@MarkKnudson41
Strike One: John Elway did the right thing. It was the right time.
Elway – who stepped down as the Denver Broncos General Manager after a 5-11 finish in 2020 – will continue to be the face of the franchise for a long long time. And he should be. He’s the person most responsible for all three of Denver’s Super Bowl titles. He should get a statue.
Elway should also continue to be that face in his new gig as an Executive Vice President. His role should be “VP of Smiling and Handshakes.” He can rep the team at the NFL Draft. He can golf as much as he wants. And the next time a “Free Agent Peyton Manning” situation arises – if it ever does – he should be the person put in charge of landing that big fish. Again.
But he made the right call in giving up his day-to-day control. He wasn’t up to the job.
The Broncos need a fresh set of eyes in the General Manager’s chair. Someone who has a more analytical view of personnel. What the Broncos have been doing in the front office hasn’t worked. And simply continuing to do that same thing isn’t an option if the organization ever wants to compete for another Super Bowl title.
Bringing in someone from the outside – and it absolutely should not matter if that person has ever worked with Elway or Head Coach Vic Fangio before – allows fresh ideas to be brought into the mix. Denver hasn’t done everything wrong of course, but the Broncos front office has been largely ineffective for the better part of the past decade – the Manning acquisition and a handful of good signings being the exception that proves the rule. The scoreboard does not lie. New ideas are desperately needed.
Those new ideas have to include a better focus on analytics. The days of “going with your gut” and your scout’s eyeballs – the way Elway did in deciding, for instance that he didn’t like Josh Allen enough to draft him even after watching him in person several times – isn’t the best method anymore. Technology can be used to help make better decisions.
Ironically, the Broncos are in much the same situation as the Colorado Rockies – and organization with stagnant ideologies and no influx of fresh ideas that have left them lagging behind their competition…by a lot. The Rockies have shown no willingness to look outside the walls of 20th and Blake for a different perspective. Let’s hope the Broncos do.
All reports so far are that Denver IS looking well outside the organization for its next GM. That’s a very good thing. Now the worry needs to be which candidate will not only fit that bill, but also see Denver – with its ownership situation in flux – as a desirable job. Under Pat Bowlen, there probably wasn’t a better gig in the NFL. Now, there are a several of them. The Broncos will have to compete for the best available candidates.
Sources tell me Elway has a big phat “completion” bonus – perhaps as much as $30 million – waiting for him at the end of next season when his current contract with the team expires. Good for him. He deserves it. And good for him in recognizing – just as he did as a Hall of Fame player – when to call it a second career.
Strike Two: The Colorado Avalanche haven’t garnered many headlines since their season ended in the second round of last fall’s NHL play-offs. In some cases, no news is good news. And the fact that the Avs young core is returning pretty much intact for this week’s start of the season is a big positive. The team that fought back from a 0-2 deficit, only to fall to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Dallas Stars in game seven during the second round of the play-offs, returns healthy (for the moment) and hungry.
It remains to be seen if the short off season will have an impact on Colorado’s hockey team like it has on the local hoops squad. The Denver Nuggets are playing tired and stumbling out of the blocks may very well come back to haunt them come play-off time. Will the Avs be similarly bogged down, or will the fast break style that served them well last season return to do the same this year?
The league has taken steps to help lessen the fatigue factor when it comes to travel. A bubble would be best, but absent of that, playing only teams in the newly formed “Western” division during the regular season and first round of the play-offs makes travel less of a burden. And the level of competition doesn’t figure to be quite as difficult as a normal season, either. There are a few teams in the West that are in rebuilding mode.
Then again, the Avs had a tendency to play to the level of their competition last season, letting key wins and points slip through their fingers on several occasions. You don’t want that to become a thing.
All the key players are back (although we don’t know who might be impacted by COVID or when) including the goal tending tandem of Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz. Injuries are going to happen, but this team has solid depth and should be able to handle players missing some games along the way. What no team could survive would be losing someone like superstar Nathan McKinnon for a large chunk of the shortened season.
So, while the Broncos continue to dominate the headlines, and the hand wringing over the Nuggets bad start and the Rockies dim 2021 outlook continues, the Avalanche can stay quiet, go about the business of putting together some wins, and wait to make their noise in the late spring. If we’re going to see another championship parade around here any time soon, it will be one that includes the Stanley Cup.
Strike Three: Just over a year ago, when the Colorado State Athletic Department was looking for a new head football coach, they contacted retired Florida and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer. Not to ask him to take the job, obviously (even though Meyer is a former CSU assistant) but rather for his advice on whom they should offer the job to.
At the time, many of us were beating the drum for former Meyer assistant and Rams running back Tony Alford. The fact that Meyer was going to the chief advisor for the CSU admin on this hire was seen as good news for Alford, a very successful assistant at Ohio State who has made no secret of fact that he wants the head job at his alma mater. It was all lining up.
Then it wasn’t.
Meyer was promoting another one of his former assistants a little harder than he was pumping Alford. Meyer helped convince CSU AD Joe Parker and school President Joyce McConnell that Steve Addazio – who had just been fired at Boston College – was the right guy for the Rams.
After one very abbreviated sort-of season, which included just four football games and some well publicized off the field issues, the jury is still out on Addazio.
Fast forward 13 months. Meyer is suddenly a serious candidate for the Head Coaching job with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Hmm.
Reports are that Meyer has already interviewed and is in the process of putting together a coaching staff. Could that new NFL coaching staff maybe, possibly include…Steve Addazio?
Stranger things have happened. Just as fans of the Colorado Buffaloes.
CU thought they had their head coach for the future in Mel Tucker. Then last February, after the job at Power Five school Michigan State opened up unexpectedly, Tucker, who’d been in Boulder for just one season, bolted for East Lansing. In the middle of the night, no less. The legend of “Midnight Mel” was born.
Could the same thing happen to CSU with Addazio? Better question: Why wouldn’t it? If Meyer thought highly enough of Addazio to push him for the head job at CSU – as place Meyer says he has high regard and strong feelings for – why wouldn’t he want Addazio as say, his offensive line coach? He would presumably have to take a bit of a pay cut – going from college Head Coach to NFL assistant…then again, maybe an NFL contract could offer more long term security?
And if you’re Addazio, and you’ve sort of been raked over the coals already by the media in the area for the off the field stuff, and you realize you’re currently at a place with a ceiling, why wouldn’t you take a job in the NFL?
As we learned from Tucker, timing means absolutely nothing in these kinds of moves. It could happen at any time. And if you aren’t a guy like Alford (who has deep roots in the area and would stay put) picking up and leaving a place you’ve only been for one year isn’t that tough physically or emotionally. As a football coach, a chance to go to the NFL – a level that Addazio has yet to reach – has to be appealing.
Probably won’t happen. Then again, Tucker wasn’t leaving Boulder, either.