Denver coach and quarterback in this together
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – It could have been perceived as a negative moment, but Josh McDaniels saw more promise than virus. The Denver Broncos coach watched wideout
blister a path between a safety and cornerback 50 yards downfield, stretching his arms out in the end zone. But the arching spiral from quarterback
was inches too far, dropping to the earth with the thud of a manhole cover.
Royal cursed and punched the football as it bounced back into the air, while teammates let out a chorus of groans. But standing back at the line of scrimmage, McDaniels saw something more.
McDaniels, left, and Orton during minicamp last month.
(David Zalubowski/AP Photo)
"Kyle's arm," the coach would later pointedly say, "was strong enough to overthrow Eddie Royal today."
The statement was a small peek into a marriage – two men joined at the hip, where the natural inclination is to believe that the failure of one could end up dooming the other. Forget the war chest of draft picks the Broncos gained for
And ignore that Orton is in the final year of his contract. Those are merely smaller points in the inescapable reality of comparison in the NFL – a reality this franchise can no more escape than the surrounding mountaintops can duck beneath the clouds. Seeking Orton in a deal for Cutler will tie the two players together forever, and more importantly, tie McDaniels to a pair of starting quarterbacks who will be painstakingly measured against each other next season.
This scenario is why position-for-position trades are so rare. The two players become inevitably tied together, and success and failure of a deal becomes much more measurable. It's begging for long-term comparison, which is why fans in New York and San Diego will forever debate
and
And yet, additional draft picks or not, McDaniels has unequivocally tied himself to Orton in 2009 and perhaps beyond. He did so first by taking him over packages that would have produced either the Washington Redskins'
or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers'
and then again on draft day, when he eschewed moving boldly in pursuit of USC's
or modestly for Kansas State's
Once Cutler was put on the trading block, the month of April became a period of singular choice rather than consequence. Kyle Orton? For better or worse, he's McDaniels' gamble.
So when told of critics inside the Bears franchise who lacked faith in Orton's arm strength, McDaniels simply protested and offered Sunday's snapshot, when his fastest wideout couldn't catch up to Orton's deep ball.
"The distance you throw the ball down the field, to me at times it can be very overrated," he said. "I'm worried about accuracy. I'm concerned with them reading the plays the right way, getting it to the people that need to have it on time. For the amount of times you throw the ball 60 yards in a season, I think that's significantly overrated, unless you're a team that's going to throw 10 of those passes a game, which we're not."
McDaniels doesn't say this in a cocky or naïve fashion – two labels that were tattooed on his forehead by some media during the Cutler fallout. Instead, he says it with a few core beliefs when it comes to Orton.
First, in four years in the league, Orton has been given the chance for realistic progress only twice: first as a rookie in 2005, and then again last season as Chicago's primary starter. And both times, areas of his game became appreciably better. Second, Orton is still young (26), and McDaniels sees room for every area of his game to grow – be it mechanics, decision-making, defensive recognition and so on.
"We think we can make him better," McDaniels says. "We think we can make him a really competitive, solid quarterback in our system. I'm never going to think otherwise. Everything can get better. He can improve in every area. If [a quarterback] ever stops believing he can get better at something, then he's lost an edge."
He says this with supreme confidence. He never lacks for that. It's a byproduct of being the son of legendary Ohio high school coach Thom McDaniels, and then shimmying up the coaching ladder during his 20s under the tutelage of Nick Saban and Bill Belichick.
He has stolen volumes of knowledge from all of them. Preparation and detail from his father, like knowing that when a player watches film, he should be just as concerned with everything going on in the picture as he is with the activity surrounding himself. Relentless work ethic from Saban, who expected almost scientific precision in practice and games. And the ability to mold and tie together all aspects of coaching, motivation and leadership from Belichick.
McDaniels will likely need it all this season, considering the autopsy the Broncos are about to undergo. Beyond Orton, the team will have a new starting running back in rookie
and wholesale changes on defense, which is being revamped both in the talent base and with a new 3-4 scheme. Indeed, the new regime has wasted little time remaking the roster. With 10 draft picks and 14 new veterans signed in free agency, it's likely that no team in the NFL will have more new faces on the opening day 53-man roster.
All of which fuels a specific expectation: that McDaniels can succeed where other Patriots assistants, such as Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini, have failed, and transplant the New England model into another NFL team.
"I don't think that's unrealistic that Josh can bring it here," says Broncos running back
who spent 2008 with the Patriots. "… No team is more feared or respected than the Patriots. That comes from winning, but I think first and foremost it comes from players buying into the system and then us going out there and doing our jobs. The bottom line, this system is proven. It's up to the players to go and make it happen. You look at New England the last couple years, they had a tremendous amount of injuries and never lost a step. That's the mentality of that organization, and I think that's what Josh is bringing here."
McDaniels spent eight years with Belichick, left, and the Pats.
(Stephen Savoia/AP Photo)
Certainly, there are elements that are clear to see. He's extremely detail oriented, to the point where he involves himself in specific teaching. He spent Sunday showing wideouts how and where he expected them to come out of their breaks, working with running backs on their positioning coming out of the backfield, and kept a constant dialogue with his quarterbacks. Meanwhile, he delegated authority, often leaving defensive coordinator Mike Nolan – and his wealth of coaching experience – to drill and manage without someone looking over his shoulder.
"He kind of reminds me of coach [Tony] Dungy that way," said Broncos defensive end
who played with the Indianapolis Colts last season. "He checks in, but he lets his coaches do their job."
And while that transition to the 3-4 and Nolan's ability to expedite it will be pivotal, there are few illusions about where the microscope will be pointed. It will be hard for the defense to be any worse than it was last season, a point punctuated by the fact that six defensive starters from 2008 – Dre Bly,
and
– are still dangling in free agency. But the offense? It returns at full strength and has added a first-round running back. The only thing that appears to be drastically different is the quarterback.
In essence, that will be where '09 begins and ends. The outside world will be waiting and watching to see whether McDaniels can spin more gold at a position where he helped bring along
and
– and whether Orton can assuage the dealing of a 26-year old Pro Bowler who passed for more than 4,500 yards last season. But it's worth noting that Orton is taking control of something he never had in Chicago – a loaded unit with a two playmaking wideouts, a franchise running back, a marquee tight end and a young and talented offensive line. Whether he can fill Cutler's shoes, it won't be for a lack of Cutler's former arsenal.
"I personally don't think I'm tied to Jay," Orton says. "I'm my own player. I feel like I've done a lot of great things in the first four years of my career. And now this is a new beginning for me. I look at the situation, and I think I'm going to do even better things for the next five or six years."
Whether Orton subscribes to it, that measuring stick has been set in place. And the success or failure of both he and McDaniels will undoubtedly be tested against it.
