You ever have that déjà vu feeling? Like you have seen the end of this movie before? Well, I think I’m having it right now.
It’s not the good kind of déjà vu that reminds you of an awesome vacation or a great memory. It’s the kind of déjà vu that gives you that sinking feeling in the bottom of your stomach.
Like the past four Broncos seasons.
First off, let’s start by saying this isn’t an article calling for John Elway’s firing. That is too easy. And John Elway doesn’t get fired. He goes out on his own terms. We know this.
Also, Elway’s career as a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback-turned-Super Bowl winning general manager is unprecedented. Name one more guy who has done what Elway has done in the history of professional sports. You can’t. There isn’t one.
However, the further away any team gets away from its championship glory days, the deeper the hole a team digs for itself as they try to rekindle the magic of yesteryears. Eventually, general managers and coaches get fired and you are forced to start from scratch.
That also feels like what is happening here in Denver with Elway closing in on a decade of doing the job. Not just with the atmosphere around the team and around Broncos country but the quality of player the Broncos have been able to bring in.
Everyone remembers Mike Shanahan and the Broncos mid-90’s rise capped by two World Championships. Every move Shanny made paid off; adding Gary Zimmerman, trading a second-round pick for Tony Jones to solidify one of the greatest offensive lines ever, getting Alfred Williams to come and add some style and substance, and that is all to complement diamond-in-the-rough-additions like Terrell Davis-Ed McCaffrey-Shannon Sharpe. Shanny couldn’t miss.
He couldn’t miss when he has a world class quarterback and the Broncos had a reputation for being one of the elite franchises in sports. But then after “this one’s for ‘you’” and Elway retired everything changed.
Shanny stopped getting dealt blackjacks and instead started signing jack-crap. Players did not want to come play with Brian Griese and everything changed. Shanahan then started missing on signings like Denard Walker, Niko Koutouvides and Todd Sauerbrun.
Shanny even got desperate and started signing bums like Travis Henry, Darryl Gardener, Dale Carter and Eddie Kennison. All who lived up perfectly to their reputations.
The same thing has happened to Elway.
After Peyton Manning arrived, the greatest free agent addition in the history of pro sports, it was easy. Elway also added Demarcus Ware, Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward and Emmanuel Sanders to a team that way already really good. Those teams went to two Super Bowls winning one, and one the greatest offensive shows in NFL history (55 TDs and 5,500 yards in 2012) and great defenses of all-time (No Fly Zone) was built over 5 seasons.
However, post-Peyton, it seems like Elway can’t buy a bucket. From Seimian-to-Lynch-to-Keenam-to-Flacco-to-Lock it’s been awful.
And cap-crippling misses like Ja’Wuan James, A.J. Bouye, Ronald Leary and Marquette King, highlight a few of Elway’s misses on some pretty expensive talent. Sometimes, despite even how good it was at one time, it gets too far away from a general manager to bring it back.
Not that the right quarterback can’t change everything for an NFL franchise. There will be two or three in this next draft who will be great NFL players. But will Elway want to do this entire thing all over again?
I would say The Duke is pretty close to handing the keys off to someone else.
And I am definitely not mad at Elway. Quite the opposite actually. Without Elway the football player the Broncos might be looked at like we look at the Browns-Cardinals-Jets. But Elway turned this franchise into a legacy NFL brand the same way we look at the Steelers-Giants-49ers.
And without Elway the general manager Manning goes to the Titans or 49ers and wins a Super Bowl in a different uniform.
We owe Elway everything. What happens post-Elway?
Who knows, but it feels like we are now better off trying to find out.
