Perfect72
It's Only Happened ONCE!
John Elway explains how he stayed the course through a rocky offseason to keep Denver on track in its title defense. Plus some brand-name trade targets requiring outside-the-box thinking, the Patriots’ new health strategy, five names to watch heading into Week 8 and much more
...So let’s go through it. The Broncos lost an all-time great at quarterback and his 25-year-old heir apparent; watched two big-ticket free agents on defense leave; went through a sometimes-ugly contract dispute with the best player on the team; and had an All-Pro corner shoot himself in the leg at an ungodly hour outside a Dallas strip club.
Were the Broncos metaphorically stumbling home from the championship bar, cruising for a vicious hangover? Not even close.
Denver rolled to a 4-0 start. And after losses to the Falcons and Chargers four days apart, the Broncos bounced back to blast the Texans on Monday night, which sets the stage for a rematch with San Diego in Week 8 to kick off a run of three division showdowns in a four-game stretch.
But the best part of all might be that all of this happened without Denver moving off its spot in how Elway has charted the club’s long-term course. The temptations were there, too. To overextend for Brock Osweiler. To pay Super Bowl MVP Von Miller whatever he wanted. To mortgage cap space to keep Malik Jackson and Danny Trevathan. Even to overreact to the Talib situation.
Nine months later, it’s clear that standing firm, on every account, was the right call.
“It’s easy to take the easy way out,” Elway says now. “The easy way would’ve been to give in to everything coming off a Super Bowl. And you can make it easy. We could’ve done all that. But to remain good, and remain disciplined, you have to sometimes do the hard thing. It’s more difficult to do it that way, but in the long run it’s the right way. That’s where my focus was.
“One quote I always remember from my dad: ‘It’s not about taking the easy way out all the time. Sometimes, what makes you better is taking the tough way,’” Elway says. “So we’ve focused on not taking the easy way out, but taking the right way out.”
And so much of that “right way” has run right through the alignment the Broncos have struck with Elway as executive vice president/general manager, and Gary Kubiak as coach. Division of power within the organization—and each guy’s acceptance of that—allows Elway to run the franchise in a cold, cunning manner, and Kubiak to run the team his own way.
In other words, the trust Elway has in how Kubiak manages the most important people, the players, frees the boss to make the tough calls on all of them.
More at LINK: http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/10/26/john-elway-denver-broncos-roster-nfl-trade-deadline-notes
Hopefully the Dolphins will follow a similar path. Your thoughts?
...So let’s go through it. The Broncos lost an all-time great at quarterback and his 25-year-old heir apparent; watched two big-ticket free agents on defense leave; went through a sometimes-ugly contract dispute with the best player on the team; and had an All-Pro corner shoot himself in the leg at an ungodly hour outside a Dallas strip club.
Were the Broncos metaphorically stumbling home from the championship bar, cruising for a vicious hangover? Not even close.
Denver rolled to a 4-0 start. And after losses to the Falcons and Chargers four days apart, the Broncos bounced back to blast the Texans on Monday night, which sets the stage for a rematch with San Diego in Week 8 to kick off a run of three division showdowns in a four-game stretch.
But the best part of all might be that all of this happened without Denver moving off its spot in how Elway has charted the club’s long-term course. The temptations were there, too. To overextend for Brock Osweiler. To pay Super Bowl MVP Von Miller whatever he wanted. To mortgage cap space to keep Malik Jackson and Danny Trevathan. Even to overreact to the Talib situation.
Nine months later, it’s clear that standing firm, on every account, was the right call.
“It’s easy to take the easy way out,” Elway says now. “The easy way would’ve been to give in to everything coming off a Super Bowl. And you can make it easy. We could’ve done all that. But to remain good, and remain disciplined, you have to sometimes do the hard thing. It’s more difficult to do it that way, but in the long run it’s the right way. That’s where my focus was.
“One quote I always remember from my dad: ‘It’s not about taking the easy way out all the time. Sometimes, what makes you better is taking the tough way,’” Elway says. “So we’ve focused on not taking the easy way out, but taking the right way out.”
And so much of that “right way” has run right through the alignment the Broncos have struck with Elway as executive vice president/general manager, and Gary Kubiak as coach. Division of power within the organization—and each guy’s acceptance of that—allows Elway to run the franchise in a cold, cunning manner, and Kubiak to run the team his own way.
In other words, the trust Elway has in how Kubiak manages the most important people, the players, frees the boss to make the tough calls on all of them.
More at LINK: http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/10/26/john-elway-denver-broncos-roster-nfl-trade-deadline-notes
Hopefully the Dolphins will follow a similar path. Your thoughts?