John Elway should resign from his General Manager position … Immediately

Current state of the Broncos:

This upcoming Sunday (Nov 3rd) the Broncos will trot out the most random Quarterback a NFL fan could think of.

Brandon Allen.

There is a timeline dating back years of John Elway choices that continue to lead to disaster, such as Brandon Allen getting ANY playing time in a Denver Bronco uniform.

Brandon Allen is a four-year pro out of Arkansas that has yet to take a snap in a regular season NFL game.

Allen, spent the entire 2019 training camp with the Los Angeles Rams, running their system and throwing to their wideouts. He was cut by LA and signed by Denver about eight weeks ago and will now start a few games as a Bronco.

The Broncos spent a 2nd-round pick on a now healthy quarterback named Drew Lock.

Brandon Allen starting this week is the culmination of terrible early draft picks, mishandling of contract negotiations, bad free-agent quarterback signings, and overall just a lack of accountability as the President and General Manager of a organization from John Elway.

Rookie quarterback Drew Lock sprained his thumb week three of the pre-season.

Lock was placed on injured reserve making him ineligible to practice or participate in any game action until week eight of the regular season when he first becomes eligible to practice and start his “21-day clock”.

Each team can choose two players to come off the injured reserve list mid-season. News broke Monday morning (October 28th) that Joe Flacco suffered a herniated-disc in his neck and may not play another down for Denver this season.

On Wednesday (October 30th) Tim Patrick was designated to return to practice from IR starting his 21-day clock which allows him to play week eleven at Minnesota.

Drew Lock was not lifted from the injured reserve list at the same time as Tim Patrick which would have started his clock.

Instead, Brandon Allen gets the nod Sunday and going forward. A player that is not in the organizations plans for the future.

Don’t count out early success from Brandon Allen playing quarterback because offensive coordinator Rich Scangerello is likely to keep the game-plan simple with easy reads. Brandon Allen is more athletic than Joe Flacco so you can expect more bootleg play-action passes from Allen pushing the ball downfield.

Allen is strictly a rental that will take valuable experience away from your unknown 2nd-round pick at quarterback in a upcoming draft that features excellent first-round quarterback prospects and a looming top-10 selection from the Broncos.

Drew Brees actually tore ligaments in the same throwing-thumb that Lock sprained and Brees is back starting throwing darts in New Orleans.

Drew Lock is healthy and has been healthy for a couple weeks now.

Lock should be getting ready to practice this week, period. Some Bronco fans use the excuse of not wanting to throw Lock in the fire with a bad offensive line and struggling team. That logic is the reason the Broncos are in this position today.

It’s time to start throwing these young quarterbacks in Denver through the gauntlet to see if they show traits of a quarterback that can sustain and lead you to a Super Bowl in the future.

Whether they are “ready” or not, the Broncos shouldn’t delay the inevitable. If Drew Lock can play, he will show flashes that will leave the fan base satisfied and optimistic for the future. If he can’t play, he will show negative traits as well. The eye test should be the most important aspect in evaluating talent.

Ready or not, the Broncos need to see what Drew Lock can bring to the table. Even if it’s little pieces. Its better than going into the summer with a complete unknown at quarterback with great draft prospects coming in the off-season.

The history of terrible John Elway decisions and why he should go:

With two seasons left on his contract, John Elway should do right by the fans and resign from his general manager position. He is John Elway, his name speaks for itself, he will always have a role in this organization but it shouldn’t remain as the player personnel decision maker.

Elway had early success as a general manager signing pivotal free-agents that led to a couple Super Bowl seasons but majority of that credit should go to Peyton Manning who John Elway managed to sign in free-agency.

John Elway was originally thought to just be team president.

After a couple seasons of learning from former general manager Brian Xanders, Elway was able to fire Xanders because of his original position as team president. Elway basically used Xanders for a couple years learning how to do the job then fired and took his job when Elway felt he was ready. Elway thought he learned enough from Xanders and was ready to be the main decision maker and evaluator of talent.

The Denver Broncos do not currently have a owner.

The organization is being ran by a “trust group”, that Pat Bowlen signed for before he passed in June 2019. That appointed trust group is currently in legal battles with members of the Bowlen family who claim Bowlen was not in a the right state of mind to give control of the team to those people. With these on-going battles there really isn’t anyone in position of power to actually fire John Elway, except for CEO Joe Ellis who I don’t see firing Elway.

