Broncos too quick in cutting Hixon - The Orange Mane

dragondawg · 01-31-2008, 09:43 AM

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News

If you want to know why the Broncos retain so few of their draft choices, consider the case of Domenik Hixon, who will be playing for a championship Sunday with the New York Giants.

The Broncos made Hixon a fourth-round pick in 2006. In their season opener in Buffalo, he was their kickoff return man. On the opening kickoff of the second half, Bills tight end Kevin Everett hit him and crumpled to the ground, the victim of a serious spinal cord injury.

The incident left Hixon emotionally devastated.

"You basically just changed somebody's life," he said Tuesday. "People say, 'It's not your fault, it's not your fault,' but just being involved in something so traumatic, that was tough."

His closest friend on the Broncos, fellow wide receiver Brian Clark, tried to help.

"We talked about it throughout a lot of the night. Couldn't really sleep," Hixon said. "Just did a lot of praying about it."

Hixon now believes the incident made him more tentative as a return man.

"At the time, I didn't think so, but now that I look back on tape, I'm hesitant doing stuff. It just wasn't me out there playing," he said.

"For example, the Jacksonville game, it's me and the safety, one on one in the hole. He lowers his shoulder and I lower mine but I didn't deliver the blow. I kind of received it more. And you can't do that. You've got to be the aggressor."

Nine days later, Mike Shanahan called Hixon into his office and cut him.

"He just told me that he wanted to give some other guys an opportunity. That was their reasoning for letting me go," Hixon said.

I asked if he told Shanahan about the difficulty he was having in the wake of Everett's injury.

"No, I didn't, because I don't want to use it as an excuse," Hixon said. "Regardless of what happens, even in your personal life, they feel like you have a job to do. So by no means did I want to use that as an excuse."

The Giants signed him the next day.

Even then, Hixon was not over the trauma of Everett's injury. During the season's fifth week, he had a nightmare in which the roles were reversed - he was making the hit instead of receiving it - but the terrible result was the same.

The Giants stuck with him. In the season's final week, against the Patriots, Hixon rewarded them with a 74-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

When Shanahan did his post-mortem on the Broncos' 7-9 season, I asked if he had any second thoughts about cutting Hixon.

"It's always tough," he said. "We were trying to get him on the practice squad. But we looked at him enough that we felt that Andre Hall was a better look for us than Domenik Hixon. Now, if we knew Andre was going to go down, we probably wouldn't have made that call.

"But just because a guy has a (74)-yard kickoff return, that doesn't mean that the guy's arrived. Let's see if he does it over time. But Domenik Hixon is a guy we looked at, obviously drafted, we liked a lot, and we gambled on the practice squad and we lost. But I still think he's got a ways to go before he arrives."

Hixon is not the only Broncos draft choice that could earn a ring with the NFC champs. Jeff Shoate, a 2004 fifth-round pick, is on the Giants practice squad. Shoate, whom the Broncos cut on Dec. 4, said he could never get a straight answer as to why.

"It was frustrating, especially when you don't have a full understanding of why that change is being made," he said. "They just said they wanted to give some other guys opportunities. For whatever reason, there were a lot of changes going on in Denver this year."

The Broncos now say they want to build through the draft. This requires a certain commitment to your draft picks. When you dump a fourth-round pick such as Hixon after just four weeks - he had missed his entire rookie season with a foot injury - you are giving him precious little opportunity to succeed. And when you fail to take into account the possibility that his play is being affected by a traumatic event, you look like an organization that prefers the quick fix to the long-term building program.

It is true, as Shanahan suggested, that the jury is still out on Hixon as an NFL player. But if you want to know why the Broncos retain so few of their draft picks, his case is a good place to start.

Just before Christmas, Hixon returned to Buffalo with the Giants, met with Everett and saw the remarkable progress he had made since that awful day in September. A week later, he took the Patriots kickoff to the house.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/new...cutting-hixon/

montrose · 01-31-2008, 09:55 AM

It was just such a hasty move. I know Shanny wanted to sneak the guy on the practice squad, but come on. Man this was a bad year for personnel moves.

jonny1 · 01-31-2008, 10:03 AM

Hixon himself said he was being tentative after the incident, so Shanahan is just supposed to leave a guy on the active squad who is not doing his job?

He tried to get on the practice squad, what more could he do?

Beantown Bronco · 01-31-2008, 10:03 AM

I just love the Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

Hixon was a cult hero around here. Everyone loved hyping him up and nobody here complained when he was cut. That's telling.

