Elway: The Broncos were in the worst shape ever when I took over

[Blueflame]

Originally Posted by broncocalijohn

Blue, maybe next time to prove your point, don't put the names of our 1st rounders. Good God Shanny missed on a ton of those. Middlebrooks? Foster? Nash? Not that it was a total cluster **** but some bad memories.

My point wasn't about whether or not those draft picks panned out and the information about who they were isn't exactly a secret. The point was that during the entire Shanahan era, we didn't select a single player within the first ten of the draft in any year. Guess I could have made my point just as well by noting 6 wins is the fewest we had in any Shanahan year and it resulted in a #10 overall pick, but Shanahan traded down to #19. We were never, ever close to #2 with Shanahan at the helm, so I don't see how anyone can advance a valid argument that 4-12 and #2 overall wasn't the nadir of this franchise since the 60's/early 70's.

Edited to add: you have to go all the way back to '91 (Mike Croel, #4 overall) to find another Broncos top-ten draft pick besides Von Miller. Broncos fans are not used to the team sucking horribly enough to be drafting in the top ten.