Plummer Rips Shanahan, Compairs Cutler To Jeff George

Twist of lEMOn · 02-03-2009, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Plummer: Shanny firing "was past due"
Former QB's blunt views on the dismissal of his former head coach center on a style that "wasn't motivating."
By Mike Klis
The Denver Post

TAMPA, Fla. — Not all of Mike Shanahan's former quarterbacks were disappointed to see him get fired as the Broncos' coach.

"I thought it was past due," Jake Plummer said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I think he had done what he could do and was just tapped out as far as his coaching style wasn't motivating guys anymore."

One of Plummer's former teams is here preparing for Super Bowl XLIII. Who would have guessed two years ago, when Plummer retired at the relatively young age of 32, that it would be the Arizona Cardinals and not the Broncos?

"You think the Cardinals have been perfect to get there?" Plummer said. "They've scrapped and clawed and they're standing now on the verge of a very historic moment."
The Broncos finished this past season 8-8 and missed the playoffs. The Cardinals finished their regular season 9-7 and are 60 minutes away from a world championship.

It can be razor-thin, the difference between success and failure. It's a line Plummer believes Shanahan found difficult to straddle.

Plummer was the Broncos' quarterback from 2003 until he was replaced 12 games into the 2006 season by a rookie named Jay Cutler. Speaking not out of bitterness but in his relaxed, if straightforward, manner in a telephone interview from his home in Sandpoint, Idaho, Plummer indicated Shanahan seemed to become increasingly obsessed with the Broncos' NFL rank in offense or defense instead of the win-loss record.

"It's hard on a team. We were 7-2 at one point my last year and we came out of a meeting with our heads bowed and we were all just sulking around like we had just been berated for not putting up 40 points, for not leading the league in offense, for not creating enough turnovers," Plummer said.

"It was a weird style to be coached that way. It really took it out of you as a player. I've been on 2-7 teams that had better attitudes coming out of team meetings than oftentimes when we came out of team meetings after Shanahan felt a need to motivate us even more."

To be fair to Shanahan, others of his former players did not feel that way. Cutler was upset when Broncos owner Pat Bowlen fired Shana-han two days after the 2008 season, and he said so publicly. And Plummer admits his personal relationship with Shanahan began to deteriorate after the Broncos' home loss in the 2005 AFC championship game and was compounded by a miscommunication regarding an offseason workout. Plummer thought he had cleared missing a week of offseason conditioning with an assistant coach only to learn later Shanahan was not informed.

Soon after, the Broncos traded up in the first round to select Cutler with the No. 11 pick in the 2006 draft. From then on, Shanahan seemed to be looking for reasons to replace Plummer with the rocket-armed Cutler.

The Broncos were 40-18 with Plummer as their starting quarterback. While everyone acknowledges Cutler is a far more talented passer, he is only 17-20 as a starter.

"He's a great quarterback, don't get me wrong," Plummer said. "I'm not saying anything to disrespect him. I think he's a helluva player.
But Jeff George was a helluva player. There's a lot of guys who have been great players."

George had a long NFL career but was criticized for not winning more games.

Plummer said Cutler has a chance to become a star now that former New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has replaced Shana-han as head coach.

"I think it's a real smart move," Plummer said. "There's a lot of young coaches that are coming out of situations where they're coordinators for great coaches and going out on their own and really establishing themselves. He is young, but he's got to bring a lot of life and energy to coaching, which I'm sure will be good for that organization."

Let others question Bowlen's wisdom for hiring a 32-year-old as head coach. Plummer's not among them.

"At that level, there's mutual respect," Plummer said. "There should be mutual respect between coach and player and player and coach. Some coaches can accomplish that while staying in charge, but others, if they can't do it naturally, they do it with an iron fist or engulfing you in a way that didn't feel right. I think that's what happened to Shanahan. He just tried so hard and pushed so hard that nothing was good enough. Nothing."

Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or
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__________________

I love Plummer, I really really do.

MR. PEACHES · 02-05-2009, 02:30 AM

Mike Shanahan - 2 rings

Jake Plummer - 0 rings

How exactly do you expect Jay Cutler to rack up 10+ wins per season with a terrible defense? Cutler does throw redzone interceptions but without Cutler and Shanahan, the Bronco's record this year would've been a lot worse.

Plummer Rips Shanahan, Compairs Cutler To Jeff George

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