ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As Mike McCoy prepares to begin his second stint with the Denver Broncos as offensive coordinator, he finds himself in the early stages of a rather large reconstruction.
McCoy will avoid specifics in public and call what comes next “the Denver Broncos offense” or “our offense,” but his vision of the playbook will be flexible. It’s also not what most of the Broncos players might be used to.
“We are as a staff going to change some things,” McCoy said. “I’ve laid the playbook out with the one I’m bringing with me, but then there is going to be some things that different coaches have called differently. There is going to be flexibility. We’re going to give the players some flexibility also.”
Ultimately, McCoy wants the Broncos to be able to adapt week to week and opponent to opponent. That’s a common goal in any offensive huddle, but the Broncos had a pile of issues in 2016 that need attention if the team is going to return to the postseason with a defense that figures to still be among the league’s best.
Last week in Houston, during the buildup to Super Bowl LI, former Broncos coach Gary Kubiak called the offense’s stagnation his “biggest disappointment.” The failings — the Broncos finished 27th in yards per game, 22nd in scoring and 27th in rushing — combined to derail what the team’s players believed before the season was a Super Bowl contender.
“My first call was to Mike McCoy,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. “Mike, obviously being an ex-head coach, that was important. Being a successful coordinator in the past, that was more important. I wanted a guy who could build a system toward his players, and Mike was that guy. … That was a big hire for us. Mike was a guy that was being chased by four or five different teams, so we’re happy about having Mike.”
McCoy said this week the work has started, but he isn’t ready to say what the playbook will look like. Broncos coaches have met daily since the new staff gathered for the first time Jan. 30, and the group will continue to meet until they attend the scouting combine in Indianapolis at the end of the month.
The coaches have spent mornings on the construction of the playbook and afternoons in personnel evaluation. One thing is already clear: When players arrive in April for the offseason program, including quarterbacks Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch, they had better be prepared for homework.
“I will say this. … We’re going to install our system and go from there,” McCoy said. “There is going to be a lot of changes. They are going to have to leave this building when they get here in the offseason program and take their work home. That’s not just the two quarterbacks, but it is everybody. I think for every player it is going to be a challenge for them coming into a new system.”
McCoy has also said he’ll adapt to the Broncos players, especially the quarterbacks, after he sees them work on the field and talks things over in the meeting room. There is plenty of evidence showing McCoy’s adaptive nature as a playcaller. He worked with Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning in his previous stint with the Broncos from 2009 to 2012.
In those years, the Broncos ran offenses as varied as a version of the Patriots’ scheme with Tom Brady, to an option-based look with Tebow, to the no-huddle work of Manning.
“We have put things in place for players to succeed, for us to score points and for us to win games,” McCoy said. “But it’s going to be some work to get where we all want to go.”
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — On Wednesday, we took a closer look at some of the possibilities the San Francisco 49ers will have to consider as they seek both short- and long-term solutions at quarterback.
What’s missing from that discussion (and still is, really) is what exactly new coach Kyle Shanahan wants in his franchise signal-caller. Shanahan will turn his attention to evaluating quarterbacks, especially the college kind, here soon enough. But in the meantime, new general manager John Lynch joined KNBR radio this week and offered some insight into how the process will work.
Lynch made it clear he knows how important getting the right quarterback is for the team’s rebuilding efforts.
“That’s a big question,” Lynch said. “When I played, I had to play against those guys, and so I don’t know if I ever, in my mind I think I knew but I couldn’t really admit it to myself because it would only be surrender. Because when you go against a great one, you’re helpless. So I’ll tell you, that changed when I went up in the broadcast booth and you start just seeing the effect these guys have on football teams.
“I think there was a stat that I saw recently, where on the AFC side, 14 of the last 16 Super Bowls have been [Tom] Brady, [Peyton] Manning, then Ben Roethlisberger had a couple in there. And so that just speaks to how important that position is.”
The importance of quarterback productivity isn’t lost on the 49ers or their fans. Over the past three seasons, Niners quarterbacks have combined to rank 31st in the NFL in passing yards per game, 24th in completion percentage and passer rating, 26th in yards per attempt (6.45) and 23rd in QBR. The presence of Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert has offset that to some degree because of their running ability, but the fact remains that the Niners have consistently had one of the least dynamic passing attacks in the league.
In hiring Shanahan, the Niners undoubtedly hope that is about to change. Shanahan has spent nine years as an NFL offensive coordinator, with stops in Houston, Cleveland, Washington and Atlanta. In six of those nine seasons, Shanahan has called plays for an offense that finished in the top nine in the league in yards per game.
Shanahan’s finest work came this season when Atlanta led the league in points scored (540) and yards per play (6.7) and was second in yards per game (415.8). That performance earned Shanahan the Assistant Coach of the Year award, and quarterback Matt Ryan claimed MVP honors.
Ryan isn’t the only quarterback Shanahan has had success with, either. He’s helped journeymen like Brian Hoyer as well as high draft picks like Robert Griffin III have their best NFL seasons.
