Another Blow to Broncos Offense

By: Matt

Expectations were high when the Denver Broncos hired Josh McDaniels as their new head coach this off-season. McDaniels was the offensive genius of the New England Patriots who turned Matt Cassel into a starter and led to Tom Brady throwing a record 50 touchdowns passes. The Broncos offense in 2008 was one of the most potent in the NFL. Young quarterback Jay Cutler was a Pro Bowler and one of the NFL’s most promising rising stars. Cutler’s top target, Brandon Marshall, was one of the league’s biggest and strongest wide receivers. It was believed that under McDaniels there would be an offensive explosion in Denver; Cutler and Marshall would each be a year more experienced and new running backs Correll Buckhalter and Knowshon Moreno were a massive upgrade over the Broncos many runners of 2008.

Disappointment came quickly in the McDaniels era. Cutler, the first potential franchise quarterbacks to play for Denver since John Elway retired ten years prior, was angry. McDaniels had tried to trade for his quarterback, Matt Cassel, and then lied about it. Cutler distrusted McDaniels and refused to play for the Broncos. People assumed that the tension would simmer down and Cutler would return to Denver, but it never happened. Just as John Elway spurned the Colts in 1983, Cutler left the Broncos in 2009 and joined the Chicago Bears (another team long deprived of an elite field general). Broncos fans were outraged, they had gone from having a pro-bowl quarterback to hosting a quarterback controversy between a Bears reject and comeback first-round bust. To make the situation worse, Brandon Marshall was also angry at the Broncos and wanted to leave.

Through the first 3 weeks of the pre-season it seemed that the Marshall situation would be OK; the receiver had vocalized his desire to be traded but had played for the Broncos anyway. That changed in a practice this past week when Marshall refused to catch footballs, instead slapping them to the ground, and even went so far as to punt one ball. The Broncos, already annoyed with prima donna players such as Cutler, immediately suspended Marshall for conduct detrimental to the team, the same thing that Terrell Owens was infamously suspended for by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2005. IF history repeats itself, Marshall will be traded and the powerful Broncos offense of 2008 will be but a distant memory. It is hard to believe that a team as talented as the Broncos could really be sent back to the rebuilding phase, but the team now lacks the talent to truly compete, even in a weak NFC East. McDaniels, a coach people hoped could turn the Broncos offensive talent into a carbon copy of the New England Patriots,’ now has no pieces to build with. Despite high hopes for the young head coach, it appears that McDaniels will follow in the footsteps of Charlie Weiss and Romeo Crennel, two highly touted Patriots coordinators who failed to inspire as head coaches. One would imagine that it would be hard for the Broncos to recover from the loss of Cutler and a disgruntled Marshall; however, in the NFL, nothing is ever exactly what it seems.