I'm not an X's & O's sort of guy, but I have a pretty solid understanding of general strategies and approaches on both sides of the ball.

I've been in the Von Miller camp since January, because of what I see as his overall versatility. He's lined up at DE, and LB, he clearly can rush the QB, he's a ballhawk against the run, and though he didn't provide this at A&M, he seems to have the skill set to cover TE's & RB's out of the backfield.

So, my question is: wouldn't this versatility allow Denver to tease between the 4-3 and 3-4?

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I want to call the instigator of this fracas -- Pat Bowlen -- to the witness stand.

I want some questions answered. Mr. Bowlen can make news by shockingly firing Mike Shanahan, and by firing McDaniels not halfway through his contract. He can tinker with this franchise like it's a toy, but are we all just supposed to watch the pieces fly and fall and then start fanposts to speculate what's going to happen next? Do we just assume that the man pulling the strings behind the curtain should never be questioned? This dude is not god, and in fact, you can tell he's not a god because he's been pretty flimsy in his actions over the past 8 days. We may just have deeper problems than a head coach, a quarterback, or the lack of pressure to the QB. We may be stuck with a panicky fluff head for an owner.

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I've been in the camp that Orton can be our long term QB, but this game provided the last bit of evidence I need to tease out who he is, and what he's capable of.

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I recognize that all is not flowers and sunshine after a win like this, but some of the posts, comments, and articles here are not being fair (MHR posters) or responsible (Woody Paige). Some of the discussion and points made are just not recognizing the broad picture, or what I believe it reality.

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As a preface, I study organizational communication, which in short is the study of how an organization is defined, what makes it successful or not, and how it manages membership through time via communication.

 

The Brandon Marshall situation is interesting to me particularly because of the “grey” issue of injuries in the NFL right now. On one side, the culture of the NFL strongly encourages – even requires – players to perform while injured. On the other side, recently it’s become increasingly evident that the cost of this cultural attitude is astoundingly heavy: many players’ lives after the NFL are seriously handicapped. Hence, players are starting to “wake up” to the realization that they can’t trust the NFL to fend for their own well-being; they must do this themselves.

But this clash runs so deep that it’s inherent in the game itself, and probably won’t be solved anytime soon. What I see in the Brandon Marshall situation is a prime example of this conflict playing out. My aim is to explain with some depth the validity of each side of the debate, starting with the NFL culture of sacrifice, exemplified by Josh McDaniels’ apparent stance, followed by Marshall’s reaction against this culture.

From the moment he became coach, McDaniels has preached the need for a team-first attitude, and accountability to the team. From an organizational standpoint, he’s spot on. In organizational communication, we share in use of a concept with other disciplines called “organizational identification.” To the degree that a person sees him or herself in terms of, or in context to, the organization, we say that they are “identified” with that organization. Some players, like Rod Smith, demonstrate an attitude of “I am a Denver Bronco. My ultimate goal is for this team to succeed, and all of my efforts are towards this end.” These players are strongly identified, to the extent that their personal sense of identity is intertwined with the Denver Broncos. They tend to feel a sense of responsibility to the organization, and they feel a sense of ownership of the team’s success or failure.

Ultimately, successful teams have a high number of these types of players (or “members”). This is true for any type of organization. I teach college-level courses, and I can tell you that the best classes are those in which the students feel a sense of belonging, and take ownership of the discussions and learning within the class. In short, they align their sense of purpose in the class to those overarching goals and purposes of the class itself. They are “ideal” students. Josh McDaniels – and other successful NFL coaches – understand this about football teams. He wants players who fully devote and focus their energy, time, and their sense of identity towards success of the team. Teams who collectively build this type of identification and shared purpose will tap into motivations within themselves that extend beyond ordinary effort in the NFL, and this leads to winning games and championships. In this day and age when talent and ability are so plentiful in the NFL, it is the teams who develop a sense of internal purpose and motivation that are inspired to give the extraordinary effort that wins individual games. McDaniels understands this, and has clearly sought to build this type of team.

