Pat Bowlen says he didn’t have a problem with Mike Shanahan firing Ted Sundquist.
Well, duh. Shanahan was just following Bowlen’s orders.
We can debate all day long whether Sundquist deserved to go, but the fact is, these things happen all the time in the league Jerry Glanville once dubbed the Not For Long.
The issue isn’t that Sundquist is gone. Or Jim Bates for that matter. There’s only one issue for the Broncos: Catching the Chargers in the AFC West.
Which brings us to next month’s draft. The Broncos, you may have heard, had far too many draft-day swings and misses from 2001-05. Now, after unearthing several promising players in the past two drafts, they have to keep the momentum going.
Frankly, it’s their only way out of this mess. If this off-season has shown us anything, it’s that Pat Bowlen is tired of signing huge checks for aging free agents, many of whom haven’t panned out in Denver.
That leaves the draft, scheduled for April 26-27. We’re left to wonder which players the Broncos will select, but they’ll have major strength in numbers. Denver will have nine picks — two in the fourth, fifth and seventh rounds, none in the third.
It’s one thing to find a player in the first or second round. What the Broncos need to do is find one in the fourth and fifth, where they’ll have an extra crack at it in each round.
It can be done, witness the Broncos’ draft of ’06, when they grabbed Brandon Marshall and Elvis Dumervil seven picks apart in the fourth round.
Follow Jim Armstrong’s daily sports commentaries on The Jimmy Page midday during the week. And read his columns on Sundays at .
He can be reached at 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
