Broncos Busted

Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen puzzles me.  He’s owned the Broncos for 25 years and knows that franchise quarterbacks are the key to long term NFL success.  He had one in John Elway and when it came down to a dispute with former coach Dan Reeves, Elway won that battle because Bowlen was smart enough to know that players, not coaches, win in the league.  Which makes the saga of Jay Cutler very difficult to understand.  Bowlen announced yesterday that he is fed up and is putting Cutler on the trading block.  In essence, Bowlen is throwing his support behind his new boy wonder, head coach Josh McDaniels, rather than his stud QB.  Yes, there are those who will say that Cutler is a baby and that he should get over the fact that McDaniels tried to trade him at the start of free agency and shut up and play.  But the fact is that the modern day NFL is a star-oriented league and pissing of your franchise QB is not the way to succeed.  The arrogance both Bowlen and McDaniels are showing is amazing. Who the hell is Josh McDaniels anyway?  This guy thinks he’s the second coming because he won 11 games with Matt Cassell.  If I were Bowlen I’d need to see a lot more before I let some rookie head coach chase my franchise QB out of town.  It’s true that Bowlen has to stand behind his new hire to unify the organization but my question is why not just get rid of McDaniels and admit you made a mistake hiring a guy who is too big for his britches?  That way you get to keep a QB that is about ready to blossom as a star, his attitude be damned, and have a fighting chance to compete every year.  Cutler is the only reason a bad Broncos team had any shot of winning the AFC West last year.  Yes they collapsed but that was a function of a porous defense, not Cutler.  You just don’t trade franchise-type NFL QBs.  That’s the message the league always sends.  Just ask the Colts, who traded Elway and never recovered from that mistake until getting Peyton Manning.  The Broncos were on the receiving end of that mistake so they, better than anyone should know the importance of stars in a players league.  I guess that idea is now lost on Bowlen and the team that wins the Cutler sweepstakes should be eternally grateful to him  for this decision.