The Denver Broncos shake their etch-a-sketch once again

“The tibetan word for mandala is kyilkhor. Kyil means ‘center’, khor means ‘fringe’, ‘gestalt’, ‘area around’… Things exist interdependently, and that interdependent existence of things happens in the fashion of orderly chaos.”

– Chogyam Trungpa

Orderly chaos, indeed. The Denver Broncos are understanding some orderly chaos. Maybe even a little disorderly choas. Like the lengthy effort of building a football team, a team of monks making a sand mandala can often take days, weeks, or even months depending on the size of the team, mandala, and intricacy of the project. And when it’s all done? Whooooooosh…

The mandala is swept away quickly after all that work, to remind us of the impermanence of everything.

Kind of a fancy version of an etch-a-sketch. My sketches were never so pretty as anything like the mandala above as a kid, but if you’re pretty good at it, you can still make some amazing stuff…

But no matter your etching/sketching competence, the magic of the etch-a-sketch, much like the mandalas, was a simple shake could set everything right back to square one. As badly as my intended drawings turned out, that blank page was both a source of hope, and eventual defeat.

For the second time in the last two seasons, the Denver Broncos have shaken their etch-a-sketch rather prodigiously, and doing so in both years before their seasons were even complete. 23 months ago, Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson were the answers to the problem. Now they both seem to have become the answers to “what was the problem?” Nate and now Russ find themselves on the outs with the Broncos after two very un-merry Christmases in a row.

But to shake that little red tablet twice in the last two years also cost the team a combined 100 million-plus in dead salary and contract costs. That’s legacy-hampering sort of numbers in today’s NFL, and will be felt in terms of depth and opportunity for the team in the short term, no matter how deep ownership’s pockets are. The commitment the Broncos made over the long term may end up haunting them even further if a chip-on-his-shoulder Russ signs on with a team that Denver plays once or twice a season.

All of that further complicated by the fact that neither the draft nor general landscape look favorable for the Broncos in the quarterback market next season, and shinier-and-even-more-expensive head coach Sean Payton may be asked to make all of this work without an elite quarterback, something he’s proven he can do… well, never. The Broncos last championship came with Peyton Manning on his last gasps and a defense of historic quality. Post-Manning has been a parade of a dozen guys in six seasons, a trend that Wilson was meant to end for the next few seasons, at least.

With this latest reset, there’s an awful lot of finger pointing around Broncos Country as to who fault and blame and fiscal responsibility rests with at this point. Is it ownership and the front office at fault for signing Wilson to a lengthy quarter-billion dollar contract when they had time to see his fit with the system first? Sure. Is it Sean Payton’s fault for a few head-scratching coaching decisions and forcing a few square pegs into round holes? Sure. Is it Russ’ fault for play and attitude and entourage, at least in moments? Sure. All of those things, and probably a half dozen more.

But at this point, who really cares whose fault it was as long as the next steps are to evolve and fix it? Wilson and Payton and Paton and others may all be gone sometime soon, and off to other lucrative things in their wake. But the ones left behind are the brand new owners and long-time and loyal fanbase, 100-plus million in the hole, and staring at another blank screen, wondering when one of these sketches will turn out to yet again be more masterpiece than mistake.

Until then… shake shake shake.