He let the play in Buffalo affect his performance and there was no way he was going to get out of that funk without a change in scenery, period.

cmhargrove · 01-31-2008, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by montrose

It was just such a hasty move. I know Shanny wanted to sneak the guy on the practice squad, but come on. Man this was a bad year for personnel moves.

Hixon had poor blocking from his team mates, but he had many, many chances to prove himself as well. He may do well for the Giants, but he just wasn't what we needed here. Just because he does well in their scheme, doesn't mean he will do well in ours (mainly because they block).

After all the crying over Devin Hester, I wonder what he would have even amounted to in Denver over the past couple seasons. I don't think he would have been nearly as special. Just my opinion.

Dedhed · 01-31-2008, 10:12 AM

Hixon sucked here, and still does. Has he caught a ball in NY? He's nothing more than the beneficiary of a good ST. Says more about our STs than it does about Hixon.

vancejohnson82 · 01-31-2008, 10:31 AM

we've tread over this ground for months on this board

bronco militia · 01-31-2008, 10:42 AM

I think I just Shoate my pants

Hixon a Shoate are marginal players....

Smiling Assassin27 · 01-31-2008, 10:53 AM

i guess shanny could've just told shoate, 'uh, jeff, you suck so we're cutting your sorry ass. thanks for wasting our time on practice squad, DB, and special teams, ya piece of dog crap!'

i think that's what mike told him in shanny-speak.

bronco militia · 01-31-2008, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

i guess shanny could've just told shoate, 'uh, jeff, you suck so we're cutting your sorry ass. thanks for wasting our time on practice squad, DB, and special teams, ya piece of dog crap!'

i think that's what mike told him in shanny-speak.

ha ha

chawknz · 01-31-2008, 11:12 AM

I was very happy with what I saw after Hixon left.

cutthemdown · 01-31-2008, 11:22 AM

when it rains it pours

BMF Bronco · 01-31-2008, 11:32 AM

Here we go again! The dude didn't do **** with us, period, Halls numbers were much better than Hixons over teh rest of the year, not to mention he helped the running game as well, whereas Hixon couldn't catch a ****ing cold.

SonOfLe-loLang · 01-31-2008, 11:32 AM

He looks like a different returner now. He hits the hole hard...with us, he ran up to the action and stutter stepped like a vagina. now that could be because we couldnt open a whole for anyone, but regardless, he looks good now. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Hixon

Bladerunner · 01-31-2008, 11:32 AM

I didn't really have a problem with letting Hixon go. He wasn't playing well at all. You can't keep an active roster spot open for a guy that isn't performing well at all. He still isn't sniffing the field as a receiver and he hasn't looked that impressive as a returner. Decent, but not great. This isn't that big of a deal to me.

Killericon · 01-31-2008, 11:34 AM

BREAKING NEWS: PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FRANCHISE MANAGEMENT MAKES ERROR IN JUDGEMENT! We'll have full coverage of this historic event on the 11 o'clock news.

Popcorn Sutton · 01-31-2008, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bronco militia

I think I just Shoate my pants

Hixon a Shoate are marginal players....

Pipe down shoate licker....

BMF Bronco · 01-31-2008, 11:42 AM

Foneco Hixon!

dbfan4life · 01-31-2008, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMF Bronco

Foneco Hixon!

Hey man! Keep your Foneco jokes for Fonecan Foneco thread, alright?! Geez!

BMF Bronco · 01-31-2008, 12:48 PM

Foneco off!

Inkana7 · 01-31-2008, 01:14 PM

Hall did better here than Hixon. Fact.

telluride · 01-31-2008, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by killericon

PERMANENTLY BREAKING NEWS: PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FRANCHISE MANAGEMENT MAKES CONTINUAL ERRORS IN JUDGEMENT! We'll have full coverage of this all too frequent event on the 11 o'clock news.

Fixed that for you.

brncs_fan · 01-31-2008, 01:37 PM

Old news.

Glad to see that the dawg is back to his old posting ways again.

Keep them coming.

alkemical · 01-31-2008, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by telluride

Fixed that for you.

Houshyamama · 01-31-2008, 01:57 PM

This article is erroneous. Hixon cut the Broncos.

