Writing the Pine

The Bronocs are faced with a dilemma in Brandon Marshall. Photo: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

No team has been in the news this past offseason in the NFL more than the Denver Broncos, and yes that includes the Minnesota Vikings with their daily updates on Sportscenter in regards to their status with Brett Favre.  The drama started when the Broncos let long-tenured coach Mike Shanahan go.  I understand that the Broncos did not have great success during the past three seasons, but Shanahan is really one of the greater football minds out there.  He had a great player-coach relationship with former Denver QB, Jay Cutler, and he was always held in high regard for the play of his offensive line and running game.  Yes, the Broncos had a historic collapse in surrendering their final 3 games en route to losing the division to the San Diego Chargers, but when your defense gives up almost 30 points a game, chances are you won’t be making the playoffs.

The Broncos subsequently sign Bill Belichick disciple, Josh McDaniels, as their new head coach and promote former scout Brian Xanders to General Manager.  Immediately, the duo get off to a rocky start by alienating Jay Cutler by chasing Matt Cassel.  Granted, Cutler is an immature player and definitely handled the situation poorly, but McDaniels and Xanders handled it just as poorly.  Cutler had a great season last year and was the undisputed face of the Denver Broncos franchise.  There was no reason to believe that Cutler wouldn’t have been a perennial Pro Bowler.

Now the team is dealing with another volatile situation in Brandon Marshall, who also had a great season last year.  Many view Marshall as another Terrell Owens, an extremely talented receiver with countless off the field issues.  Retired safety John Lynch, who was Marshall’s teammate for a few seasons, went on record and placed a ‘Buyer Beware’ label for teams interested in the disgruntled receiver.  As many issues as Marshall has had off the field, I believe the Terrell Owens comparisons are unfair because Marshall isn’t quite the dividing locker room cancer that Owens is.  If you’re a team with a good defense and are a player or two away from becoming a Super Bowl contender, i think it makes great sense to pull the trigger on a trade.  Teams like the Baltimore Ravens and the Chicago Bears come to mind.

Meanwhile, if you are McDaniels or Xanders, you have to do everything in your power to keep Marshall and sign him to an extension.  Yes, I understand the worries about his constant struggle with the law, but trading both Cutler and Marshall puts the offense at a huge handicap.  These players don’t come around often and have the potential to become “Once-in-a-lifetime” players as my colleague, PineTimePlayer, likes to put it.  For all of the struggles that the Broncos had on defense last year, they won 8 games still solely because Cutler and Marshall were thrusts in the offense and helped put up many points on the scoreboard. Now with Cutler gone, Kyle Orton needs every bit of help that he can get.  Having a guy like Brandon Marshall will infinitely make his life so much easier.  The defense didn’t get significantly better in the offseason.  Yes, they did sign Brian Dawkins in the offseason, but he is definitely getting up there in years.  Owner Pat Bowlen is known to have a great deal of patience with head coaches and the Denver Bronco fanbase is as loyal of a fanbase as there is in the NFL, but McDaniels will need to make the playoffs sometime in the next 3 seasons in order for him to keep his job.  Right now, they aren’t much better than the Oakland Raiders.