Sink or swim

Plummer's arrival puts Denver heat squarely on Shanahan

Now that the deal is done and his wish has been granted, he just ran out of excuses. There are no more culprits to blame for his own failings. And he's fresh out of convenient alibis to help deflect the heat.

He's getting a second chance in Denver, and everybody knows it's high time he made the most of it.

Jake Plummer? Nope, we're talking about that other career that has arrived at a crossroads in the Rocky Mountains. The one belonging to Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan.

It's hard to overestimate how much Plummer's arrival means to Shanahan's tenure in Denver. But suffice it to say, I see just two possibilities: It could sink it or save it.

Let's face it, soon enough, Shanahan isn't going to have deposed quarterback Brian Griese to kick around anymore, meaning you can bet the next blows likely will be aimed at him. Free pass time is finally over.

As one Denver observer put it to me Wednesday, right after the Broncos landed the most sought after free-agent quarterback in this year's market, starting now there's a chain that runs directly from Plummer's ankle to Shanahan's neck. Such is their fate so connected.

Simply put, Shanahan can't afford to let Plummer represent another miss on the personnel front. There have been too many in recent years, and they've been too glaring. Two Super Bowl titles bought the man they call "The Mastermind" boatloads of leeway in the Mile High City, but slowly and surely he has spent that capital without replenishing it. From now on, his mistakes will start sticking to him, and the heat will start rising. If it gets hot enough, rest assured even Shanahan's famous Teflon coating will burn.

Is it justified? Probably not, but when has that really mattered in the Not Fair League. After all, four years is an eternity in the NFL, and that's how long it has been since Denver was the defending Super Bowl champion.

In Shanahan's first four seasons with the Broncos, his teams went 47-17 in the regular season, 7-1 in the playoffs, made the postseason three times and won two Super Bowls. In the four seasons since, all without John Elway at quarterback, Denver is 34-30, hasn't won a playoff game and has only reached the postseason once in that span. You have to go back to 1980-83 to find the last time the Broncos made the playoffs just once in a four-season stretch.

In wrapping up expensive free-agent deals with Plummer and defensive tackle Daryl Gardener on Wednesday, the Broncos and Shanahan bravely waded back into a pool that of late has been more of a bottomless pit of quicksand. You name it, and Denver has spent free-agent money for it without results.

Who can forget flops like Dale Carter or Leon Lett or Chester McGlockton or Blake Brockermeyer or Rob Moore or Lional Dalton or Kavika Pittman? Certainly not Broncos fans, who have come to believe that their favorite club flies in prospective free agents via the Bermuda Triangle.

And wasn't it less than two years ago that Shanahan invested in Griese to the tune of six years at $39 million, with a fat $12.6 million signing bonus? That was the same month, of course, that the Broncos selected their infamous draft class of 2001, which included busts like cornerback Willie Middlebrooks, defensive end Paul Toviessi and defensive end Reggie Hayward in the opening three rounds. If you can't recall a single contribution made by those three, it's with good reason. They basically they never made it on the field.

Give Shanahan credit for this much: Like a frantic safe-cracker, he keeps plugging away, trying different combinations, convinced he's not far from unlocking success. When others saw Griese's big contract as marrying him to the Broncos, Shanahan saw it as throwing good money after bad and moved on Plummer. It was a risky move, but having lost all faith in Griese, Shanahan knew it was time to gamble.

"They've done just about everything they could do," one AFC West source said. "They've made a lot of mistakes lately, but my hat's off to them because they keep trying. Shanahan's determined to find the right mix of players, and obviously money is not an object with them."

With Plummer, Shanahan is hoping that by changing his team's vibe at the game's key leadership position, the improvement will be exponential. Try as he may, he never figured out how to effectively push the buttons of the moody and iconoclastic Griese, who paled in comparison to Elway's charismatic leadership.

In Plummer, Shanahan sees another Elway-like competitor, a proven comeback artist who can inspire his team with his daring escape acts, maybe turning back the clock to the days of Mile High magic.

"Clearly this was an off-the-field move," one league source said. "Otherwise it wasn't worth it to go through it, because Plummer and Griese are so comparable as quarterbacks. It has to be that Shanahan just likes Plummer better as a leader than he did Griese."

The tricky part is that Shanahan doesn't want the razzle-dazzle version of Plummer who was always playing from behind in Arizona, usually after helping put his team into an early hole with a couple of big mistakes. He wants Plummer to learn to manage a game, protect a lead and rely on the bountiful offensive weapons that he'll around him, like running back Clinton Portis and receivers Rod Smith, Ashley Lelie and Ed McCaffrey.

Plummer won't have to produce as many explosive plays as he was asked to generate with the Cardinals, as long as he doesn't implode when games are on the line. Shanahan obviously believes that's a reachable goal and that his talented team will rally around its new offensive leader.

But if it doesn't, and this latest Denver fix doesn't take, it's going to be another Broncos leader -- the one who once wore that Super Bowl luster -- who bears the brunt of the blame. Shanahan's proven track record aside, you get the feeling that another 6-2 start followed by a 3-5 second half won't be acceptable next time around.

It all adds up to big pressure in Denver this season. Plummer's second chance could well be Shanahan's last.

 

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