Bad teams like the Broncos find ways to lose. Perfect example was yesterday. Very winable game, even got the lead late, but find stupid ways to blow it.
Elway has to go, this is his fault. Bad head coaching decisions, terrible drafts, not accepting the reality that this needs to be a rebuild, no long-term QB solution, no offensive line upgrades. The only reason he had any success was because he lucked into PFM. It's been literally the same season over and over since Peyton retired. Didn't matter who coaches. It's no offense, hope the defense is perfect. Except now the defense isn't perfect, and the offense is as bad as it's ever been.
IMO, Elway had two areas/moments of awesome success, and several areas of utter failure.
Signing Manning was one obvious success story, but the other thing Elway did that hit the ball out of the park, was the Free Agent signings of 2014. The Ware/Ward/Talib FA signings really paid off. Ware played well for Denver, but Ward/Talib played at a Pro Bowl level for several seasons after that. Those signings really helped make that awesome defense what it was.
The several areas of failure for Elway, are his draft record, and his inability to see that in the NFL, when a team wins 12+ games for 4-5 straight seasons, when it wins its division 5 straight years, it's almost a given that said team needs to rebuild - at least a bit. Especially when that team loses a HOF quarterback after the last season. There's really only one example of a team that has bucked this trend. Elway's stubbornness in this regard has contributed to the team's current situation, I believe.
A couple of other areas of failure are the hiring of head coaches, and the inability to field a quality NFL QB (though that's really in the poor drafting column).
It's now a complete mess, and time to rebuild. My preseason prediction was 5-11/6-10. Amongst my friends, I was the least optimistic one, and it's looking like even I missed it big time.
They could do a few things right now to help themselves. Trade their remaining quality veteran players for picks and/or young players. Miller, Harris, Sanders are three solid candidates. All are 30-32 years old, and Harris/Sanders are in the last years of their contracts. Miller would cost $12M in dead cap money next season - which is pretty brutal - but given the team isn't going to contend anyway, it's only one year of ugliness there.
Another possibility is Wolfe (another still solid player who will be 30 next season), but I'm not sure he'd get much in return.
That should add a few 1st-3rd round picks to the 2020 draft. The Broncos already have an extra 3rd, so if they continue sucking like this and finish at the bottom of the standings, they could conceivably have 8 picks in the top 100 of next year's draft. That's a nice way to start.
...IF...
They do something about their scouting and choosing draft picks. This needs to also change. Something needs to effing change. Their drafting has been awful. I wonder if they somehow crossed the streams and hired the Avalanche scouting/drafting crew from 2010-2014.
Finally, hire a smart young head coach who understands how to field a modern football offense. One who could take a good young QB (theoretically drafted by said new scouting crew), and mold him into a solid NFL QB.
I'm not going to get into the "fire Elway" stuff, because I don't see that Dove Valley cabal of gangsters being broken up any time soon.
