“This team will not miss the playoffs.”
Now that the opening kickoff of the Broncos’ season is all but upon us. I thought it was appropriate to reprise Mike Shanahan’s most profound quote of the preseason.
This team will not miss the playoffs. This team will not do what it has done in back-to-back seasons. This team will not be a sieve defensively. This team will score touchdowns in the red zone instead of turning every Sunday into a field-goal drill.
So will it happen? Beats me. Trying to predict what’s going to happen in salary-cap football makes trying to predict the weather in Colorado seem easy.
What I can tell you is this: There are two reasons Shanahan made that comment on KKFN radio. First, he truly does have confidence that an emerging Jay Cutler will take this team to playoffs. The second reason? That’s more of a subliminal thing.
This is a team that has lived on excuses for two years, and Shanahan is tired of it. He doesn’t want to give the players any excuses this year. He doesn’t want them to be able to say they’re too young or the Chargers are too good.
Given the Broncos’ youth movement — 10 rookies are on the roster — maybe that will prove to be the case. Maybe, as I have predicted, they’re too young to win this season. Maybe the Chargers will win the West with ease, as they did in 2006-07.
Or maybe Shanahan is right. Maybe this is a team ahead of its time. This much we already know, before the first kickoff flies: If the Broncos, given all their youth, can make the playoffs this season, they ought todo it again for years to come.
Follow Jim Armstrong’s Broncos updates on The Jimmy Page at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. And read his columns on Sundays at .
He can be reached at 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
