Fractured Relationships

On the eve of Free Agency I thought this would be an interesting topic to looking into and some of the scenarios that may or are playing out right now. This of course has to do with Manning Madness and Tebow Time.

I don't know why I have too or why anyone should but I need to state my 'position of fandom' for this team for people to not get the right biased from what I am saying. I am neither a Tebow Fan or a Manning Fan but a Broncos fan. This site is the very proof of this. It was here before them and will be here long after they are gone. But as a Broncos fan I am allowed to criticize and be annoyed by the moves my followed organization choose to make.

I know I am not the only one that is annoyed or irritated by what is progressing at the moment. I haven't seen Princess in a while and it wouldn't surprise me if this is eating away at her soul a little bit.

But lets look at the scenarios and see how and what may play out in the long run.

Get Manning, Keep Tebow

The first one and the only scenario I would be happy with if the signing of Manning is done. We get Manning and keep Tebow to back him up and learn as much as possible from Manning. This happens to be surprisingly doable. Tebow's contract is relatively small this year and if he rides the bench his incentives don't kick in. Plus Manning who probably only has 1 or 2 years left in him before he retires could show Tebow the ropes and Tebow can take over from him afterwards. There are a number of problems with this scenario. First Manning has never really been the 'Mentoring' type and I don't see that changing. Two, Tebow probably won't be too happy about riding the bench for another few years. He believes he has proven himself that he deserves the chance to start and I can't disagree with that. I don't see this playing out to nicely in much the same why as Orton and Tebow did. Plus if Manning starts losing games all hell will break loose.

Get Manning, Trade Tebow

Scenario number two, happens to be the 'short sighted' approach. Sign Manning and trade away Tebow for extra picks. This is close to the worst possible outcome we can have from this situation. We have Manning for 1 or 2 years and maybe, and a huge maybe, win a SuperBowl. Then we are back to square one in trying to replace Manning with a 'Franchise' quarterback which of course are harder to find then a ladies' G spot. We may end up with a hollow Superbowl victory in all this but we would have traded away a potential long term starting Quarterback.

No Manning, Keep Tebow

This one I like a lot but doesn't seem likely. I believe Manning came to Denver because Elway is a huge draw card plus he probably likes some of what he sees here. But he doesn't like the stadium or the weather and if he was a smart man he would hate to have to contain/live with the Tebowmania. Manning for the love of all things Orange and Blue should go somewhere else and I believe he will. But then the problem becomes Tebow. This is where some of that 'Fractured Relationship' stuff comes into play. What does Tebow think about all this? All the backwards comments and the lies? EFX have been caught flirting with the long necked super model. The question is how does Tebow react? Knowing him he will probably come out saying something like 'Manning is one of the greats, I understand the situation, I want to do the best for the Broncos blah blahied blah.' We all know though he will be pissed on the inside. Can EFX and Tebow ever build bridges from this, can they ever get over this? I don't know. Maybe Tebow got a heads up from EFX about what they were planning on doing and he is ok with it? Again I don't know.

No Manning and Trade Tebow

Finally number four and it is the worst case scenario. We don't sign Manning and Tebow wants out understandably. Leaving us with Brady Quinn or maybe Chad Henne. *Hmph* I just puked a bit in my mouth. That would be a disastrous prospect. The problem is I see this scenario coming to fruition. We may end up with someone like Weeden at 25# to lead the team.

Now you probably have some questions and comments about now but here are some observes and hopefully answers to your questions.

First what happened to he 'EARNED' the starting QB spot going into training camp. Does nothing you say have any meaning? Or is Manning going to come in and provide competition for Tebow? Bullshit, if Manning comes in there is no way Tebow is starting plain and simple. For this reason all that he 'earned it' and 'we believe in Timmy' cr*p was all lies. The treatment of Tebow in this situation has been appalling, don't tell us half truths and lies tells us what you really think.

Another issue I have with Manning is he probably gets injured again. This is also the reason why Manning won't last past two years in our division. He may want to play for more years but I doubt he lasts that long in our division. It is not that our opponents are overly difficult in beating it is that all the teams in our division dislike each other. Games within the division are very high emotion and physical plus you can expect a number of cheap shots to come his way. Just look at that neck, it is a foot long, it will be injured again.

I will forever hate the trade of Tebow if it happens. It shows a willingness to give up on young undeveloped talent before it is ready. If Tebow would go on to win Superbowls with another team a part of all Broncos fans will die inside.

I don't want us to sign all Manning's friends. They were good once and like Manning are on the down side of their careers. I don't want to have to release young talent for one of Manning's aging veteran friends. I don't want to become like the Panthers of the last few years. Plus I would hate for us to be the Coltcos, signing all these players from different teams. It doesn't show commit or development to any of our younger players and seems like the easy way out. What happened to 'We will build through the draft', haven't we learned anything? Big time, expensive Free Agents usually don't work out or play to there previous levels. Just look at the Eagles from last year, it is about creating a team dynamic and culture. I can see us having a fractured locker room of the old Broncos and the new Coltcos.

Something that would annoy me to all end would be the hate we would receive if we won the Superbowl. 'You didn't earn or deserve the Superbowl and the reason we only won the Superbowl was because of a Colt not a Bronco', that would destroy the legitimize of any Superbowl we would win with Manning. 'But who cares, we won a Superbowl', well I do. The reason why 97 and 98 Superbowls were so great was not because the Broncos just won. But the home grown talent we built and used to get to the Superbowl. I would be happy and sad all at the one time if we won a Superbowl with Manning, it is hard to explain those torn emotions.

Find me a 35 year old quarterback that had recently changed teams that has won a Superbowl? Rich Gannon went close, he was 37 when the Raiders went to the Superbowl. But he had been with them 5 years before that. If you have looked you will be able to agree with me, there has never been one. Not Brett Favre, Kurt Warner or Joe Montanna. No one.

One point that I will make that I really, really, really would hate is if the Broncos 'unretire' the number 18 jersey for Manning. That opens a huge can of worms. Fifty years from now some hot shot kid will want number 7 and the Broncos will unretire it for him. That would be a travesty. The Broncos should not set that prescient.

The real question that is dividing fans is Short term versus Long term goal. I can agree with both, some fans have been around a long time and they are tired or fed up with the losing, they want to win Superbowls and now. Throw Bowlen into that lot, he wants to be able to remember the next Superbowl victory the Broncos have. Then there is those that see the big picture and the long term legitimize of this franchise, they know that short term expensive Free Agents usually don't work or live up to expectations as generally those expectations are so high. They want to continuously build through the draft and be in the hurt come playoff time. This is where my mind set is at, the risk is high, too high for my liking. Personally I have wondered what a solid armed quarterback would do for our team, a guy like Andre Luck. But I want to develop what we have and continue to build this team. I want this team to be like the NY Giants, never expected to be great but always on the cusp of greatness.

I don't think a 35 year old Quarterback is what this franchise needs right now and this move could set this franchise back for the next decade to come. EFX I hope you know what your doing. ~ Aussie