Brandon Marshall is throwing a wrench into McDaniel’s efforts. Typically, the obstacles to building this type of team are “me-first” players who care more about personal stats, league-wide recognition, or how big their paychecks are. To some degree, Marshall does worry about stats and paydays, but these concerns seem to result from the greater concern over his health and well-being. With the incident last year regarding his hip, Marshall grew to distrust team physicians. He was encouraged to play through a hip injury, and was told by team physicians that he couldn’t hurt the hip anymore than it was already hurt. However, later he consulted with outside doctors, who told him that he needed offseason surgery, and that he did indeed hurt the hip more by playing. In this case, Brandon Marshall had complied with the team-first demands, sacrificing himself for the benefit of the team, but was burned for it. He realized the team wasn’t looking out for him. Combine this experience with the ongoing accumulation of stories and examples of ex-NFL players who suffer chronic pain and/or physical & mental debilitation, and it’s easy to see how such distrust of the team would grow. I personally can’t blame current NFL players who recognize 1) the very short-spanned earning potential of an NFL career; 2) the serious health-risks of that career; and 3) the horrible track-record of the NFL taking care of its players after their career is over.

The NFL will indeed use your physical talents and abilities until they’re gone. Then they’ll send you on your way with little concern for your quality of life after your playing days are done. Players who wise up to this process realize that they must make as much money as possible in a short time, and they need to hope for the big payday of free agency. In short, they need to make enough money to secure a quality life for after their career, when they work for relative peanuts, and they need to make sure they can pay the medical bills that are likely to pile up. In order to qualify for the big payday in free agency, they need the stats and league-wide recognition. Brandon Marshall seems to be a player who recognizes these needs, and is handling his career in accordance to them.

However, the conflict should be clear by now. Winning in the NFL requires a sacrifice from players, to identify whole-heartedly with a team and a culture that won’t return the favor. The successful teams in the NFL tend to comprised of players who turn their back on their personal health and well-being, because they identify strongest with the team. And yet, if those players look realistically at what this will give them, they recognize they may be digging themselves a hole for life after the NFL, and they can see why some former players are speaking out, saying they wish they’d never played.

It’s a flawed system, and it’s flawed because of the physical and violent nature of the game. Josh McDaniels, as an NFL coach, is preaching exactly as he should preach. Brandon Marshall is thinking responsibly as an NFL player in a precarious situation. I can’t blame either.

Overall, this inherent conflict in the game itself has just led me personally to take a step back as a fan of the NFL. That is, my own personal identification to the Denver Broncos has suffered, and I’m not so strongly invested in, and attached to, the wins or losses of the Broncos.

Brandon Marshall’s mock “interview” yesterday inspired a broad response on MHR: (See http://www.milehighreport.com/2009/9/17/1035131/brandon-marshall-meets-with-the or http://www.milehighreport.com/2009/9/17/1035678/think-about-brandon-for-a-second)

Some saw it as more childish antics from Marshall, while others saw it as an appropriate response to the untrustworthy and manipulative media. Some pointed out that Marshall must have just been doing what he was told by McDaniels and the Broncos’ PR department – an approach to the media apparently adopted directly from Mr. Personality himself, Bill Belichick.

Well, the ensuing discussion got me thinking about the relationship of a team to its fans, and the role of the media as a liaison for that relationship. How many of us are content to simply watch the games to get our Broncos fill? Is that all we have a right to expect from the Broncos organization?

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The story seems to be that a bunch of 1) Stat nerds who are also 2) NFL fans got together with the purpose of using stats to analyze the NFL teams and arrive at the almighty Accurate Prediction.

Their system: DVOA, which stands for Defense-adjusted Value Over Average. The basic idea (I'm not an expert) is apparently that they collect up all of the play-by-play reports of each and every NFL game, and contrast how each team did in particular situations versus how the rest of the league did in that situation. For instance, they count how many 3rd and 8 situations occurred in the league over the course of the season.... thus far, all of one week... and rank the teams according to how many yards they got... ie, how successful the play was overall. At this point, it gets heavily stat nerdy, and I don't go under the hood for that kind of work.

Eventually, they also compute overall strength of the team defenses and take that into account also.

