December 5, 2006 1:01 PM
Help for Cutler? Bring No. 7 off the bench
John Elway is the greatest Bronco of all time but has no role with the Broncos, observes Dave Krieger.
His solution: get Elway to tutor young Jay Cutler, who looked bewildered in his debut, a loss to Seattle last week. Krieger conducted some shuttle diplomacy, floating the idea first to Elway, then to Mike Shanahan.
So I asked (Elway) Monday if he thought there might be a role for him mentoring the Broncos' strong-armed rookie quarterback."You know, if I was asked, there's no question I would," he said.
About the same time, Mike Shanahan was getting ready to do his postmortem on the Broncos' third loss in a row, so I made my way down to Dove Valley to see if he agreed.
"I think it would be very valuable for a guy to just sit down with John, not only about football, but just about the position in general," Shanahan said. "John went through everything here in Denver."
Sooooooo, I wondered, would the team take the initiative to make it happen?
"To be honest with you, I was thinking about (doing) that at the end of the season," Shanahan said.
"Just talking to John and saying, 'Hey, you've been through it all and maybe you guys could get together and have a couple beers or dinner and give you a chance to kind of enlighten him a little bit, what's in store.' "
Meanwhile, Jeff Legwold writes the Broncos are in the midst of a severe identity crisis.
The Broncos are 7-5, sporting a three-game losing streak and fighting to stay on the back end of the AFC playoff race because they haven't, of late, been the Broncos.Are they a power running team? Are they a controlled passing team? Are they a team that wants to stretch the field?
Opposing personnel executives say they aren't sure.
They've watched the Broncos throw on third-and-1 because they're not always confident they can move the chains running the ball or run on third-and-5 because they have a rookie quarterback behind center.
December 5, 2006
2:21 PM
David (R) writes:
I would try to enlist John Elway to be a part-time coach/mentor for Jay for the rest of the season, and on into next year if it works well. There is a lot that could be accomplished with such a move. Kudos to Dave Krieger for the idea.
December 5, 2006
3:34 PM
776 days to go writes:
Way to go Krieger!
December 5, 2006
4:23 PM
gr8fuldude writes:
If only we could find a similar program to give W a clue...
December 5, 2006
5:26 PM
David (R) writes:
Dude - sadly, there is nobody on the planet with enough time, energy, patience, or forcing ability to get much of anything into the imbecile's head.
He hires advisors and consultants to tell him what the right thing to do is, and then he ignores them. UN panels, and committees of Iraqi's tell him what they know will work and what they want him to do, and he ignores them too. And more of our valiant servicemen and servicewomen come home in boxes or maimed for life. I say we put W in a uniform and in the middle of a firefight, and maybe he'd see the light.
December 6, 2006
8:31 AM
Anonymous writes:
Elway could not have stopped Cutler from coughing up that ugly fumble/interception. He did it all on his own. Is this Star Wars? "Jay, this is your mentor...fall down and eat the ball, don't try to throw it". Elway will be standing on the side lines selling furniture, steaks and honda's to players. If it works out I can't wait for the future meltdown. Ex football greats all have the same common denominator- ALCOHOL. He'll pull a Joe Nameth given enough time. This is going to be good.
December 6, 2006
9:03 AM
ML writes:
The hell with having Elway tutor Cutler...drag out his old #7 jersey and suit him up! I'm pretty sure he could still outplay Plummer and Cutler!