First it was goodbye, then it was err...good...bye...errr...riddance, now its ehhh whatever

FIRST IT WAS GOODBYE

THE FIRST PART IN A THREE PART RAMBLE

Aproximately 6 months ago my jaw dropped off my face. Mike Shanahan was fired. I had been on and off the Shanny train for the past few years, but I was actually firmly on it seeing what he had done with the draft and seeing the direction I believed he was taking our team. I didn't exactly like Bates and I didn't exactly like Slowick, but I liked the personnell moves of the past two Shanny Seasons.

Also, I rememberd an interview done with Shanahan where he said that he would put the Broncos back into the AFC West Championship game in 5 years and have a solidly built team that would hold up for years to come. He was three years into that team when he got canned.

In my view, in that three year time, Shanny had slowly began transforming our O into something much more vicious and stable than the down hill blocking for an RB and roll out passes that it was in the past. He was allowing the QB to finally have a pocket to work in. He brought in Clady, Cutler, Royal, Stokely, Scheffler, Brandon Marshall, Harris, Torrain, and Hillis. It was clear he was building a solid young O and the foundation had been laid and the house was being built. The offensive yards of last season can show you that.... the scoring though shows that his O-house didn't yet have a roof. Well, give it time and a healthy season for RBs.

On the reverse side of the ball, Shanny had constantly been tossing in scrubs on D. Since losing Trevor Price on purpose, and other than drafting Darrent Williams (rest in peace) I believe Shanahan has failed miserably on building the D. But that was clear at the end of last year and there was some potential in off-season and draft moves to begin our two year rebuild on that side of the ball...

It was my opinion that Shanny needed one more year at least to see if he could begin improving the D. The D that appeared to me to be the absolute worst in the league. He had rebuilt a young talented team on one side and the other side just needed an injection of new players and maybe some tackling lessons to make it head and shoulders better than it was in 08.

Well.... no more time Shanny. Bowlen - who has admitted to losing his short term memory - decided he had enough of you being in charge and failing to get this team back into Super Bowl contention. I guess the 2005 season fell just inside his short term memory gap, because any time you are in an AFC Championship game you are practically to the promised land. But, I guess Bowlen started to read and listen to Jake Plummer's negative views on Shanny's coaching. I guess he read Fatsis book and agreed with some of those negative views....

Bottom line Shanahan chose his allies that might have ended up getting him fired. He chose to stand by Slowick, when Bowlen asked him to let him go. He chose to promote Cutler when Plummer had taken him to the door of the promised land the year before (a move I approved - because my opinion matters). He chose to listen to the three headed cyrubus that was the Goodmans and Xanders then to place his opinion on top of that. He chose to not listen to the owners requests for direction. He was slowly rebuilding the Broncos, but slow was not fast enough.

Goodbye Mike Shanahan. Thanks for your time. Thanks for your service. Thanks for the memories. Don't get lost in your house.