The story of Sunday morning (which if you regularly read PFT was the story of Saturday morning) is that Broncos coach Gary Kubiak could be resigning after the meaningless Week 17 game against the Raiders.
The popular reasoning is that Kubiak would be calling it quits due to health reasons. But there could be something more to the decision.
If he stays, Kubiak likely will be expected to make some changes to his coaching staff. His loyalty to those staff members, who helped the team win a Super Bowl a year ago, could contribute to the decision to leave after only two years in Denver in lieu of firing assistant coaches.
The Broncos definitely want Kubiak to stay. But John Elway, who runs the football operations, surely is dismayed about the performance of the side of the ball in which Kubiak is an expert. While it could be fair to argue that some of the blame falls to Elway for failing to put together the kind of offensive line that Kubiak needs to get the most out of the unit, this year’s non-playoff team isn’t dramatically different from last year’s team.
Unless, of course, quarterback Peyton Manning deserves a lot more credit than he ever has gotten for his contributions to last year’s team. Dubbed “sub-optimal, near-replacement-level” quarterback by the team’s website as the franchise moved on from Manning and Brock Osweiler in March, there was nothing sub-optimal nor near-replacement-level about Manning’s brain and his leadership qualities.
His decisions helped the Broncos get to the Super Bowl (specifically, his decisions to check out of bad play calls in the divisional round), and his ability to hold teammates accountable and in turn to get the most out of them are things that the likes of Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch aren’t yet able to pull off — and may never be. Which could make Elway very inclined to pursue another older quarterback who brings to the table qualities that simply aren’t part of the package for a young quarterback.