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http://www.denverpost.com/premium/broncos/ci_14399550
Just in case anybody missed this. I thought it was a good retort to a lot of what people have been saying on this board.
An occasionally self-deprecating humorist, Pat Bowlen often acknowledges he is getting old.
Not that this means the Broncos owner has grown deaf to his fan base.
He hears people grumble about his head coach, Josh McDaniels. But Bowlen wants his fan base to understand a primary reason he hired McDaniels away from the New Eng-land Patriots last year. It's because he wanted change.
"New England has been a very successful club, and he has brought a lot of the experience he had there to Denver," Bowlen said. "And that doesn't bother me. He wants people to toe the line. He doesn't cut a lot of slack to players. He expects his coaches to be there and working hard."
In two recent interviews with The Denver Post, Bowlen and his right-hand man, chief operating officer Joe Ellis, acknowledged that after 14 years of Mike Shanahan control at Dove Valley, the "New England Way" was a difficult switch for many Broncos fans, players and coaches, even media.
The Broncos are more inclined to call it the "McDaniels Way" because their coach is nothing if not his own man. The most obvious common denominator between Bill Belichick's Patriots and McDaniels' Broncos is a belief in a starless system.
"Josh is a principled person and he's going to call for accountability from the first player on the roster to the 53rd," Ellis said. "His belief and need for team and the team concept, he's not going to waver from that. And frankly, that was something that was refreshing. In the interview process, that gave him a leg up on other candidates."
Part of the problem with the 2009 Broncos, who finished 8-8 after a 6-0 start, may have been that more time was needed to sort through the trial-and-error period of blending the proper player-roster balance. Star quarterback Jay Cutler was gone before he took his first snap. Brandon Marshall, arguably a bigger star as a receiver, was trouble at the start of training camp and again in the season's final week. Tight end Tony Scheffler also got sideways with the new coach.
Cutler, Marshall and Scheffler were stars in Shanahan's West Coast system, creating the impression the Broncos' locker room was divided: Shana-han's guys and McDaniels' guys.
"That nonsense has to go away," Ellis said. "There's only one locker room, there's only one team, and that's the Denver Broncos. You can go back in history to Dan Reeves and some of the coaches and players he brought with him. Mike Shanahan in 1995, look at both the coaches and players who came here from the 49ers. And now we have some guys that have come over from New England who are familiar with Josh. It happens all the time in the league and it's happened for many, many years.
"Yes, change is difficult. But if players or coaches aren't willing to accept the changes and this direction, they probably don't buy into this concept of putting the team first and they probably aren't going to last long here."
Not all of Shanahan's holdovers struggled in 2009. See Elvis Dumervil and his NFL-leading 17 sacks. Now the task of getting Dumervil more help.
On the Friday after Denver's season ended with a deflating 44-24 home loss to lowly Kansas City — the Broncos' eighth defeat in their last 10 games — McDaniels, Bowlen and Ellis gathered for a 3 1/2-hour meeting.
McDaniels presented his thoughts on what went wrong and changes he felt needed to be made in the coming weeks. The NFL's free agency and trading period opens in 19 days and the first round of the league's draft will be held April 22.
Bowlen offered his thoughts to his coach. After a fourth consecutive season without a playoff appearance, and only one playoff win in 11 seasons, Bowlen isn't looking for status quo.
"There's going to be changes," Bowlen said. "As I look at the team, I think we have a solid football team. There are some areas of the team where'd we like to be better. I have talked with Josh about that. I know what his feelings are. And I've got a great deal of faith in his ability to recognize that and ability to go out and execute it."
Not that this means the Broncos owner has grown deaf to his fan base.
He hears people grumble about his head coach, Josh McDaniels. But Bowlen wants his fan base to understand a primary reason he hired McDaniels away from the New Eng-land Patriots last year. It's because he wanted change.
"New England has been a very successful club, and he has brought a lot of the experience he had there to Denver," Bowlen said. "And that doesn't bother me. He wants people to toe the line. He doesn't cut a lot of slack to players. He expects his coaches to be there and working hard."
In two recent interviews with The Denver Post, Bowlen and his right-hand man, chief operating officer Joe Ellis, acknowledged that after 14 years of Mike Shanahan control at Dove Valley, the "New England Way" was a difficult switch for many Broncos fans, players and coaches, even media.
The Broncos are more inclined to call it the "McDaniels Way" because their coach is nothing if not his own man. The most obvious common denominator between Bill Belichick's Patriots and McDaniels' Broncos is a belief in a starless system.
"Josh is a principled person and he's going to call for accountability from the first player on the roster to the 53rd," Ellis said. "His belief and need for team and the team concept, he's not going to waver from that. And frankly, that was something that was refreshing. In the interview process, that gave him a leg up on other candidates."
Part of the problem with the 2009 Broncos, who finished 8-8 after a 6-0 start, may have been that more time was needed to sort through the trial-and-error period of blending the proper player-roster balance. Star quarterback Jay Cutler was gone before he took his first snap. Brandon Marshall, arguably a bigger star as a receiver, was trouble at the start of training camp and again in the season's final week. Tight end Tony Scheffler also got sideways with the new coach.
Cutler, Marshall and Scheffler were stars in Shanahan's West Coast system, creating the impression the Broncos' locker room was divided: Shana-han's guys and McDaniels' guys.
"That nonsense has to go away," Ellis said. "There's only one locker room, there's only one team, and that's the Denver Broncos. You can go back in history to Dan Reeves and some of the coaches and players he brought with him. Mike Shanahan in 1995, look at both the coaches and players who came here from the 49ers. And now we have some guys that have come over from New England who are familiar with Josh. It happens all the time in the league and it's happened for many, many years.
"Yes, change is difficult. But if players or coaches aren't willing to accept the changes and this direction, they probably don't buy into this concept of putting the team first and they probably aren't going to last long here."
Not all of Shanahan's holdovers struggled in 2009. See Elvis Dumervil and his NFL-leading 17 sacks. Now the task of getting Dumervil more help.
On the Friday after Denver's season ended with a deflating 44-24 home loss to lowly Kansas City — the Broncos' eighth defeat in their last 10 games — McDaniels, Bowlen and Ellis gathered for a 3 1/2-hour meeting.
McDaniels presented his thoughts on what went wrong and changes he felt needed to be made in the coming weeks. The NFL's free agency and trading period opens in 19 days and the first round of the league's draft will be held April 22.
Bowlen offered his thoughts to his coach. After a fourth consecutive season without a playoff appearance, and only one playoff win in 11 seasons, Bowlen isn't looking for status quo.
"There's going to be changes," Bowlen said. "As I look at the team, I think we have a solid football team. There are some areas of the team where'd we like to be better. I have talked with Josh about that. I know what his feelings are. And I've got a great deal of faith in his ability to recognize that and ability to go out and execute it."
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