Josh McDaniels Sucks

Posted by Uncle Rico 1:15 ET

The vast majority of scouts think Stanford’s Andrew Luck is the best QB prospect since John Elway. (Image: AP)

According to Jason La Canfora the Denver Broncos have traded wide receiver Brandon Lloyd to the St. Louis Rams in advance of today’s trade deadline. The trade will reunite Lloyd with Josh McDaniels, now the offensive coordinator of the NFL’s worst offense for the 0-5 St. Louis Rams. There is no denying Lloyd’s skill and uncanny ability to make difficult catches, but his Pro Bowl season of 2010 seems to be a deviation from a largely pedestrian career.

More importantly, The Denver Post’s Jim Armstrong examines the shadow Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is casting on the Broncos game in South Florida next Sunday. At stake is the potential to draft the player former University of Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt, now a Pac-12 TV analyst and talk-show host on 102.3 FM The Ticket, said would be a star in the NFL – right now.

“He’s the fifth-best quarterback on the face of the planet,” Klatt said.

Klatt ranks Luck behind Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, a healthy Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. That’s it. So Luck is ahead of Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, and Matt Ryan? Klatt continued “I’ve watched every snap he’s had this year and some from last year. He manipulates the defense constantly with his eyes. His football acumen is so superior to any other college player I’ve ever seen. It just kind of jumps off the tape.”

Perhaps Klatt’s evaluation is a little aggressive, but it’s impossible to find an NFL talent evaluator or analyst that doesn’t believe Luck is the real deal.

“He’s a franchise quarterback,” former NFL scout Dave Razzano said. “This kid’s as tough as nails. He’s a big guy (6-foot-4, 238 pounds) who can run. He punishes defenders. He’s kind of like a linebacker at times. He’s a great leader in the locker room, and in the huddle he rallies the troops.”

And SI.com’s Peter King offers that the widely held view of many NFL scouts is that Luck may not be a better prospect than John Elway, but he’s in the same league as Elway. Enough said.

Armstrong knows that if the Broncos organization wants to reverse its fortunes, the key is not winning games this year.

“[Broncos fans have] clamored for Tebow and, now that his time has come, they want him to stay. To those misguided souls, we offer three words of advice: Watch. The. Tape. Tebow is a college superstar hoping he’s not a square peg in a round hole as an NFL quarterback. Luck? Unless every NFL scout ought to be bagging groceries at Kurt Warner’s alma mater, he’s a 17th Street parade waiting to happen. The kid calls his own plays. In college! The Broncos, if they’re going to have any chance at drafting Luck, need to take a knee. They need blown coverages, botched assignments and the occasional arrest or suspension. And if it’s third-and-12, a nice fullback-up-the-middle would be just the ticket.”

Posted by Uncle Rico 2:31 PM ET

Entering the first week of the 2011 regular season, ProFootballTalk.com ranks the Denver Broncos the third worst team in the league noting that the stink of former head coach Josh McDaniels still lingers in the Colorado air “like the remnants of rancid pork burrito night.” McDaniels disastrous personnel and coaching decisions have been documented in detail on this site. It is difficult for Broncos fans to move on when they are constantly reminded of the damage McDaniels inflicted on the organization.

With the recent release of safety Darcel McBath, none (i.e. ZERO!) of Josh McDaniels three 2009 2nd round draft picks remain with the Broncos. The Denver Post’s Mike Klis, who has turned on McDaniels faster than the Jamaican 4 x 100 relay team, recapped perhaps the worst pound-for-pound draft round by any team in the history of the NFL:

“Factor in the enormous quantity and the poor quality, and it may go down as the worst second-round selections in the history of the NFL draft. The Broncos had three picks in the second round two years ago. They traded a first-round draft pick in 2010 to move up in 2009′s second round and select cornerback Alphonso Smith.

The first taken and the first to go. Smith was traded last year to Detroit for tight end Dan Gronkowski , who was cut Saturday by Denver. Smith caught on with the Lions, starting 10 games and coming up with five interceptions.

Next, the Broncos drafted safety Darcel McBath, who was waived Sunday to make room for the signing of former Patriots nickel back Jonathan Wilhite . McBath showed promise as a rookie, intercepting a Peyton Manning pass but then breaking his forearm in the same game. At the time, he was leading the Broncos in special-teams tackles.

But McBath got hurt a couple more times last season and never stayed healthy enough to reach his NFL potential.

Just as that second round was about to finish, the Broncos traded two third-round picks to move up and draft tight end Richard Quinn, who barely played and had only one catch in two seasons before he was waived with an injury settlement during training camp.

Strike one. Strike two. Strike three. The big whiff in the second round of the 2009 draft helps explain why the Broncos finished 4-12 last season and seem to lack depth in 2011.”

