With Mike Gone...

[Snarfalicious]

when do you expect to hear something about who we will hire?

Tough to say, I'm pretty sure Bowlen has a plan of action in mind. We will find out more about our next move through tomorrow's press conference at 11 am. Pioli from New England could be a candidate for GM. Adam Schefter believes that Cowher will definetly not be coaching in 2009. Granted, he could be completely wrong, but he is usually very accurate and I tend to believe him before anyone else.

[colinski]

Broncos' coaching change

Thought I'd offer my reaction on this.

I view the Broncos' problems as organizational, which is different from the usual 'scheme V. talent' debate. What's been apparent for some time is that Shanahan shouldn't have had control over decisions in all three major areas - offense, defense and personnel.

It would have been fine if Shanahan had allowed a DC to come in and take over complete control of the defense while Shanahan remained as the nominal head coach/offensive coach. This would have involved bringing in a philosophically compatible GM whose responsibility was personnel decisions and arbitrating between Shanahan and the DC.

Shanahan wasn't the sole cause of problems in drafting defensive players and other personnel decisions but he was personally responsible for many of the organization's decisions and dominated the process through his relationship with other coaches. As Mark Schlereth said tonight: "there were no checks and balances."

We could blame Slowik for our current defense but there's been a parade of DCs lately who also failed in the environment created by Shanahan & staff. Coaches are strong in certain areas -- offense, defense, judging talent, administration, or as developers of talent. Shanahan's strength was offense, but he wasn't strong at judging talent or defense. He therefore needed to have someone take over these functions.

The Broncos were able to weather the drought on defense for years because of good coaching and a remaining nucleus of veterans plus FAs but the lack of talent eventually caught up with the team.

Coaching and talent are intertwined, both are necessary. And a third ingredient -- experience working together -- is the product of a stable organization with quality coaching and able talent evaluators and developers.

The Broncos should have brought in a DC years ago and given him complete control of the defense (including a say in the draft), as well as a GM, but Shanahan wouldn't relinquish control of these functions (because of a bad experience with Al Davis, I believe). Shanahan retained these functions but he therefore failed to adequately address an obvious organizational weakness, and this led to his firing.

[esphurricane]

Personally, I'll be shocked if we don't land Bill Cowher. It's a perfect fit in every conceivable way.

If we offer Cowher the job, he will take it. There is no doubt.

I really hope we dont get cowher. I still havent forgotten when the cincy player got hurt by a denver cutblock bill cowher went on tv and said yea that was dirty denver is dirty they cut block all the time and try to hurt players. then the next day shanny took some reporters into the broncos film room and showed them film of bills steelers cutblocking the very same year,multiply times in a bunch of games,,,,,I havent heard bill say anything about cutblocking since then,,,,I just cant help but feel like it was a slap in the face to all broncos when he called us dirty.

[esphurricane]

and really,why would you fire one of the 3 best coaches in the nfl who is an offensive mastermind because your defense sucks,,, and then say yea we might get cowher,,,im not referring to anyone in particular when i say this, its just that ive seen this alot from shanny haters lately,,,,,,last i checked cowher has 1 superbowl ring that it took him 14 or 15 years to get and shanny has 2 that he got in 14 years or so,,,that's not an upgrade,,,,you should not fire any coach unless you can get a better one,,,that's just stupid,,can any of us honestly say that given all the injuries to our running backs and our entire defense except for the d line which wasnt very good anyways that this team should have finished bettre than 8 and 8 ,,,,,look at the bengals and the bills and the chiefs and the raiders and the packers,,,,,all of whom had far fewer injuries than us and still finished way below us,,,,,why,,,,,because of head coaching,,,,,i agree that shanny wasnt getting the job done as vp of operations on the defensive side of the ball, but dammit he did draft jay and brandon and sheff and eddie and clady.

[b marsh = beast]

no cower is a good fit he has a defensive mind set and knows that defense wins championships. isnt it ironic that cower no longer wanted to speak with jets about coaching shortley after the firing of shanny.oh and cower likes to run the ball so we will have more balance on offense than just passin 60 times a game

[goblin53]

if cowher does come here you will see a rb drafted in the first three rounds to compliment hillis. the ones we have now are either older or injury prone.