The key now is for Shanahan and Lynch to get on the same page so the personnel department knows what the coach is looking for when evaluating the position.
“The answer for us is that Kyle and I are going to get together, and we’ve already discussed it, but we’re going to get together and find out exactly what he’s looking for in a quarterback,” Lynch told KNBR. “And then we’re going to evaluate the guys we have, we’re going to evaluate the draft, and we’re going to look hard at free agency, trades, whatever we need to do to get a guy. And it may not be this year. It may be that we draft and develop. We’re looking at every scenario, but we’re both big believers, and I don’t think this is anything revolutionary. Everyone knows how important that position is, but we certainly place a huge emphasis on it and we’re going to work hard to get that right.”
Of utmost importance is a quarterback with the mental acumen to handle Shanahan’s offense. It’s a complicated scheme that could easily overwhelm a quarterback without the wherewithal to comprehend it.
“You get in Kyle Shanahan’s system and you’ve got 15-word plays,” Lynch said. “And the coach is in your ear but you still have to replicate that with confidence and authority. And so it’s a big challenge for this entire league. I think it extends deeper than just the quarterback position, but at that position in particular, that’s a challenge.”
Which is why it’s very likely that even if the 49ers select a quarterback early in the NFL draft, they’ll bring in a veteran who can help him along and even provide a buffer before he’d have to play. Lynch even floated the idea that the Niners’ search for a franchise quarterback could last beyond this offseason.
“It’s just the reality — these [college] guys are playing a different style of football,” Lynch said. “I don’t think it’s great for the game, but it’s the reality, because it’s all over college and high school football. So that’s going to be a challenge moving forward.”
FRISCO, Texas — Before Super Bowl LI, ESPN Insider Adam Schefter reported that Tony Romo wants to play in 2017, pushing off retirement and potential lucrative offers from television networks.
While we can mention a host of potential suitors for Romo, let’s first eliminate the Dallas Cowboys. It’s not happening. The Cowboys made it clear they were rolling with Dak Prescott and the rookie responded with a 13-3 record, 23 touchdown passes and the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
Last week, owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked by NFL Nation reporter Paul Kuharsky, who covers the Tennessee Titans and co-hosts a radio show in Nashville, how he could convince Romo to stay in Dallas.
“That’s a tough one,” Jones said. “But one thing’s for sure, going into that playoff game, I really thought that we had the best quarterback personnel even with all the due respect to [Aaron] Rodgers. We had two quarterbacks that were capable, in my mind, of playing at a level that could get us to the Super Bowl in case you had an injury or just your depth at that position. And I felt that we had from about the sixth game on last year, seventh game, thought we had a superior position at quarterback because if Dak got nicked up. We knew he had a hot hand; we knew the team was really motivated around him and he played to the strengths of our team, but we also knew we had Romo and, boy, was he executing well at practice. He could just do about anything he wanted to against our defense.
“So we knew we were in good shape with Dak or with Tony, and so I can still remember the comfort in that position and there’s something to trying to stay there.”
The salary cap says otherwise. Romo is set to count $24.7 million against the cap. Romo’s desire to continue to play is another reason it won’t work. There can’t be an open competition for the starting quarterback job. That wouldn’t be fair to Prescott or Romo. And you don’t pay a $14 million base salary to a backup quarterback. Oh, and Romo won’t take a pay cut. Remember, he wants to play.
The best solution is a clean break with a release or a trade.
But there was a way the Cowboys could have kept both players in 2017 and it goes back to Prescott’s hot hand in an 11-game winning streak.
Had the Cowboys gone back to Romo once he was healthy from the compression fracture in his back and Romo performed the way the Cowboys thought he would entering 2016, then they would have been set for the present and the future.
We can’t extrapolate Romo’s seven snaps against the Philadelphia Eagles that ended with a touchdown pass and say he would have been dominant, but let’s say he performed the way he did in 2014 when the Cowboys went 12-4. Let’s say the Cowboys continued to win, clinched the NFC East and maybe even home-field advantage and made the playoffs. Let’s say the Cowboys won a playoff game or two.
Had all of that happened, the Cowboys gladly would have continued with Romo’s $24.7 million cap figure and $14 million base salary, all the while knowing Prescott would be ready if Romo was hurt in 2017.
Heck, if Romo was hurt upon his return in 2016, they knew they had Prescott in reserve. And if Romo hadn’t performed at a high level, then a decision on his future wouldn’t be so difficult.
But now Jones is facing a tough personal decision, because of his fondness for Romo.
He had his chance to have Romo for the present and Prescott for the future.
Now he will have to see Romo in another uniform and remember what Jones said on 105.3 The Fan after the Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round:
“I really believe that Tony Romo will play in a Super Bowl,” Jones said. “Now try that one on. I know that if he’s healthy enough, he’ll be in a Super Bowl. I strongly believe that.”
It just won’t be for the Cowboys.