Not to be outdone by his hideous performance in 2009, in 2010 McDaniels traded three draft picks to Baltimore to move back into the first round to select former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. According to a long list of NFL analysts, Tebow may never develop into a functional NFL quarterback. Perhaps it was easy for McDaniels to fall in love with Tebow’s character, desire and football sense, but McDaniels cavalier attitude towards wasting draft picks cannot be forgiven. At the time, many league insiders believed that Tebow could have been had for a single pick in round 2, 3 or even later. But McDaniels had to let everyone know how smart he thinks he is (or how dumb he thinks you are) by reaching for a quarterback that struggled mightily this preseason and now sits behind journeymen Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn on the Broncos depth chart.

The only good that can come out of McDaniels reign of incompetence is another losing season that will put the Broncos in position to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.

Posted by Uncle Rico 10:10 PM ET

Yahoo! Sports’ Doug Farrar hit the nail on the head with his recent observations about Josh McDaniels and the Denver Broncos:

“If you’re going to be a truly horrible personnel executive, it’s best to have your moves still wreaking havoc with your former team even after you’ve moved on to greener pastures. Such is the case for Josh McDaniels, who did quite the waste job on Denver’s roster in less than two full seasons before he was summarily dismissed late in the 2010 season. Getting rid of Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Peyton Hillis and Alphonso Smith were the moves that set off bombs at the times they happened, but it was a 2010 first-round draft pick that may leave the largest impact — and not necessarily a good one. When the Broncos selected Tim Tebow 25th overall in 2010, it moved the media hype around Tebow from Florida to the Mile High City, especially when Tebow played reasonably well in Denver’s last few games after starter Kyle Orton suffered a season-ending rib injury. This offseason, the Broncos tried to engineer an Orton trade to the Miami Dolphins, but it hasn’t happened yet. New team president John Elway and head coach John Fox may still move Orton, and if they do so in favor of Tebow, it sounds like the team’s veteran offensive skill players might not be too happy about that.”

Broncos veterans aren’t on board with moving Orton becasue he has quickly reclaimed his spot atop the Broncos quaterback depth chart, outplaying Tebow by a wide margin in the first week of training camp according to many media reports.

And to make matters worse, ESPN’s Merril Hoge is the latest NFL analyst to make a case against Tebow’s ability to succeed at the NFL level. As summarized by Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, Hoge had this to say on Mike & Mike in the Morning:

Hoge told Mike Greenberg and Adam Schefter that Tebow “had no business” being drafted as a quarterback, and that he should have been a sixth-round or seventh-round draft pick at best. Hoge focused on the issue of Tebow’s looping delivery, which continues to emerge in moments of stress and duress.

Hoge acknowledged that Tebow could be a situational player, or a quarterback who could be hidden by a great dfense and running game, but that Tebow could never be the guy who leads a team to a title.

So there Broncos fans have it, according to Hoge, McDaniels used the 25th overall pick in the 2010 draft to select a “situational player” that should have been drafted in the sixth or seventh round. McDaniels may be long gone, but his disastrous personnel moves – reaching for Tebow included – are still wreaking havoc on the Denver Broncos.

Posted by Uncle Rico 9:14 PM ET

With the NFL and it’s players reaching agreement on a new labor deal, football is back in Denver. The Broncos open training camp under new head coach John Fox on Wednesday and all eyes will be on first round pick Von Miller. Keep it locked in on Josh McDaniels Sucks for independent analysis and insights about the Denver Broncos as the team moves on from the worst coach in NFL history.

Speaking of McDaniels, Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt, appearing on the Vic & Gary show on 102.3 the Fan in Denver, said that Chiefs head coach Todd Haley belived McDaniels was cheating when the teams met in Denver last season. Now it’s known why Haley refused to shake McDaniels’ hand after the game.

And add running back Knowshown Moreno and cornerback Perrish Cox to the long list of questionable draft picks during the brief McDaniels era.

Posted by Uncle Rico 2:10 PM ET

The Denver Broncos would be wise to draft Patrick Peterson in the first round and address the defensive line in round two. (Image: AP)

With the draft only two days away, NFL insiders and draft pundits are feverishly releasing final versions of mock drafts. ESPN’s Todd McShay predicted the Denver Broncos will select powerful, versatile Alabama DT Marcell Dareus with the 2nd overall pick. Taking Dareus would not be much of a surprise as almost every draft forecaster, including Mel Kiper and five NFL.com analysts have the Broncos looking to Dareus to fill the most glaring need on the team’s roster. Interestingly though, McShay offered that as an alternative to Dareus Denver could take a quarterback as “[h]e continues to hear the organization does not believe 2010 first-rounder Tim Tebow is the long-term answer.”