John Elway is stubborn in the sense of a competitor that doesn’t know when to quit. Elway would have to resign from his position which I doubt he would ever do being such a competitive man and wanting to prove his doubters wrong.

The perfect time for John Elway to leave was after Super Bowl X when the team was clearly headed in a re-build without the services of Peyton Manning.

John Elway felt he could win another Super Bowl without Peyton Manning and being the competitor he is, Elway was not interested in the idea of a re-build.

Elway went on to make a series of disastrous moves that are still effecting the team to this day.

The moment John Elway acquired Mark Sanchez in 2016 coming off a Super Bowl Championship, should have been the clear sign the team should start the re-build.

Hindsight is 20/20 but that was the perfect time to trade Von Miller.

The Broncos should have been re-building at the time and Von would have gave them max value in the trade market. That was just a year before Khalil Mack was traded away to Chicago for multiple first round picks. By trading Von Miller, guys like Shane Ray and Shaq Barrett who were developed and ready to play at the time could have taken his place and you would have great draft capital to go along with it.

The Broncos still could have selected Bradley Chubb with their high draft pick in 2018 and Shaq Barrett would be your other pass rusher to match Chubb.

Barrett is playing at a defensive player of the year level this season leading the NFL in sacks through 8 weeks with ten.

Barrett left the Broncos organization in 2018 after only signing a one-year deal worth $5-million in Tampa Bay.

Pennies for a player that John Elway and the Broncos developed that is now flourishing in another city.

In 2016, it was impossible to forecast that type of situation but Elway’s stubbornness would have never allowed Von to be traded anyway.

So, Elway went on to draft Paxton Lynch that same season which ended up being one of the biggest quarterback busts in NFL draft history. Then Elway cut T.J. Ward and didn’t want to open the checkbook to sign Malik Jackson who publicly said he would have given Denver a “home town discount” if Elway negotiated during the season. Linebacker Danny Trevathan was mentioned by Jackson as another player the Broncos could have re-signed had Elway negotiated during the season.

Instead, Elway let Jackson and Ward walk and eventually traded Aqib Talib. All these transactions created a void in leadership, toughness and grit to the Denver defense. The linebacker position and defensive tackle position continues to be a hole for Denver’s defense.

John Elway also let defensive coordinator Wade Philips leave and the defense was no longer on the same level as the legendary “no fly zone” from 2015. Elway let to many important pieces to the puzzle go, and replaced them with inexperienced coaches and players.

The thing about Elway that frustrates me the most is his ability to evaluate talent.

Elway thorughout the years, has put together some terrible draft classes of many players that never made it to their 2nd contract in Denver.

Below is a list of 1st and 2nd round draft selections that failed to get second contracts in the John Elway era:

Rahim Moore
Brock Osweiler (Signed back to Denver after going to Houston)
Sylvester Williams
Montee Ball
Bradley Roby
Cody Latimer
Shane Ray
Ty Sambrailo
Paxton Lynch

There’s a list of third round picks that didn’t live up to expectations either in, Nate Irving, Ronnie Hillman, Kayvon Webster, Michael Schofield, Brendan Langley, Carlos Henderson, Adam Gotsis and of course Garret Bolles.

As a hall-of-fame quarterback, you’d think John Elway has a eye for quarterback talent, but Elway values measurables over game film.

John Elway has a comedy of quarterback draft errors as Broncos general manager.

As bad as the quarterback selections have been, let’s focus on his biggest draft bust in particular.

Garret Bolles.

Who is STILL hurting the team on the field during the 2019-20 season. At least Paxton isn’t around to hurt the team on the field anymore.

In the 2017 NFL draft there was only two projected first round lineman. One of these players was ranked high based off athleticism while the other was regarded as a technician.

The two players were Garret Bolles and Ryan Ramczyk.

Ramczyk is one of the best tackles in the NFL and Bolles is undoubtedly the worst starting football player in the NFL, in my opinion. From day one he’s led the NFL in holding penalties and his technique is piss-poor and hasn’t improved from his rookie season.

After interviewing for the head coaching position, Elway managed to sign Mike Munchak to coach the offensive line, choosing Vic Fangio as the head coach over him and even he can’t fix Bolles. With the clout Mike Munchak brings to that offensive line room, its amazing that it seems Bolles is unfixable.

John Elway has struggled to bring in a competent offensive line throughout his entire regime as a general manager and the first round selection of Bolles was his absolute worst pick. After Paxton Lynch, of course.

It would take another 1800 words for me to detail all the mistakes Elway has made and how the team is weak today because of it.