The letter below was sent via e-mail by Pat Bowlen to current season ticket holders and mere wannabes (like myself).  Thought others might be interested.

Dear Broncos Fan,

I am writing this letter today because I feel compelled to give our community and our fans an explanation regarding the Jay Cutler situation.

One of my directives to Josh McDaniels upon his hiring was that he consider everything possible to return the Broncos to the level which you and I both expect, and this certainly includes making a fair evaluation of every opportunity presented to us which might improve the team.  He and General Manager Brian Xanders have had my complete support throughout, and they have it now.  It is important that you know that at all times we represented ourselves to Jay with honesty and integrity.

I assure you both Josh and I made repeated attempts to reach out to Jay, and I can not speak for him as to why he chose to limit his response.  Ultimately, given his unwillingness to speak with either of us directly in the last 12 days- at the same time his agent clearly stating to us Jay's intentions- it became very apparent to me personally that he no longer wanted to play for the Denver Broncos.  As such, we elected to trade him.

Understand this:  it remains about team.  Our franchise has gone to the Super Bowl six times, with three different coaches and with many different players.  It has never been about one player, and it never will be.  Coach McDaniels shares this vision, and everyone in the organization—players, coaches and staff—must understand and accept this unconditionally.  If anyone does not, that person will not be a part of this franchise.

I am extremely proud of our franchise, its accomplishments, and the region and fans that we represent.  We have an illustrious history, one which we are all anxious to add to, and if someone does not wish to be with us as we head in this direction, then we will move on, and move forward.

Over 96% of our season ticket holders have chosen to renew their tickets for the 2009 season.  This is once again a compelling statement of support and trust by the greatest fans in the NFL, and I assure you my only goal is and always will be to compete at the highest championship level.

The Denver Broncos will move forward in 2009 as one team, united with the most loyal and passionate fan base in football, towards the only goal we will ever pursue.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your understanding and continued support.

Sincerely,

Pat Bowlen

In 1996, the Denver Broncos were the 2nd ranked defense in the league (as rated by Football Outsider’s DVOA measure), while the previous year they were 28th. Many members of this board have hoped for a similar defensive turnaround for the 2009 Broncos. On the other hand, the relevance of this example in the current NFL environment has also been drawn into question. Thus, I thought it would be interesting to look at some other teams that have managed to turn around bad defenses.  I’m hoping to do a series of case studies presented as an ongoing feature during the off-season (hopefully with some help from these teams bloggers) with the intention of identifing some common themes from other successful defensive rebuilds.

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