The end product is a DVOA number, which allows the teams to be ranked, and overall strength of the team can be assessed, especially in comparison to the team they play for the week.

After week 1, the Broncos are ranked 16th overall, with offense 21st, and defense 11th. Defense strength is not taken into account thus far, due to lack of data. But the offense's ranking is a bit of a surprise, because they're apparently better than 10 other offenses after that lackluster performance.

The overall rank would suggest that, if the trend established in week one continues, we'll end up around 8-8.

The Browns, by the way, rank 26th overall.

I'm not sure what to think of DVOA rankings, since I've only vaguely been aware (and barely understood) them.

Anyone else have an opinion about them?

link:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/dvoa-ratings/2009/week-1-dvoa-ratings

"Somethin's happenin' here....what it is ain't exactly clear..."

So a few people have brought up the argument that Orton should improve in this offense in the same way that Cassel did last year for NE, given the similarities in the offensive systems.

I personally am not sold on this analogy, mostly because it over-simplifies things and ignores a lot of other factors that influence a QB's performance (quality of o-line, talent in skill positions, overall experience of the offense in the system, quality of opponents, strength of the team's defense, etc.)

But maybe there'll be a trend here, and plus I was just plain curious about Cassel's progress last year, so I looked up his performance throughout 2008. But first, allow me to respectfully pause for THE JUMP....

 

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I've read comments in a couple of different places saying that Orton's pass to BMarsh was horrible & probably should have been picked off. I.e., the comments on the following link:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/sportsnation/ratings

My perception during the play live was that it was a good pass that may have been completed -- the CB made a nice play stretching out, to get a hand on it. BMarsh had three defenders around him, but it looked like the ball was going to get there first, and it had some zip on it. It was also near the sideline and Brandon may have been hit out of bounds, had he caught it. Overall, I was hopeful for a completion, then disaapointed.... then astounded and elated at the same time.

Anyway, I'm curious what others thought of Orton's pass?

At first, when I read Marshall's agent claim that Bowlen would do "everything in his power" to trade him, I thought it was pure rhetoric. Why would Bowlen succumb to Marshall's demand so easily? I assumed that Kennard McGuire was posturing for the media to put pressure on the Broncos to "keep their word."

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In his <A href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/reillygofish">Go Fish column</A> for ESPN The Mag, Reilly calls McD "boy blunder" and has a prediction for the Broncos this year: 4-12. He points out, that would make the Alphonso Smith trade cost us a "very high" pick.

This is the same Rick Reilly that used to write for SI, and wrote the Elway tribute after he retired.

That'll be a lot of humble pie to eat if he's wrong... I hope.

CNN/SI's Don Banks' latest mock draft has LB Aaron Curry falling to no. 8 -- the Jags pick. This might add some weight to the idea that the top of the draft may be offense heavy. Banks also has B.J. Raji going 9th, to GB. Anyway, some have suggested that McD could move up to no. 8 to land Sanchez. However, after reading some of the posts about Orton, I'm convinced that won't happen. Yet, if Curry falls to that slot... well, that's another question. I'm among those who remain suspicious about Raji's work ethic/motivation. Curry is widely thought to be among the three top overall players in the draft. I haven't personally researched Curry much. Would he fit into a 3-4? Would it be wise to trade up to the Jags' spot to nab Curry if he does in fact fall that far? Note that even Banks suggests that the Jags aren't LB-needy. That scenario is exciting to me. Any insights on whether Curry would be worth trading up for?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/danpatrick/?eref=fromSI

This is a must-listen!

Basic run-down:

Cutler has wanted out of Denver since Jeremy Bates departed, and has used the Cassel trade talks as a reason for justifying his desire.

McDaniel, while being perhaps naive and not handling this in a people-savvy way, still is somewhat of a victim here, along for the ride. He has adamently said he was never pursuing Cassel -- and at this point, he just wants the opportunity to talk to Cutler, to tell him that he (McD) wants him as the Broncos QB.

Peter King is probably the one NFL journalist I trust the most. I think his read on this situation is as accurate as we're gonna get.

Amazing....