It looks the Broncos could pull a "Cam Cameron" on on first-year defensive coordinator Jim Bates. Bates had success at previous stops in Miami and Green Bay before coming to Denver 51 weeks ago, but this year has been a disaster. As the Rocky Mountain News' Dave Krieger notes, here's what head coach Mike Shanahan said when Bates was hired: "There's no way if we had (gone) to the playoffs that those guys would be here because they had so many other opportunities," he said of Bates and defensive line coach Bill Johnson.So in a way, it's Shanahan's fault -- both directly and indirectly -- that Bates was brought on. If he had stuck with Jake Plummer, the Broncos almost certainly would've made it to the postseason, and some other team would've snatched Bates up before Shanny got the chance.
Instead, Plummer was benched, Cutler took over, the Broncos missed the playoffs and here we are.
From the beginning, Bates' seven-in- the-box base scheme didn't work here. In fact, during the preseason, Cleveland Browns broadcaster Bernie Kosar wondered aloud why a team with cornerbacks like Champ Bailey and Dre Bly wouldn't take advantage of their man coverage ability by moving a safety into the box to help against the run.Look, when Bernie Kosar can game-plan you from the press box, you're probably not doing something right. Who knows how this ends up, but the Broncos might want to make sure they have a go-to guy if they can Bates. I mean, when this dude is back in the mix, it's definitely a sellers market.
