What Happened To.......

[AkronsWitness]

Random question. Ive been a Broncos fan for a while now and every now and then I watch something on Youtube and they mention a name or show a highlight from 15+ years ago.

This gets me thinking about those players and what happened to them...

What happened to Mike Shannahan?? Last I remember he was one of the top coaches in the NFL with multiple SBs and a ton of winning seasons even into the early-mid 2000s. Where did he go? Why did he leave/fired? If he was fired how do you fire somebody who is that well regarded? It just feels like one year he was there and one year he was not.

Among other random Broncos I think about from that time that were there one min. then gone the next are Ashley Lelie, DJ Williams, Mike Anderson, Ian Gold, Jed Putzier, Dominique Foxworth, ect. I was probably to young to understand why they were released but I remember them being good on the Broncos then not really remembering them even being in the league much after.

Edited September 25, 2021 by AkronsWitness

[1234567]

After the 98’ season, they made the mistake of making him Vice President of football operations along with being the head coach. Shanny was an out of this world coach. Not so much when it came to evaluating personnel. We got bounced out of the first round of the playoffs for several years before going 7-9 and 8-8 in back to back seasons in 07 and 08. After that, Shanny was fired. 

What’s unfortunate is that I actually think we were on the brink of becoming elite again, especially on offense. I always felt like Mike got fired one season too soon. There have been whispers that Pat Bowlen was beginning to suffer from early symptoms of his Alzheimer’s even back then, and that Joe Ellis took advantage of his diminishing mental state and convinced him to fire Shanahan. 

Edited September 25, 2021 by 1234567

[broncos_fan _from _uk]

Jeb Putzier! So right after young Joshy Mac was hired Jeb was cut and he had a tryout with the New Orleans Saints. I happened to be sitting right next to him on the plane from DIA to Louis Armstong and Jeb got pretty drunk and told me about what was going down in the locker room and how Mac had already lost the team. I relayed that info to this forum and jerseysfinest called me a liar hahaha.

Well Jeb never played in the NFL again. kept getting concussed and couldn’t hang on in the arena leagues either. Attempted suicide and then became a big advocate for medical marijuana. Now he works with TBI research in Dallas.

[jsthomp2007]

Whatever happened to Gerald Whillhite? 

[7DnBrnc53]

16 hours ago, 1234567 said:

After the 98’ season, they made the mistake of making him Vice President of football operations along with being the head coach. Shanny was an out of this world coach. Not so much when it came to evaluating personnel. We got bounced out of the first round of the playoffs for several years before going 7-9 and 8-8 in back to back seasons in 07 and 08. After that, Shanny was fired. 

What’s unfortunate is that I actually think we were on the brink of becoming elite again, especially on offense. I always felt like Mike got fired one season too soon. There have been whispers that Pat Bowlen was beginning to suffer from early symptoms of his Alzheimer’s even back then, and that Joe Ellis took advantage of his diminishing mental state and convinced him to fire Shanahan. 

Joe Ellis wanted more power, but he couldn't have that with Mike there. So, he brings in that 32 year old punk, thinking he could have more control that way. Turns out, it blew up in Ellis's face. 

[AkronsWitness]

On 9/24/2021 at 11:41 PM, 1234567 said:

After the 98’ season, they made the mistake of making him Vice President of football operations along with being the head coach. Shanny was an out of this world coach. Not so much when it came to evaluating personnel. We got bounced out of the first round of the playoffs for several years before going 7-9 and 8-8 in back to back seasons in 07 and 08. After that, Shanny was fired. 

What’s unfortunate is that I actually think we were on the brink of becoming elite again, especially on offense. I always felt like Mike got fired one season too soon. There have been whispers that Pat Bowlen was beginning to suffer from early symptoms of his Alzheimer’s even back then, and that Joe Ellis took advantage of his diminishing mental state and convinced him to fire Shanahan. 

Jesus it was that shady of a deal? I had no idea.

[1234567]

10 hours ago, AkronsWitness said:

Jesus it was that shady of a deal? I had no idea.

It was never proven, but there have been a lot of whispers coming out of Dove Valley claiming this over the years. I'll say this: it certainly would not surprise me; Ellis is a slime bag. And for me, it was never really so much that Shanahan got fired, it was when. The timing of it was all wrong. Yes, they'd had a couple of down years after going 13-3 and reaching the AFCCG in 05. But Cutler was a rookie in 2006. And he had unknowingly played a large portion of the 2007 season dealing with the onslaught of friggin diabetes before finally being diagnosed in May of 2008. That offense was well on its way to becoming thermonuclear had those young guys been allowed to grow with each other another season. Cutler even made the pro-bowl that year. Knowing our guys were that close, it's hard to imagine Bowlen making that decision when he did without some sort of outside influence/cognitive decline. Do I think Mike Shanahan would have eventually worn out his welcome anyways? It's entirely possible. He made a lot of really bad personnel decisions in his role as VP/GM/whatever you want to call that. But 2009 was looking legitimately promising. And we all know what happened instead.