have graded the draft a success, citing that our biggest needs were on defense. That would have been the easy way of handling the draft and presenting himself as someone trying to fix the obvious woes of my favorite team. 

Give him credit for understanding that just because the "experts" rate players high on their draft boards does not mean those players are better than players already on the roster. 

He drafted a running back better than any we currently had on the roster. As a result, making that position better, thus the team better. Had he drafted a defensive player at that spot such as Brian Orakpo, who would likely not beat out Elvis Dumervil for outside LB, then all that was gained was a back-up. 

Don't get me wrong, depth is a good thing at any position, but another practice squad guy doesn't make the team better now. 

Why draft players that won't make the final roster? 

We may not have many superstar players on defense, but the fact is that most of the ho-hum players on that side of the ball are still significantly better than an early round rookie. Clearly there are exceptions but in general I think Josh handled the draft very well getting early round players that will play this year and getting depth in the later rounds. 

The pinnacle of pressure will be bestowed on Josh sometime between September and January, when Orton fumbles late in the game, or Moreno fails to convert on 3rd and one.

Nothing against those players, but it happens to everyone that plays the skill positions.  Some media talking head will comment on Cutler's 350 yard four TD afternoon and McDaniels will smile and say he is glad Culter had a great game. I believe McDaniels will handle the situation with class, and will instill the discipline as well as the technique to make sure those game changing errors are no existent.

If anyone can handle the pressure, its a young guy like McDaniels, with confidence spilling out of the top of his osh-kosh overalls. Bottom line is; winning will be the ultimate "I told you so." 

With a consistent 100 yard rusher, an All-Pro receiving corp, the best offensive line in the AFC, a better than last place defense, and a coach with brass balls, I would say the forecast is sunny. 

Sounds about right for a Colorado forecast.