My AFC West Thoughts

I thought norv did and amazing job when they won their last 4 games

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Norv has gotten a bad rap, and I can’t wait for us to win it all so he can quiet all the naysayers. I live in Redskins country, and he is not well respected here. It’s a shame, because I don’t believe that many coaches could have done better under the circumstances he was forced work under. He had an owner that was a lifelong Skins fan and didn’t have a clue about running a football team. He basically told Norv who he wanted him to play. Jeff George? Not Norv’s call, but he had to play him.
Norv has a chance to quiet the doubters, and I believe he will.

J-man has CP and is aware that he has grammatical errors in his writing.

Also, i disagree with you j-man that norv is holding us back. I am a Norv fan and attribute our amazing offense largely to his coaching ability.

…but I repectfully submit that you may be wrong about him. I’ve been a Broncos and an AFC West fan since the early 60’s. I’ve seen a lot of coaches come and go and not just in our division, but I’ve never seen a coach better prepared than McDaniels. It is almost as if he’s been preparing for this job since the day he was born. And maybe he has. He is the son of a very good and well respected coach from Canton, Ohio. He was the quarterback of a State Championship team and after a very good college career (and a short side trip into business), he went into coaching; not at the upper levels, he started at the bottom, the coaching equivalent of a gofer. He’s been learning and perfecting his craft ever since. I’m sure I’m wrong about this but it seems this guy spends so much time at his job that I don’t think the guy has a life outside football.

The first thing he did after blowing Bowlen away during the interview process was to bring in some really good assistant coaches to help him. You might reasonably argue about Nolan’s time as a head coach but nobody has ever questioned his ability as a defensive expert. And he hired at least one coach from every other AFC West team. I think he got his special teams coach from the Chiefs, the defensive line coach from the Chargers, and the line backers coach from the Raiders. He kept the two very best coaches from Shanahan’s staff, the offensive line coach, Rick Dennison, and running backs coach, Bobby Turner. Both played an intregral part in building the legendary Bronco’s rushing game that Shanahan seemed to abandon the last couple of years.

During the free agency period he brought in high character, talented, leaders. Yes, some of those players are near the ends of their respective careers but most still have some gas in the tank and will do a good job, short term, of filling some of the worst holes on defense and be special mentors for the younger players who will eventually replace them.

A lot of people didn’t like his draft strategy but if you look a little deeper you might note that every player he drafted was high character and a team leader, even if you never heard of the player before. He did not draft for need but rather drafted the best player available. We can argue about the wisdom of that style but it has done well by the Steelers and Patriots. Even most of the free agents he signed were of similar ilk.

And he always has an eye open for any new talent that might fit his scheme.

Now, I know he’s not perfect. I would have preferred that the Cutler situation had been handled differently. But Kyle Orton is going to be O.K. There are some other things he’s done that I don’t always understand or agree with but I will tell you this. The man has a plan and that plan looks pretty good to me. I don’t know what the Bronco’s record will be when this season is done, but I promise you, they will be better; much, much better.

And that’s the thing. People outside the AFC West are saying none of us are going to be very good this year, but most of them don’t know what they’re talking about. They haven’t been following the division closely enough to see all the improvement. With your new coach, new GM, QB and all the other positive changes I fully expect to see a better Chief’s team this year. And, God forbid, I think the Raiders are going to be better this year as well, though I think they have a little bit longer road ahead of them. And the Chargers still have great talent and are the class of the division until somebody proves otherwise.

The AFC West is not going to be the patsy division everybody on the outside expects them to be. The eventual Super Bowl champion may not come out of our division, but I guarantee you that the AFC West will be playing some good football starting this season and opening more than a few eyes around the league.

Mark my words.

He certainly could have handled that whole mess better. But I’m disappointed in McDaniels too. Oh well, you can’t always be lucky. The Chargers have certainly been blessed with their last couple of starting QB’s though. I thought you were going to miss Brees but it looks like Rivers may be even better. Kinda makes up for that whole Ryan Leef thing doesn’t it? Sorry, I should have written that. I didn’t mean anything bad by it, just going for the laugh. Right about here is where my wife would punch me in the side and tell me to shut up.