FanHouse Joe Ellis

If it hasn't already happened, at some point very soon the Broncos are going to reach a point where their impasse with Brandon Marshall is going to impact on their ability to concentrate on football. Monday offered a pair of reminders of that fact.

First came Marshall's renewed request for a new contract, which was denied, and renewed request for a trade, which was also denied. Then came a report from Jason La Canfora of NFL.com that had the Broncos retreating from the actions of a junior PR staffer after Marshall was acquitted on charges of battery on Friday.

Per the report, Broncos COO Joe Ellis apologized to Marshall because the PR person instructed players not to express any happiness that Marshall was found not guilty.

Over his 14 years with the Broncos, Mike Shanahan gradually became the most powerful man in the organization. He forced out general managers, constantly reshuffled his coaching staff and held control over every personnel decision, something that surely contributed to his firing on Tuesday.

As a result, owner Pat Bowlen is now pitching a more diffuse power structure in which neither the coach nor the G.M., whoever they turn out to be, has more power than the other. The new coach will be hired before the new G.M. and both men will report directly to Bowlen. That seems like a situation destined for problems.

There will be disagreements in the course of any working relationship. If they get serious enough, Bowlen will be forced to choose to keep one or the other, which will make whoever stays the de facto power figure anyway. It would make a lot more sense to install the G.M., even if you just promote current V.P. of football operations and player personnel Jim Goodman, and then have him help with the coaching search to promote a unified organizational blueprint.

It's not surprising that Bowlen is approaching this in a different manner than many of his peers. Although he's owned the team since 1984, this is only the third time Bowlen has had to hire a head coach. Dan Reeves was already there when he bought the club, and Wade Phillips was briefly the coach before Shanahan rose to the position.