By Alex Heawilly (www.starbustfootballinc.com)
Anyone who knows football knows that Bill Belichick and the Patriots have done a spectacular job in managing a franchise and getting the most out of each and every player on their roster. So when the Denver Broncos decided to hire Belichick disciple Josh McDaniels, it seemed to make a lot of sense. In McDaniels, they were getting a guy who was part of three Super Bowl winning teams, and had eight years of experience as part of a coaching staff that featured several coaching geniuses. Given this, McDaniels, or “Baby Beli” as I like to call him, would have inevitably gleaned valuable insight from his colleagues, and apply that to a team whenever he was given a head coaching position.
Belichick is known as a great identifier and manager of football talent, perhaps the best the NFL has ever seen. For example, look no further than superstar quarterback Tom Brady. Brady was an unheralded prospect in the 2000 NFL Draft, yet Belichick saw potential, drafted him in the sixth round, groomed him for a few years, and the rest is history. Brady has now won multiple Super Bowls, impregnated multiple beautiful, famous women, and has most recently scored a sweet endorsement deal with UGGs, which is quite possibly the strongest case for success that I’ve ever heard.
Here are the highlights of McDaniels’ foray into personnel management:
• His first move in Denver was to alienate Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler by trying to trade him to New England, and subsequently dealing him to Chicago for Kyle Orton.
• After the 2009 season, he deemed RB Peyton Hillis as an expendable player and traded him, and two future draft picks to Cleveland for another quarterback in Brady Quinn.
• In the same offseason, McDaniels got rid of Pro Bowl WR Brandon Marshall via a trade with the Miami Dolphins, shipping his number one receiving threat away because the two butted heads, the NFL’s equivalent to filing of divorce on the basis of irreconcilable differences.
• In the 2010 draft, McDaniels made what was quite possibly his boldest move yet — picking a quarterback in the first round, by selecting former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. In doing so, he made an unprecedented move to acquire a new QB for the third time in just over one calendar year.
Metaphorically speaking, it’s like “Baby Beli” went to his exam on personnel management sporting a post-three-day-bender hangover, after never attending the class in the first place, and failed miserably. While the Orton-for-Cutler trade didn’t doom the Bronco franchise, it wasn’t the smartest way to kick of his tenure as head coach. As for Hillis, well, he is putting together a Pro Bowl-caliber season, and is currently second in the NFL in rushing touchdowns. That one stings quite a bit considering the Broncos are dead last in the AFC in rushing this season. Not only did that deal hurt the 2010 Denver Broncos, but it also hurt the team’s future, having lost two draft picks.
How is Brady Quinn working out, you say? He is now the third-string QB on Denver’s roster, meaning that he will play only if Orton and Tebow get hurt. Speaking of Tebow, he has played only in a handful of red zone situations, totaling four (4) total TD’s on just 31 total yards, but his biggest contribution to the Broncos is through jersey sales — a statistic in which he leads the entire NFL. While Marshall hasn’t done much for the Dolphins, it would be interesting to see how a talented player like him would do lining up alongside Denver’s newest receiving threat, Brandon Lloyd.
It seems as though the eye for talent and the skill of personnel management never trickled down to McDaniels during his stint in New England. Despite that, “Baby Beli” has shown plenty of grit to prove that he can still be very similar to his old boss. His most recent display of stupidity proved just that.
While the Broncos were in London preparing to take on the 49ers, a Denver assistant decided it would be a good idea to film San Francisco’s walkthrough practice at Wembley Stadium. The NFL later found out about it, and fined McDaniels and the Broncos $50,000 a piece. It is a far cry from the $500,000 Belichick was fined for the original SpyGate scandal of 2007, but it does appear that he is displaying some serious determination in mimicking his former boss and mentor.
McDaniels may have pleaded ignorance to his knowledge of SpyGate 2, but I, as someone who has seen a handful of episodes of NBC’s The Apprentice, know that when in charge of an operation, the head man is always at fault for the actions of those beneath him. Sorry, Josh, you still take the fall for this one, and given your track record as a Belichickian, something tells me you had prior knowledge to this original, genius plan of filming your opponent.
Additionally, McDaniels, like Belichick, continually looks like a hobo on Sundays by wearing oversized hoodies that lack sleeves.
To make this a truly educational article, there is one important lesson I want you to learn:
When attempting to emulate a mentor, idol, or hero, harness the good qualities and let go of the bad. “Baby Beli” has failed miserably at this. To make it clear for you, consider this hypothetical situation: let’s say you wanted to mimic Tiger Woods. The proper way to do that would be to work hard at your golf game, smash long drives, and rule golf courses like it’s nobody’s business. Conversely, you would avoid having a very public domestic dispute resulting in a car crash, only to soon after be ablaze in a scandal in which many women, albeit hot women, come out and say that you slept with them, leading to a long, painful, and very expensive divorce.
If you succeed at this, you may experience more success in your endeavors than Josh McDaniels, who has subsequently lost 16 of his last 21 games as an NFL head coach, and will likely lose his job at the end of the season.
