The Big McStake

Forget about a Big Mac, let’s talk about the Big McStake.

It appears that the hiring of Josh McDaniel’s to replace two time Superbowl winning coach Mike Shanahan was a big mistake. History worked against Pat Bowlen on this one. The last time Bowlen hired a young offensive coordinator from a successful team it worked out real nice. It was, after all, Mike Shanahan from the San Francisco 49’ers to replace Wade Phillips.

But Josh McDaniel’s is proving to be no Mike Shanahan, not even close.

So far the McPatriot way or McSystem or whatever you want to call McDaniel’s overhaul of the Denver Broncos… it hasn’t worked.

The Broncos are a struggling team that has only won 5 games in the last 21 played.

McDaniel’s came to a Denver team that many figured was just a few key defensive players away from competing for a championship. The new coach had other plans. He focused draft picks on offense and traded away Jay Cutler, then refused to give Peyton Hillis playing time before sending him packing for Cleveland.

The big defensive draft move? Taking Robert Ayers in the first round and trading up for Alphonso Smith who would later get dealt to the Detroit Lions and was mostly considered a bust in Denver.

He drafted a mostly inept Knowshon Moreno in the first round. Watch this now. This years draft order went like this: Demaryius Thomas (WR), Tim Tebow (QB), Zane Beadles (OT), J.D. Walton (C), Eric Decker (WR) – see the pattern? First five picks were all offense. Finally used the sixth pick on Perrish Cox (CB) who got burned repeatedly in the loss to the Rams then used their next pick on Eric Olsen (C) and landed Syd’quan Thompson (CB) with the last pick.

Don’t see any defensive lineman or linebackers on that list. Other McDaniel’s draft picks include Richard Quinn (TE), David Bruton (DB), Darcel McBath (DB), Seth Olsen (G), Kenny McKinley (WR), Tom Brandstater (QB), Blake Schleueter (C).

There are some bright spots to look at. There’s Brandon Lloyd who so far has caught 58 passes for 1,122 yards and 9 TD’s. Brandon Marshall’s antics are not missed here.

There’s the controversial 1st round draft choice of Tim Tebow who has scored 4 touchdowns despite getting limited playing time. Tebow has not recorded any stats in the last two games both of which were Broncos losses. It’s mind boggling because it appears that Tebow gives the Broncos a better chance to score in the red zone and short yardage situations but is still rarely used.

I think the firing of Josh McDaniel’s is inevitable. The Spygate II scandal could be the final straw. It’s possible that Bowlen has yet to pull the trigger because there’s nobody on staff to replace the coach. The only candidate would have been last year’s defensive coordinator Mike Nolan but he quickly left for Miami after one season with Josh McDaniel’s.