If Pat Bowlen were alive today, general manager John Elway would be gone tomorrow.
The Broncos ended the weirdest season in NFL history in oh-too-familiar fashion, by doing what they have done best for the past five years. Denver found a way to lose.
While coach Vic Fangio is everyone’s favorite uncle, he handles end-of-game management the way Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels did comedy: Dumb and dumber.
Las Vegas beat Denver 32-31 when Fangio inexpicably restored order to a confused Raiders sideline by calling a timeout prior to the two-point conversion that proved to be the decisive score during the game’s waning seconds.
Same old, same old. Anybody else in Broncos Country besides me sick of it? This is not football. It’s slapstick.
“It’s kind of the way it’s been,” Fangio said Sunday. “We just haven’t been able to finish the games when we have the lead the right way.”
And know what’s sad? As the bickering Bowlen kids head to court, fussing over the family jewel bequeathed them by Daddy, there’s no way franchise president Joe Ellis is going to fire Elway or Fangio.
So what’s next? The Broncos need to do something more dramatic than run back this same mess and hope for the best in 2021.
Elway’s first offseason move should be nailing down a contract extension for safety Justin Simmons, immediately after the Broncos make a painful goodbye.
He’s our Vonster. Always will be. But as a 31-year-old linebacker recovering from a serious injury that cost him the entire 2020 season, linebacker Von Miller ain’t what he used to be. In exchange for the nearly $100 million Denver has paid him since his MVP performance in Super Bowl 50, Miller has provided a lousy return on investment.
Unless Miller is willing to accept a massive pay cut, Elway would be wiser to save $13.875 million against the salary cap by letting Miller go seek happiness with the Dallas Cowboys, or elsewhere in the league.
The Broncos need to open the barn doors and clean out the stench.
Their climb back to respectability has become a circular staircase to nowhere. This franchise stubbornly retraces the same missteps, muttering that everything will be OK with a pinch more patience and a dash of good fortune.
Well, that’s a big pile of delusional hooey.
For five long seasons, the Broncos have been unremarkably and boringly average. On their best days.
While Denver might be home to the most loyal fans in the league, how many season-ticket holders are darn glad they didn’t waste their money in 2020? During this pandemic, a football-mad city was reminded there are far more weighty concerns, from grandma’s health to toilet paper in the pantry than whether the Broncos will ever get their act together.
Since winning Super Bowl 50, the Broncos have won 32 of 80 games, exactly the same amount of victories earned by the lowly Detroit Lions during that stretch.
The Duke of Denver has been reduced to Johnny Try Hard. Elway ain’t getting the job done.
This is not to suggest Bowlen would unceremoniously kick No. 7 out the door, because Elway deserves better than a hastily written pink slip. But Mr. B wouldn’t be afraid to throw a farewell party for a Colorado football legend who nobody now in charge at team headquarters has the guts to fire.
So the Broncos seem content to bide their time, waiting for a judge to resolve this ridiculous food fight among the bickering Bowlen kids, who trash the legacy of their late father with an ugly spat over control of a $3 billion franchise.
Why is Uncle Vic still here, assigned to babysit the team for another year? Because no promising young coach in his right mind would take this job until the ownership mess is resolved.
Unless Beth Bowlen stops hissing at Ellis (good luck with that, pal), or the Broncos are sold to new ownership, does it really matter who plays quarterback?
Before some knucklehead suggests Elway should go out and rescue veteran QB Matthew Stafford from Detroit, kindly allow me to offer three words.
Stop it, please.
Stafford is not the answer. During a dozen seasons with the Lions, Stafford has won exactly as many NFL playoff games as you and me: zippo. Winning is the only stat that really matters for a QB at this level. If Stafford has been unable to make Detroit respectably competitive, anyone who thinks he can make the Broncos elite probably should grab a Coors beer to wash down a get-real pill.
With a top 10 pick in the next NFL draft, do you really trust Elway to find a quarterback better than Drew Lock? Well, Zach Wilson of Brigham Young does check a lot of boxes on the Elway wish list.
Lock, however, vows he’s worthy of your trust. And his responsibility is the same as the task embraced by all NFL quarterbacks worthy of elite status.
“Make the other 10 guys around us look like like they’re all-pros. That’s what our job is. If they mess up, it’s our job to fix it,” Lock said. “It’s the hardest job in the world, in my opinion. And I love doing it.”
I admire Mr. Lock’s swagger. But he’s going to need a bigger shovel to muck out this barn.
