Farewell Koobs: Observations from a classy goodbye to Broncos Country

• I believe Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak retired for health reasons, but faced with the likely prospect of firing a number of assistant coaches — and close friends — it made it easier for him to retire … for health reasons.

• Regarding the decision to play Trevor Siemian the entire Oakland Raiders game after earlier in the week saying he would play T.S. and Paxton Lynch? I didn’t see anything nefarious there.

I didn’t see Kubiak flipping the proverbial bird at general manager John Elway. I saw a coach watching his team play surprisingly well with Siemian at quarterback and decided then and there that winning the game was most important. In effect, his coaching instincts kicked in.

• I’m not surprised Kubiak stepped down. Everything I was told was Gary didn’t want this job in the first place. He was happy being the offensive coordinator in Baltimore. He wasn’t interested in returning to the grind of being a head coach after his medical scare in Houston.

The only reason he took the Broncos job was because his good friend, John Elway, wouldn’t take no for an answer. This was the only head coaching job Kubiak would consider, and he took it with a strong amount of misgivings. So, once the Super Bowl was won, Kubiak was on borrowed time before he would decide enough was enough.

• I don’t believe we’ve seen the last of Kubiak in football. Certainly, he won’t be a head coach again, but I can see him being a coordinator or quarterbacks coach somewhere — NFL or college.

• In my opinion, I’ll remember Kubiak’s time here as a masterful job in handling all the brush fires, all the egos, and personalities that go into an NFL team. It is never black and white overseeing a building full of 53 players, coaches, and the ever present demands put forth by Elway and expectations of winning created by owner Pat Bowlen.

Whether it was managing the strong personalities on the defensive side of the ball and their growing discontent with the offense to the divide within the offense itself going from Peyton Manning to Brock Osweiler back to Manning, Gary found a way to keep it all on track ending in an improbable Super Bowl victory.

For that, and all the incredible and loyal service Gary Kubiak provided to the Broncos as a player, coordinator, and head coach, he deserves Broncos fans’ undying respect and admiration.

So long Koobs!