This isn’t amateur hour; the Broncos need game hardened professionals in their key positions. Jeremy Bates is the Broncos quarterbacks’ coach, and Rick Dennison is the so-called offensive coordinator; give me a break.
Both Bates and Dennison are nice men, but they are in a convoluted position. Dennison is the offensive coordinator in name only and Bates is a rank layperson at calling offensive plays in the NFL. Fans deserve better, but they get the 33-year old Bates instead. Bates isn’t time tested; he’s a, “Do you want cream or sugar with that, Mr. Shanahan?” guy.
I had Jim Fassel on my radio show. Jim Fassel is a football coach of extraordinary pedigree. He was the head coach of the New York Football Giants, and brought that team to the Super Bowl.
Back in 1978, Fassel was the man in a living room in California’s San Fernando Valley that convinced a skinny young kid named John Elway to join him at Stanford University to play football.
Fassel coached young John in the intricacies of the position of quarterback. John Elway as we all well know changed our lives as sports fans here in Denver. He was one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, even though he had an arm that was hands-down inferior to the one possessed by Jay Cutler.
When Pat Bowlen fired Dan Reeves, a man we all thought was head coach for life, at the end of the 1992 season, Wade Phillips, through a series of mistakes, took over as head coach of the Denver Broncos. Along with Phillips, came a young man named Jim Fassel, that man who had coached Mr. Elway at Stanford under the architect of the West Coast Offense, Bill Walsh.
Most of you don’t remember the years at the end of the Reeves régime; Elway’s career had spiraled down. His quarterback ratings had dipped to 68.3 and 65.7 in the two previous years. These are the kind of numbers we are seeing out of Jay Cutler since he proclaimed he has a better arm that John. Had Bowlen not fired Reeves, Elway would have retired at that time, and there would have been no Super Bowls, or any Hall of Fame.
In 1993, there was a dawning of the age of Aquarius.
Jim Fassel was reunited with a now-matured John Elway, a great athlete who had never reached his potential. Fassel brought with him the West Coast Offense and taught John how to play the position once again, a knowledge he had lost under Tom Landry’s antiquated offense Reeves was still preaching.
In 1993 John Elway had his finest year under center. His QB rating jumped to 92.8, he threw for over 4000 yards (the only time in his career), and threw for 25 touchdowns, the most in his career that point, and ten interceptions, the fewest of his career.
All of a sudden, John Elway was a quarterback, not just a flamethrower playing the position. Fassel joined Elway at the lowest point in his career, and made him a great player.
Mike Shanahan was once a great football coach, but he has lost his way. When he came to Denver, he was given a new John Elway, who had learned the position for two years under Fassel, and had grasped the West Coast Offense, which Shanny brought with him as well.
Mike Shanahan needs to give Jim Fassel a call, put his own ego aside, and ask Fassel to join his staff immediately as a quarterback coaching consultant, and next year as the offensive coordinator before Al (did something just fall off my face?) Davis scoops him up. It’s a time for professionals, not amateurs.
Jay Cutler needs a quarterback coach he can respect, not a pal.
I asked Jim Fassel about taking a job as a coordinator, and specifically the Broncos job, and he indicated he’d be interested. Fassel wants to be and will be a head coach in the NFL again, but for now he’s a football analyst for ESPN and Westwood One.
Something needs to be done; Jay Cutler is just flailing the ball around, and giving it up time after time. He needs a coach, and Jeremy Bates isn’t getting it done, it’s a time for serious men in a serious situation, not a wannabe.