ANALYSIS: After wayward 2018, Broncos head into pivotal offseason

After a wayward 2018 campaign, the Denver Broncos head into a pivotal offseason. Here’s what our staff thinks of the team’s finale against the Los Angeles Chargers and the team’s future:

Orlando Franklin and John Davis:

Reaction from @OFranklin74 and @JDavisD12 on the #Broncos loss to the #Chargers in their season finale and the 2018 campaign for Denver in general: pic.twitter.com/VcfMTc0thE

— 104.3 The FAN (@1043TheFan) December 31, 2018

Zach Bye (“Stokley and Zach”):

The Denver Broncos are in some of the most uncharted territories in the history of the organization. Even if you’ve been a fan for 40 or 50 years, you may not have ever seen a period like this.

There’s no ownership at the top. You have family infighting to determine that ownership that looks like it’s heading to court. You have a disconnect between Joe Ellis and John Elway that’s revealed itself in what went down this time last season, with John wanting Mike Shanahan as head coach and Joe saying no. You have a coach that’s going to be fired. You have a general manager that’s being called a coach killer. And you don’t have a quarterback.

These are the most fundamental focus points of any organization: an owner, management, coach, and quarterback. And the Broncos don’t have certainty at any one of those points. And all of this has caught up with the Broncos, and here we are looking at the once most steady organization, you could argue, in all of sports on the brink of irrelevancy. And that’s scary. And it should be scary.

We don’t know who the future owner is going to be. We don’t know who the future coach is going to be. We don’t know who the future quarterback is going to be. And we don’t even know the name of where the team will play moving forward. And all that stuff is scary, and it’s harsh contrast to the way things have always been.

It’s unfamiliar. It’s unsettling. And you’re talking about one of the most stable franchises in sports over the past four or five decades being, arguably, the most unstable in all of sports and on the brink of irrelevancy if they don’t figure it out quickly.

Mike Evans (“Schlereth and Evans”):

There is only one way for the Denver Broncos to create a win-win situation. Hire Mike Shanahan and make Gary Kubiak the offensive coordinator.

This way we find out, one way or another, this team is either good enough and a guy like Shanahan wins 10 games or the team is not very good and a Shanahan-Kubiak combo provides stability while the Broncos rebuild.

Don’t go after John Harbaugh. He’s not the miracle cure. And he’s not worth a top-10 draft pick to give up in a trade.

Mike Pritchard (“Pritchard and Cecil”):

The 2018 regular season is over for the Broncos. General manager John Elway and the front office will now take over the most pivotal offseason ever for Denver.

Cecil Lammey (“Pritchard and Cecil”):

Does this game even matter?

That was my main question before the Broncos final game against the Chargers. If Vance Joseph won the game, I did not think it mattered. If Vance Joseph lost this game, I did not think it mattered.

So what is the meaning of this contest?

I think the answer to that question was whether players — key players, not guys who won’t be here next season — would still play for and respond to Joseph.

After talking to players after the game, guys like Von Miller threw their support behind Joseph and would like to keep playing for him.

The chances Joseph continues as the Broncos head coach are slim, but the possibility is there. I think that possibility is mainly there for one reason: Gary Kubiak.

If Joseph is retained as the Broncos head coach, then Kubiak would likely be put in place as the offensive coordinator. If Kubiak wants to get back into coaching, the Broncos certainly don’t want to lose him to another team.

Would Kubiak fix the problems with the Broncos offense?

As Kubiak likes to say, we’re fixing to find out.

DMac (“The Drive”):

The Broncos are a 6-10 team in 2018 after being a 5-11 team in 2017. This is the bottom line. No previous success can change the fact that Denver is one of the most irrelevant teams in the current NFL with not much room for optimism.

The next move by general manager John Elway and president and CEO Joe Ellis will, sure enough, be their swan song as a future new owner is relatively imminent as is the end of both of their current contracts.

So, is this time for bold new moves? Probably. Will it happen? Probably not.

The next coach and the next quarterback will be the defining final decision of two men who are through-and-through Denver Broncos. The fabric of this club cannot be sewn without Elway and Ellis. Will it hold together or rip into shreds?

The future starts on Monday, and something tells me what’s old will be new again.