While Dareus is viewed as a safe pick, Jeff Legwold of The Denver Post has it right in lobbying for the Broncos to not draft based on need but rather go with the best player available, period. That would be LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson who is “not only is the best defensive back on the board, but front to back, on the field and off, is the draft’s most well-rounded prospect.”

Kiper, despite beleiving the Broncos favor Dareus, agrees with Legwold that Peterson is the best defensive player in the 2011 draft class. In fact, Kiper lists Peterson as the No. 1 overall player on his final Big Board.

Peterson is too good to pass on and this draft is deep in defensive line talent. So, let’s hope the Broncos take Peterson in the first round and then address the porous interior defensive line with players such as Stephen Paea, Phil Taylor and/or Marvin Austin with both of the team’s second round picks.

Posted by Uncle Rico 2:50 PM ET

Like many Denver Broncos fans, John Elway wishes the team had not given up on Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler. Elway acknowledged that a player with Cutler’s talent doesn’t come around that often and said that if he was running the Broncos football operations at the time Josh McDaniels traded Cutler to Chicago, “there’s a good possibility” Cutler would still be Denver. So it’s clear, Elway believes McDaniels made a colossal mistake in jettisoning Cutler for Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow.

Elway may see a little of himself in Washington quarterback Jake Locker, a mobile, strong armed passer that has opted to focus on football despite being a Major League Baseball draft pick. As a result, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the Broncos selected LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson in the first round and Locker with the first of the team’s two second round picks. ProFootballTalk.com recently reported that most team’s don’t have a first round grade on Locker due to accuracy concerns.

UPDATE: Per ProFootballTalk.com, Elway appeared Thursday on 104.3 the Fan in Denver (via SportsRadioInterviews.com), and was asked whether the Broncos interest in quarterback prospects is a smokescreen.

“Well the bottom line is at that position, everybody realizes how important that position is,” Elway said. “And anytime you have the draft position we have — second in the draft — you have to look at everybody. And we’re looking at every position, not only the quarterback position, but that seems to get the most attention because of what we have here. But obviously if there’s a guy there that’s a franchise guy there, we definitely have to look at it because we’re not sure we have a franchise guy on our team right now. So obviously we’ve got to visit that, look at it, and do our due diligence on it and then we’ll make our decision from there. But no, it’s not a smokescreen. We realize — and I realize — how important that position is, and if there’s a franchise guy there that we know is a franchise guy, we’d have to look at it.”

Clearly, the Broncos are concerned about Tim Tebow’s future as an NFL passer.

Posted by Uncle Rico 2:07 PM ET

Perhaps John Elway sees a little of himself in Washington QB Jake Locker. (Image: Getty Images)

According to the NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora, the Denver Broncos have scheduled a private workout with Washington quarterback Jake Locker.

As Gregg Rosenthal of ProFootballTalk.com points out, “too much is often made of these private workouts, but the Broncos’ decision to work out Locker is notable. It shows they are considering adding a quarterback or want to make other teams think they are considering adding a quarterback.”

Based on the team’s election to workout Locker and the attendance of John Elway and John Fox at Missouri’s pro day to watch Blaine Gabbert throw, coupled with recent reports that Tim Tebow doesn’t have much support at Dove Valley, perhaps Elway (with input from Fox) has decided that Tebow does not have the skills necessary to be an effective NFL passer.

UPDATE: According to ProFootballTalk.com’s draft visits and workout tracker, the only player that the Broncos have scheduled for a private workout and official team-facility visit is LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson.

Posted by Uncle Rico 11:20 AM ET

Several NFL scouts attended Colorado’s pro day earlier this week, but only Denver Broncos director of college scouting Matt Russell was silly enough to take on top offensive tackle prospect Nate Solder. The 6’8″, 319 lbs. Solder lit up Russell, a former Buffaloes linebacker who won the Butkus Award in 1996 and was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 4th round in 1997.

Everyone in attendance seemed to enjoy Solder reminding Russell that he’s now a scout and no longer a player (too bad it wasn’t Josh McDaniels)!

Posted by Uncle Rico 1:35 PM ET

On Thursday, the Denver Broncos released defensive lineman Justin Bannan and Jamal Williams. The release of Williams, 35, was not a shock as the former San Diego Chargers standout was marginal at best in his first season with Denver, and with head coach John Fox switching back to a 4-3 defense Williams was without a position.

The release of defensive tackle Bannan, however, stirred surprise, if not borderline shock among the Broncos community and Bannan himself:

“I’ve never been so blindsided,” Bannan said. “I’ve never been so confident that I held up my end of the bargain. I did my job. I gave it everything I had. It broke my heart. I want to stay in Colorado. I love the people. I know I’m going to stay in that community. I’m just not going to be able to work there.”