01-31-2008, 09:43 AM	#1
dragondawg All Pro Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 2,009	Broncos too quick in cutting Hixon By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News If you want to know why the Broncos retain so few of their draft choices, consider the case of Domenik Hixon, who will be playing for a championship Sunday with the New York Giants. The Broncos made Hixon a fourth-round pick in 2006. In their season opener in Buffalo, he was their kickoff return man. On the opening kickoff of the second half, Bills tight end Kevin Everett hit him and crumpled to the ground, the victim of a serious spinal cord injury. The incident left Hixon emotionally devastated. "You basically just changed somebody's life," he said Tuesday. "People say, 'It's not your fault, it's not your fault,' but just being involved in something so traumatic, that was tough." His closest friend on the Broncos, fellow wide receiver Brian Clark, tried to help. "We talked about it throughout a lot of the night. Couldn't really sleep," Hixon said. "Just did a lot of praying about it." Hixon now believes the incident made him more tentative as a return man. "At the time, I didn't think so, but now that I look back on tape, I'm hesitant doing stuff. It just wasn't me out there playing," he said. "For example, the Jacksonville game, it's me and the safety, one on one in the hole. He lowers his shoulder and I lower mine but I didn't deliver the blow. I kind of received it more. And you can't do that. You've got to be the aggressor." Nine days later, Mike Shanahan called Hixon into his office and cut him. "He just told me that he wanted to give some other guys an opportunity. That was their reasoning for letting me go," Hixon said. I asked if he told Shanahan about the difficulty he was having in the wake of Everett's injury. "No, I didn't, because I don't want to use it as an excuse," Hixon said. "Regardless of what happens, even in your personal life, they feel like you have a job to do. So by no means did I want to use that as an excuse." The Giants signed him the next day. Even then, Hixon was not over the trauma of Everett's injury. During the season's fifth week, he had a nightmare in which the roles were reversed - he was making the hit instead of receiving it - but the terrible result was the same. The Giants stuck with him. In the season's final week, against the Patriots, Hixon rewarded them with a 74-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. When Shanahan did his post-mortem on the Broncos' 7-9 season, I asked if he had any second thoughts about cutting Hixon. "It's always tough," he said. "We were trying to get him on the practice squad. But we looked at him enough that we felt that Andre Hall was a better look for us than Domenik Hixon. Now, if we knew Andre was going to go down, we probably wouldn't have made that call. "But just because a guy has a (74)-yard kickoff return, that doesn't mean that the guy's arrived. Let's see if he does it over time. But Domenik Hixon is a guy we looked at, obviously drafted, we liked a lot, and we gambled on the practice squad and we lost. But I still think he's got a ways to go before he arrives." Hixon is not the only Broncos draft choice that could earn a ring with the NFC champs. Jeff Shoate, a 2004 fifth-round pick, is on the Giants practice squad. Shoate, whom the Broncos cut on Dec. 4, said he could never get a straight answer as to why. "It was frustrating, especially when you don't have a full understanding of why that change is being made," he said. "They just said they wanted to give some other guys opportunities. For whatever reason, there were a lot of changes going on in Denver this year." The Broncos now say they want to build through the draft. This requires a certain commitment to your draft picks. When you dump a fourth-round pick such as Hixon after just four weeks - he had missed his entire rookie season with a foot injury - you are giving him precious little opportunity to succeed. And when you fail to take into account the possibility that his play is being affected by a traumatic event, you look like an organization that prefers the quick fix to the long-term building program. It is true, as Shanahan suggested, that the jury is still out on Hixon as an NFL player. But if you want to know why the Broncos retain so few of their draft picks, his case is a good place to start. Just before Christmas, Hixon returned to Buffalo with the Giants, met with Everett and saw the remarkable progress he had made since that awful day in September. A week later, he took the Patriots kickoff to the house. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/new...cutting-hixon/

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01-31-2008, 09:55 AM	#2
montrose Ring of Famer Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 6,095 Adopt-a-Bronco: VP John Elway	It was just such a hasty move. I know Shanny wanted to sneak the guy on the practice squad, but come on. Man this was a bad year for personnel moves.

01-31-2008, 10:03 AM	#3
jonny1 Ahhh, football! Broncos' cheerleaders rule! Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 2,504 Adopt-a-Bronco: Chris Kuper	Hixon himself said he was being tentative after the incident, so Shanahan is just supposed to leave a guy on the active squad who is not doing his job? He tried to get on the practice squad, what more could he do?

