HOWEVER, could someone explain to me why when the offense is inside the opponent’s 5 yard line he consistently sends out a two-tight end set, and tries at least one off-tackle run that loses yardage? This offensive line IS NOT CAPABLE of overpowering a defensive line that is playing the run on their own goalline, and I’m not sure what he expects to change.
I know it runs counter to his conservative streak, but we should be spreading the defense out with Cutler in the gun and a 3- or 4-receiver set (if we even HAVE 4 receivers, Taylor Jacobs, anyone?). Let the young gun stick the ball into D Graham’s chest before the blitzers can get to him. And if Shanny’s determined to run the ball, he can still hand it off on a draw play where there will be some lanes for our backs instead of a wall of the wrong color jerseys. Mase, could you whisper in his ear, please?

His MO used to be getting ahead early and make the other team play catch-up. Our secondary has been exposed for what it is (over hyped) and now everyone knows they can come back, especially when the offense gets one-dimensional. This defense doesn’t have the heart to get beat on one possession, watch the offense go three and out come back in and stop the opposition. Good defenses may be able to do that but ours just can’t. And if Sam Adams is too fat to practice on Wednesdays how is he expected to play four quarters of football.

After that, none of the moves listed were anything special except the Bailey trade (and it’s more 60-40 than anything else since we haven’t had a true franchise back since Portis left, just plug-ins with a good rush line.)

You subsequently listed: acquiring a veteran QB, drafting a young QB, acquiring an underrated TE, acquiring receivers (a borderline #1 with knee and attitude issues in his past and two solid but unspectacular possession WRs) and act like it’s anything different than what about 10-15 other teams have done with the same result. Just to be a d**k, I’ll cite the the Raiders: acquired Gannon (veteran QB,) drafted Russell (young QB,) drafted Zach Miller (there’s your TE, he ain’t bad,) and from Rice to Moss to Porter to Gabriel to Curry, have always found WRs even when their QBs and O-Line sucked (sound familiar?) The only difference (21st Century Super Bowl appearance aside…) is that while crappy Oakland rotates out their staff and regularly dissapoints, our beloved Denver regularly dissapoints with THE SAME COACH over and over…AND NO ONE BLAMES HIM? WHAT OTHER CITY BABIES ITS COACH LIKE THAT TEN YEARS AFTER THEIR LAST REAL GLORY?

Maybe we won’t find someone better on the first try, but we are at least three years away from really challenging for a title without a Terrell Davis-esque miracle dropping into our laps again. If you feel like sitting thru another 3 years of the treadmill and watching 1998 grow smaller and smaller behind you, be my guest. I’d rather they took a chance at a major turnaround than stayed the course with a slow swim upstream. Shanahan has never won without All-Pro talent, and how much All-Pro talent he’s had directly relates to how far his teams have gone. He’s not going to turn a bunch of “who dats?” into a juggernaut like the Patriots were a few years back (NOW NE has real names.)

Shanahan needs STARS and he’s never made STARS, STARS have made HIM. He’s not the only great coach who needs them, mind you, but Elway, Sharpe, and Davis aren’t around to overwhelm teams anymore even when they’ve figured out the schemes. Shanahan actually has had to COACH for the last ten years and look…he had his time. But it’s not working now. Landry, Ditka, Noll, Shula…eventually a “legendary coach” degrades into just a “coach” over time.

Here is my response… YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS!! Who will we get? Cower? yeah right, he was a GOD in Pittsburg, why would he come here and have to rebuild everything? Plus, how LONG did it take him to build the steelers? I seem to remember a bad experiment called Cordell Stewart? So who else? OH.. how about Marty? then we can have an awesome season record and never win the big game? No… how about an unknown? Well that hasn’t worked out for Al Davis.. why would it work here? Even if it did, 2-5 years before they’re good again. Lets review what Shanny has brought to Denver (besides the 2 bowls)…

Zone Blocking – Naw, that wasn’t worth it.
T. D. – Yeah, that wasn’t a good move.
Eddie Mac – naw we didn’t need a good receiver
Sharpe – Lost him, got him back (rectified a boo-boo in letting him go.)
Plummer – Did good, shot himself in the foot, Arizona ruined him
Portis – wasn’t good, got good, got traded, we got Champ… that worked out
Walker – Naw, bad idea.
Sheffler – maybe the best unknown TE in the league…
the Brandons – naw, we didn’t need em.
Cutler – Worked a few deals and got him, so far so good.

There are a laundry list of things Shanny has done since he’s come to Denver. All the fair weather fans out there have NO idea what is out there and couldn’t make any better decisions if they were in the same position.

Who do you get to run a defense KNOWING that they are going to be a D Coordinator for a LONG time, if NEVER get to be a head coach, because of what Shanny has done? Answer me that.

Plus, if we got someone else, everyone saying “FIRE SHANAHAN” would be saying “FIRE SO AND SO” after a losing season anyway, so your opinion… counts for about nothing in my book, Shut up and just enjoy the game for crying out loud.