Exactly... had Bledsoe not been injured, it would have been interesting to see what they did considering he had good success up to that point in his career (although the prior 3 years were less than remarkable). It's not like people were screaming for Brady as a R1/R2 pick to take the field.

Injury forced their hand and it worked... Bledsoe watched them go from 0-2 at the time of his injury to SB champs in the same season.

Who knows... maybe they muddle along for another 2-3 years and then they're all run out of NE. But there was certainly nothing that would have led anyone to claim that Belichic would end up doing what he has done and been there still at this point when he first arrived.
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I'm not saying that Belichick's or NE's stock would be anywhere close to what it is today. All I'm saying is that I think they'd still be considered a fairly good organization. Above average. And I have major doubts that Denver would. Denver has never drafted and developed an above average QB. And IMO, they've never had a truly great coach.

Plus, despite the fact that they ultimately won a few SBs, they could have accomplished a lot more during the Elway era. Your fanbase has talked plenty about the lack of talent around Elway early on, the failures of Reeves, etc. They missed the playoffs with Elway six times.
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Reeves and Shanahan were great coaches. Both had flaws, but both knew how to win.

Yes, Elway's team missed the playoffs six times... one of those times was an 11 win season in 1985. Solid wins, but they missed.

I do think they could have accomplished more in Elway's era for sure, and yes - Reeve's did hold him back. That's why he became so infamous for the comebacks. You can watch interviews from guys on the team at the time and they validate it.

Reeves did things in the draft that were head scratchers too... Tommy Maddox anyone when Carl Pickens was right there?

All you have to do is see what happened when Reeves was fired and Phillips took over. Elway throws for the most TDs and fewest INTs in that 1993 season. And, as they continued to upgrade the team and eventually hire Shanahan... now he has actual weapons and a good gameplan.

Don't get me wrong. The 3 Amigos and those guys were fun, but Ed, Rod, Sharpe and Davis.... they were not.

So, yeah ... totally agree that Elway could have achieved more had Reeves not been the HC.

Denver still had the 5th most wins in the Reeves' era (behind 49ers, WAS, Bears and Dolphins), but they could have been built better to win in the playoffs.
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So...what happened?

Here are Manning's 2014 stats #4 QB in the NFL 39 TD/4700 yards...Horseface asks him to take a 20% paycut.



Then 2015...the year they started testing for HGH. That paycut had some serious crystalball level foresight...39 TDs reduced to 9 TDs in one off-season. 4th best to second worst...quite the immediate fall from grace. It wast the biggest one season QB collapse in NFL history...



Saw this article...

"That’s right, the same guy who has won five NFL MVP awards and thrown more touchdown passes than any other quarterback in league history had his 2015 salary cut by $4 million by the same team he led to an AFC Championship in 2013. At first, most people around the league believed that Manning was restructuring his contract with the Broncos to give the team more salary cap flexibility. In actuality, the team was sending the very clear message that they no longer see Manning as one of the top-five quarterbacks in the league."

Wonder why they "no longer see him as a top 5 QB" when he was just the 4th best...39TD/4700 yards...oh yeah...that HGH testing thing taking effect in the upcoming year.
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But...but...but...IT WAS HIS WIFE'S! :-)

The cheating culture transcends decades.
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Look's like MHM's rare window of truth was quickly shut...uncomfortable facts will do that.

Donk fans avoid the rancid stench of honesty at all costs...
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Ha....wasn't aware of the timeline of all this. Good stuff.
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I agree with most of what you're saying, although I'm not sure why you'd consider Reeves a great coach if he didn't gameplan well and didn't properly utilize his star QB.
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It will be nice when November gets here do we don’t need to see anymore post from you.

:-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Not exactly. I make a comment about the Steelers being the most consistent franchise "if we're being honest" and you want to hijack that and take it down another path. I could humor you and reply to that, but we've done that before.
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Reeves coached two teams to four SBs. His style was not "light up the sky" focused with his QBs, but he knew how to win more often than not in Denver. His NY teams struggled, he leaves and takes ATL to the SB and then putters out.

Maybe 'great' was too strong, but he was definitely much better than average - he was just too damn conservative for my liking.

I'll lose no sleep over how we define Reeves at the end of the day.
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Apparently the word at training camp is that Wilson wants 60 mil/yr guaranteed. :-) :-)
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A million an inch!
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From publicly whining about his OL multiple times to privately demanding that his buddy Schottenheimer is fired and pinning it on Carroll, to "Let's RIDE" to "You gotta be unliiiiiiimited" to showing up to training camp in a tank and wearing his own jersey, to demanding 5 yrs/300 mil guaranteed. Despite being past his prime and underwhelming in camp.

Man, it's nice to have a likeable QB (who also happens to be the best in the business).
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Oh no

https://thespun.com/more/top-stories...ilson-decision

No, I don’t think so,” Hackett said when asked if Wilson will play on Saturday, per ProFootballTalk. “A guy of his caliber that’s been doing it this long. I don’t think it’s as important. You always have to look at it as risk-reward. Of course, you want to go out there and play football all the time. I think that’s why we practice. When you get out there, I’ve had a lot of different experiences throughout my career. The No. 1 most important thing is getting the guys healthy going into the season. That’s all that matters.”

Though Wilson is operating under a new offensive system for the first time in his NFL career, it makes sense that the veteran QB won't be taking the field this weekend — especially given his injury struggles this past season.
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