What Josh McDaniels Was Thinking

When Mike Shanahan was fired at the beginning of 2009 he was quoted as saying that he thought any new coach coming in would be a fool to substantially change the offense. The eventual trade of Jay Cutler and revamping of the Denver Broncos has been a bone of contention for many Denver Bronco fans ever since. The end of 2008 saw the Denver offense compared to the best offenses in the league. Jay Cutler was being widely touted as a future star, his record an aberration blamed on a very poor Denver defense. Why then, did new coach Josh McDaniels change the offense? Comparing the offenses of the 2007 New England Patriots and 2008 Denver Broncos one striking thing is that they both averaged close to the same yardage per play. This is what most pundits point to when they tout the 2008 statistics of Jay Cutler. What they don’t point out is that the 16-0 Patriots scored 589 points while the 8-8 Broncos scored only 370.  Just three years before that Denver scored 395 points with f...