Denver Broncos Are Embarrassing, but One Bad Season Doesn't Seal McDaniels' Fate

There’s an NFL team out there that started their season 2-6.

The year before, they lost their “franchise quarterback,” undoubtedly the best player on the team.

The guy that took over at QB was good, but could never really find himself among the greats at the position and was eventually labeled mediocre.

Pieces and players were there that resembled the once great team, but there wasn’t enough talent overall for the team to contend.

And as the Broncos started 2-6, a short coach with too much power, one some would call arrogant or even Napoleonic, patrolled the sidelines and was powerless to push his team back to the playoffs.

That coach was Mike Shanahan. The year, 1999.

That’s right Broncos fans, in case you’ve forgotten, Denver hasn’t been this dismal in a decade.

Not since John Elway retired and Terrell Davis injured in the same year have the Broncos been this bad. The season that ended 6-10, Shanahan’s worst in his 15-year tenure as head man.

In the two previous seasons, the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls, and while no one thought they could win a third straight title after Elway’s tearful retirement speech in May, 1999, not many thought they could be worst-in-the-division bad.

But that was the reality of the situation, the Broncos could no longer outscore opponents and their point differential was a terrible -24 after the first half of the season.

2010’s version of the Broncos is eerily similar, at 2-6 currently, McDaniels’ version is an outstandingly atrocious -69 (154 PF, 223 PA). Only the 0-7 Buffalo Bills -80 point differential is worse. This Broncos team traded away its “franchise quarterback” last season and has a guy in Orton who is good, not great, and not the future of the franchise. Neither was Brian Griese, and everyone knew it when he first got his chance in 1999.

Those Broncos finished fifth, dead last in the AFC West in 1999. No one was calling for Shanahan’s head.

These Broncos seem destined to do the same, and the number of McDaniels haters continues to grow.

That Denver team from a decade ago went through much upheaval and missed the playoffs for the first time in three years, and this is where the comparison ends.

Currently, the Broncos are on a five-year postseason drought, one that will almost certainly stretch to six years, and fans are growing tired of rooting on a team that keeps finding ways to lose games instead of discovering ways to win.

On Sunday in London, the Broncos came out looking unprepared and unready for the contest at hand.

Once again they started slowly and couldn’t muster any points in the opening half. In the second half they quickly gained a slim lead only to see themselves down by multiple scores and needing a late comeback victory to save the day.

In the end, Kyle Orton’s fumble in the fourth quarter sealed the deal for Denver in London, and the Broncos would have had to score a touchdown and two-point conversion just to tie the then 1-6 49ers and take the game to overtime.

After the game CBS’ Bill Cowher said of the AFC West leading Kansas City Chiefs, “They don’t beat themselves,” the Broncos seem to beat themselves every week.

The Broncos eight lost fumbles this year are tied for fifth worst in the NFL and Orton’s fumble Sunday was only the tip of the iceberg of disappointing play.

There was total ineptitude by the defense, including a 12-men on the field penalty on a play that the 49ers converted a 10-yard pass on. Denver couldn’t even stop San Francisco’s third-string QB from completing the pass with an extra player, nor could Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins bat down a hail mary chuck for 50 yards.

And even Matt Prater completely shanked an extra point attempt that would have forced the Broncos to go for two if they could have scored on their last drive.

The Broncos backed their way into the bye week instead of grasping “winnable” games versus terrible teams in the Raiders and 49ers.

And after seeing Denver lose to those teams, two of the worst franchises to play in the last decade, it may now be the Broncos that are in that dreaded bottom tier of NFL teams.

But with a bad team comes high draft picks and the possibilities of turning a team around.

Shanahan took three defensive players in the first thee rounds of the 2000 draft, realizing it was not his favored side of the ball but the one that needed the most help. Deltha O’Neal, Ian Gold and Kenoy Kennedy all became starters on the defensive side of the ball and McDaniels would be smart to use higher picks on defense in the 2011 draft.

And yes, McDaniels should still be the head coach not just for the rest of the 2010 season, but for the 2011 season as well (if there is one and not a lockout instead).

This is a bad season, one that was riddled by injuries before training camp could through its first week, one in which the Broncos look completely lost at times—especially on defense.

But this is also a season in which a noticeably bad team beat a seemingly great one (Tennessee), lost late to the Colts and showed flashes of brilliance against the Jets.

The 2010 Broncos needed to go to the playoffs to end the streak of no postseason appearances that’s so long it ties a mark set in the 1960s, (when Denver was a laughing stock of the football world) but they won’t and really, who thought they would when the season was over?

In a 2010 world that’s infatuated with instant gratification (including multiple sports news networks, internet message boards and blogs that are published within minutes of game conclusions) many want to see McDaniels canned because the Broncos are bad.

Give the man a chance, at least his third year as Denver’s head coach, and let’s see what he makes happen.

McDaniels changed the entire franchise not only from a talent standpoint, but from a character one and has attempted to install his philosophy.

These things take time, and to not give McDaniels at least three years of his four-year contract would be too soon to pull the plug on a venture that may still pay off.

McDaniels is putting in place players that have great attitudes and will buy into a team system, much like what was put in place in New England (the Patriots were the first to be announced at a Super Bowl as a team instead of individually) and the Pats won three Bowls.

Demaryius Thomas looks like he could be the future of Broncos receivers, and Tim Tebow will have to be in Denver’s future at QB for McDaniels to keep his job. Knowshon Moreno is still an inconsistent player, but Robert Ayers was playing very well in place of injured Elvis Dumervil before he himself was hurt. J.D. Walton has been the best offensive lineman and starter at center all year as a rookie, and rookie Zane Beadles has stepped up huge as well.

Of course, before McDaniels and his players can win a Super Bowl, they must win a playoff game. And if there is football in 2011 and the Broncos miss the playoffs, McDaniels should be handed a pink slip at that point.

But as of the mid-way point in 2010, McDaniels is the man and will have to show many positives to finish the season to win back over the Broncos faithful.

Rich Kurtzman is a Colorado State Alumnus and a freelance journalist. Along with being the CSU Rams and Fort Collins Beer Bars Examiner, Kurtzman is a Denver Broncos and the Denver Nuggets Featured Columnist for bleacherreport.com and the Colorado/Utah Regional Correspondent for stadiumjourney.com.

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