mile high woes

Monday's firing of Denver Broncos' head coach Josh McDaniels is hardly surprising. McDaniels' head coaching career roared to a fantastic 6-0 start last season, but he's lost 17 or 22 games since and the recent video-taping scandal is a sharp contrast to the high character demeanor of the Broncos organization. Based on my admiration of Denver's backup quarterback, Tim Tebow, I've been following the Broncos closely this year. And though I do like McDaniels, I can't say I'm disappointing to see him depart.

Josh McDaniels was the offensive coordinator of the record-breaking 2007 New England Patriots Offense, and coordinated the surprisingly successful 2008 New England offense led by backup quarterback Matt Cassel. Clearly, he has an acute understanding the the passing game and the ability to groom quarterbacks masterfully - see Brady, Tom; Cassel, Matt; Orton, Kyle - and I was excited to see what he could do with Tebow. But McDaniels lack of success as a head coach could no longer be ignored by Broncos ownership, and the decision to let him go is reasonable and sensible.

However, I do feel that McDaniels receives an overindulgent amount of unfair criticism. During their 22 game tailspin, the Broncos have been decimated with injuries. Some of this can be blamed on McDaniels - poor team training, not preparing players properly physically, etc. - but a lot of it was out of his control.

Also, McDaniels roster management is judged irrationally. He inherited a fractured locker room after owner Pat Bowlen sparred with Jay Cutler. Publicly, McDaniels made it clear that he wanted the team to keep Cutler, but Bowlen made the relationship between the quarterback and the organization irreconcilable and traded Cutler to the Bears. A year later, McDaniels was forced to dispose of players like Brandon Marshall, Peyton Hillis and Tony Scheffler, who harbored resentment towards the organization for running Cutler out of town. Those moves did not work out in McDaniels favor - though including Alphonso Smith as a throw-in to the deal sending Scheffler to the Lions looks a lot better after Deion Branch finished abusing the young corner on Thanksgiving - but his hand was forced by the situation he inherited.

And I'm constantly hearing and reading about McDaniels trading three draft picks in order to move up and select Tebow 25th in the first round last April. Technically that's true, but no one seems to mention that the he traded back out of the first round to acquire additional picks so he could trade back up to land Tebow. And he traded up to the 25th spot because New England was likely to select Tebow at 26, and McDaniels astutely wanted to make sure he secured the player he targeted.

But despite my defense, I do support McDaniels firing. It'll likely be a while before he receives another head coaching opportunity. In the meantime, I do think he can be a successful offensive coordinator or, maybe more appropriately, quarterbacks coach in the NFL - his offensives have not boasted success running the football.

What's next for the Broncos? A lot of names are already starting to swirl. I like the idea of either Jon Gruden or Bill Cowher in Denver, and I also like the sleeper choice of Air Force coach Troy Calhoun. Whoever is chosen, the new coach needs to toughen up the team and return to playing "Broncos football." Orton will likely be the quarterback in 2011, as he should be given his success this season. But I think Tebow is more ready than people think and needs to be in the future plans of any coach that assumes control.