01-31-2008, 10:03 AM	#4
Beantown Bronco Athletic Supporter Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Mass Posts: 19,046 Adopt-a-Bronco: Matt Prater	I just love the Monday Morning Quarterbacking. Hixon was a cult hero around here. Everyone loved hyping him up and nobody here complained when he was cut. That's telling. He let the play in Buffalo affect his performance and there was no way he was going to get out of that funk without a change in scenery, period.

01-31-2008, 10:12 AM	#6
Dedhed Ring of Famer Fare thee well Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Earth Posts: 9,720 Adopt-a-Bronco: Elvis	Hixon sucked here, and still does. Has he caught a ball in NY? He's nothing more than the beneficiary of a good ST. Says more about our STs than it does about Hixon.

01-31-2008, 10:31 AM	#7
vancejohnson82 Drama and Mediocrity I'm Afraid of Ty Law Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Newark, NJ Posts: 5,990 Adopt-a-Bronco: DJ	we've tread over this ground for months on this board

01-31-2008, 10:42 AM	#8
bronco militia Ring of Famer THE GREATEST Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: colorado springs, co Posts: 22,591	I think I just Shoate my pants Hixon a Shoate are marginal players....

01-31-2008, 10:53 AM	#9
Smiling Assassin27 STOP! KIPER TIME! Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: In a van down by the river Posts: 10,983 Adopt-a-Bronco: Von Miller	i guess shanny could've just told shoate, 'uh, jeff, you suck so we're cutting your sorry ass. thanks for wasting our time on practice squad, DB, and special teams, ya piece of dog crap!' i think that's what mike told him in shanny-speak.

01-31-2008, 11:12 AM	#11
chawknz Perennial Pro-bowler Hey now! Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 923 Adopt-a-Bronco: Derek Wolfe	I was very happy with what I saw after Hixon left.

01-31-2008, 11:22 AM	#12
cutthemdown A verbis ad verbera Zimm to HOF Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Long Beach Posts: 32,531	when it rains it pours

01-31-2008, 11:32 AM	#13
BMF Bronco Offseason sucks... Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Bozeman, MT Posts: 11,724 Adopt-a-Bronco: ME	Here we go again! The dude didn't do ** with us, period, Halls numbers were much better than Hixons over teh rest of the year, not to mention he helped the running game as well, whereas Hixon couldn't catch a **ing cold.

01-31-2008, 11:32 AM	#14
SonOfLe-loLang Young Buck Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 13,234 Adopt-a-Bronco: Thunder (RIP)	He looks like a different returner now. He hits the hole hard...with us, he ran up to the action and stutter stepped like a vagina. now that could be because we couldnt open a whole for anyone, but regardless, he looks good now. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Hixon

01-31-2008, 11:32 AM	#15
Bladerunner Ring of Famer ...Two weeks from everywhere! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: California Posts: 1,125 Adopt-a-Bronco: Willis McGahee	I didn't really have a problem with letting Hixon go. He wasn't playing well at all. You can't keep an active roster spot open for a guy that isn't performing well at all. He still isn't sniffing the field as a receiver and he hasn't looked that impressive as a returner. Decent, but not great. This isn't that big of a deal to me.

01-31-2008, 11:34 AM	#16
Killericon YES A DT!!!!!! Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: From Calgary, in Halifax for School Posts: 7,730 Adopt-a-Bronco: watermock	BREAKING NEWS: PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FRANCHISE MANAGEMENT MAKES ERROR IN JUDGEMENT! We'll have full coverage of this historic event on the 11 o'clock news.

01-31-2008, 11:42 AM	#18
BMF Bronco Offseason sucks... Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Bozeman, MT Posts: 11,724 Adopt-a-Bronco: ME	Foneco Hixon!

01-31-2008, 12:48 PM	#20
BMF Bronco Offseason sucks... Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Bozeman, MT Posts: 11,724 Adopt-a-Bronco: ME	Foneco off!

01-31-2008, 01:14 PM	#21
Inkana7 Ring of Famer Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 8,232 Adopt-a-Bronco: Derek Wolfe	Hall did better here than Hixon. Fact.

01-31-2008, 01:37 PM	#23
brncs_fan How about some Tapenade! Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: The Coaches Cradle...Eastern Illinois University Posts: 5,490 Adopt-a-Bronco: Manti Teo	Old news. Glad to see that the dawg is back to his old posting ways again. Keep them coming.

01-31-2008, 01:57 PM	#25
Houshyamama I Make The Weather Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: San Diego Posts: 3,868 Adopt-a-Bronco: Brock Osweiler	This article is erroneous. Hixon cut the Broncos.