Bannan, who turns 32 next month, signed a 5 year, $22 million contract with the Broncos just last year. Brian Xanders called him Wednesday to offer him two options: (a) a drastic pay cut, or (b) his release. True to the “shady” form Xanders has operated with since McDaniels was fired, the general manager gave Bannan – one of only a few bright spots on the NFL’s worst defense – less than 24 hours to consider the offer. Bannan elected to become a free agent rather than take a pay cut and he should not have any trouble finding a job after the NFL and NFLPA reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Last off season McDaniels and Xanders set out to revamp the Broncos defensive line in free agency. The team signed Bannan, Williams and defensive end Jarvis Green. Now, one year later none of the three heralded free agent signees are with the team.

Green was cut without ever playing a regular season down for the Broncos despite signing a 4 year, $20 million contract that included a $2.5 million signing bonus. Williams signed a 3 year, $16 million contract and pocketed $7 million for his single season in Denver. And Bannan’s 5 year, $22 million deal included $10.5 million in guaranteed money.

So, the Broncos paid a total of $18 million to the lineman, a group that collectively recorded 56 tackles and 1 sack while anchoring a run defense that allowed the second most rushing yards in the league.

UPDATE: The Broncos announced that defensive tackle Kevin Vickerson has agreed to terms on a 2 year, $4.75 million contract that includes a $1 million signing bonus. Safety O.J. Atogwe signed with the Redskins after also considering interest from the Bills and Broncos.

Posted by Uncle Rico 2:52 PM ET

The Broncos signed 10 time Pro Bowl CB Champ Bailey to a new 4 year contract. (Image: AP)

Earlier this week, NFL.com’s Mike Lombardi reported that Tim Tebow is a “man without much support is Denver.” Specifically, Lombardi indicated that most members of the Broncos coaching and front office staff who were with the team when Tebow was drafted are now looking to distance themselves from the selection. This is hardly surprising as general manager Brian Xanders refused to accept any blame for the catastrophic mess at Dove Valley after Josh McDaniels was fired despite saying only a year earlier that the general manager and head coach were on the same page and acting on concert.

Now, facing further scrutiny from a Broncos fan base that continues to lobby for the team to replace Xanders with a qualified personnel evaluator, Xanders, speaking from the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, made this weak attempt to shoot down Lombardi’s story:

“First of all, I think that report was false. I think there’s a lot of people in our building that are behind Tim Tebow,” Xanders said.

So, Xanders “thinks” the report is false and “thinks” that the staff support Tebow? As the team’s “general manager,” Xanders should damn well KNOW if Tebow is viewed by the coaches and personnel folks as the Broncos quarterback of the future. Clearly, Xanders – who has publicly supported Tebow in the past – is backtracking once again as John Elway and head coach John Fox likely not so subtly let “X” know that Tebow in fact doesn’t have the necessary skills to be an effective NFL passer. Shortly after filling Xanders in on his assessment of Tebow, Fox announced that Kyle Orton is his starting quarterback.

Thanks to McDaniels, the Broncos are now saddled with the first round contract of Tebow while the former University of Florida star backs up the journeyman Orton. And fans have to cringe at the thought of the prospects the Broncos passed up in trading a 2nd, 3rd and 4th round pick to Baltimore last April in order to select Tebow 25th overall. That McDaniels became enamored with Tebow in such a short window after trading, flirting with or acquiring 6 quarterbacks (Jay Cutler, Matt Cassel, Chris Simms, Kyle Orton, Tom Brandstater, and Brady Quinn) in a span of 15 months only serves to confirm doubts about McDaniels’ ability to evaluate talent.

At least there was some good news out of Dove Valley this week. The Broncos re-signed Champ Bailey for 4 years. Bailey, who has been the Broncos best defender since arriving in Denver in 2004, will provide continue to provide leadership and play solid corner for a couple more seasons before making a smooth transition to safety. The financial terms of the deal – $43 million, $15 million guaranteed – seem to be reasonably cap friendly (of course that’s not absolute absent a new CBA). TJ Johnson at It’s All Over, Fat Man thinks that one reason Champ Bailey re-signed with the Broncos is that the Bailey’s new contract contains a provision requiring Xanders to clean Bailey’s pool twice a week during the term of the agreement.

UPDATE: Bill Williamson reports that Denver is pursuing former Rams safety O.J. Atogwe. A native of Windsor, Ontario, Atogwe is a turnover machine – he intercepted 22 passes and forced 16 fumbles in 6 seasons in St. Louis – that would be a nice fit for Fox’s defense.

UPDATE II: Based on conversations with Elway and Xanders, Adam Schein of FOX Sports doesn’t think Tebow has much of a future in Denver.