Editor's Note - I've been wanting to write something like this for awhile, but knowing I had written on this subject before I was hoping the community would take it upon itself.  We are 6 weeks in to the season now, can we focus on our football team?  Respect is taken, not given, and the Broncos, with each win, take more and more. All I can say is, please think twice - don't confuse the comments of other teams' fans with that of the national media.  What do you expect a fan to say?  Stay classy, MHR - sometimes it is better to take the high road. - Guru

This season means a lot to many Broncos fans, partly because we all remember how bad last year was (at .500, aren't we needy), and partly because the MSM was saying we'd do even worse this year. Hands down, MHR is THE best place to get intellectual evaluation of the Broncos' upcoming games and recent moves. Arguably this is due in no small amount to the mainstream blatantly ignoring what many loyal fans were saying all along. With no place in the MSM for Bronco fans to turn for even a balanced evaluation of the goings on in Dove Valley, I'm sure the MHR community has grown immensely in recent months.

With emotions running high all throughout Broncos Country, it's no surprise that there would be slips in temperament. Many of the other teams' fan bases have bought into the reports that "the Broncos are a 4-12 team," or that "5-0 is a fluke, they'll return to earth soon," and so they have most likely been talking more trash about upcoming games than in past years. (to be honest I don't know, first year on SBN) And with the Jay Cutler trade, even teams that have almost nothing to do with the Broncos have some mud to fling. I can see some indignation from almost all of the MHR posters, and of course I can understand some smack talk being posted in MHR, and even the occasional post on another fan site. That said, I don't understand why so many people have been posting inflammatory statements on other sites.

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First and foremost, I am a supporter of coach McD, and have been ever since he traded Cutler away. Not because I thought Cutler needed to go(which I now do), but because of all the people involved in that mess, he seemed to handle the situation with authority and class. That being said feel free to slap the kool-aid out of my hand if I get my history wrong. I also feel I should preface my point with the fact that I had a lot of support for Shanny, and was shocked when he was fired. However, when the shock went away there was no surprise beneath it, and I began to re-examine a lot of the things he did, concluding at last that it was a bold and correct move by Mr. B. We've all discussed the glaring personnel mistakes Shanahan made, in drafts, going for the diamond in the rough, picking up injury liabilities, etc., etc. I personally think he made enough brilliant personnel moves to counter a lot of these but that's not the point of my post, I was going to try to raise a discussion about two nuanced differences I've noticed between our two recent HC's and get everyone's input on whether they think it is a part of our success or if I'm just daft.

1)The most immediate difference in style is that McD seems to build his system and supporting cast such that no player is in a position or situation that raises a question about their abilities. Basically, he uses the players the way they work best, rather than asking them to do something else. By contrast, I think Shanny could have made a much more effective quarterback out of Plummer had there been some other playcalling. Plummer was brilliant at the blind rollout, and I never thought of him as anything but a transition from a god of football(elway) to a manageable average QB. Contrast this with Dumervil's rebirth as a QB terrorizing LB and I like where we're headed.

2)More importantly though, I remember a lot of our defenses under Shanahan having "placeholder" players. I'm sure this was going on elsewhere, but I'm very bad with rosters of past years(elway saga excluded). I remember in particular, Cox, Foxworth, and Webster come to mind.(feel free to belittle my mistaken ways as needed) I personally liked Foxworth, but it occurred to me that he, like many others in the Shanahan era, seemed more like a player thrown in so that someone would be on the field there, and not chosen so much for their abilities. Under McDaniels, there doesn't seem to be anybody on the roster because we needed that position, rather everyone on the team seems to have been chosen because they bring something that we didn't have without them.

I'm sure I'm drinking the kool-aid, but I just feel like the roster is infinitely more thought out now than in recent years. Can somebody either back me up with a better in depth knowledge than I have (should be a cinch), or categorically refute this? I would be just as pleased with either.

GO BRONCOS!!!!