Evans: Is a blowup coming for this Denver Broncos squad?
Oct 8, 2018, 11:11 AM
Hot sports opinions from the Denver Broncos no-show in the swamps of Jersey:
» Where to begin? Let’s start with the defense.
This was supposed to be the Broncos’ rock, their identity. The New York Jets gashed them. Huge plays on the ground. Huge plays through the air.
Von Miller says he needs to be better. Derek Wolfe says he’s tired of the same (stuff) over the last two years.
This is the area where you will see the first change. Vance Joseph has been dropping hints the last few weeks that he is not happy with defensive coordinator Joe Woods.
Plus, on the first page of the “head coach on the hot seat survival handbook” is to sacrifice an assistant coach first. It was Mike McCoy last year. It will be Woods this year.
» I get the calls for VJ’s head. I do.
I don’t see a future great NFL coach. That’s not his fault. What was he supposed to say? “Hey Broncos, you sure you want to hire a first-year head coach who only has one year experience as a coordinator for a defense that was ranked among the worst in the NFL and is being picked after a very quick and not very in-depth search for a new head coach?”
What is he supposed to say? No?
» Here’s the problem with firing Joseph.
With whom are you going to replace him? There isn’t one guy on that staff who looks like a future head coach in waiting. Whoever would be hired screams “interim,” and the players would tune that guy out because they knew he is simply killing time.
Now, if it’s Gary Kubiak coming down from the front office, perhaps you would get a momentary spark. Would it turn the whole season around? I doubt it.
Plus, why would Kubiak want to do it? Heck, he didn’t even want to come back after the Super Bowl season until John Elway talked him into it. Why would he want to throw himself back into the fire for the final 10 games or so of the season?
» It comes down to this: Do you think this is a good team that is simply being badly coached?
Or do you think this isn’t a very good team, no matter who’s coaching?
I don’t think this team is talented enough to be a playoff contender. I would let Joseph try to turn this thing around during the next month.
If he can’t, then make the change for change sake, waive the white flag on the season, and start exploring college coaches who might be ready to make the jump or the hot NFL assistant du jour.
» It took me a while to get to Elway’s role in this, but here it is.
His fingerprints are all over this mess. From whiffing on the quarterbacks of the future (Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch, and now Case Keenum) to a string of empty draft picks to hiring Joseph in the first place to not being assertive and making a coaching change and instead “sleeping on it.”
Fact: Elway’s record without Peyton Manning is 24-29. If you are a Broncos fan who wants massive changes and you refuse to include Elway, then you are simply a homer blinded by your loyalty and infatuation with him.
» I’m getting hit with all the “I told you so’s” insisting the Broncos should have drafted a quarterback at No. 5.
Easy there.
Just because the rookies went 4-0 (after going 0-4 the week before) doesn’t mean they have proven they’re the real deal. I need to see a lot more before I’m willing to admit the Broncos made a mistake.
That being said, I don’t believe I need to see much more to be convinced I was right about Keenum all along. Last year is looking more and more like a fluke.
I still believe the Broncos made a mistake in not drafting a quarterback. Let me be clear. They were right not to over draft one at No. 5, but I still would’ve taken one late-first or second round (Mason Rudolph, Kyle Lauletta) and paired them with a Josh McCown or Teddy Bridgewater.
Something tells me if Mason Rudolph was thrown into the first he could produce the same up and down results the celebrated “Big Four” have put up. And in the process, he would give Broncos fans the chance to wrap themselves in that warm blanket of “potential.”
