FanHouse Patbowlen

When Broncos owner Pat Bowlen hired Josh McDaniels, expectations for the organization were about as high as they have been in recent years. It only took a few months for McDaniels to burn through a season's worth of goodwill, and between the Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall soap operas, fans and media were preparing for the worst when Week 1 rolled around.

Yet here we are, five weeks and five wins later. The Broncos are one of the best teams in the league and McDaniels, who looked like an overmatched, overwhelmed junior high schooler earlier this summer, suddenly is the boy genius everybody figured on when he arrived in Denver after spending most of this decade working for Bill Belichick.

As we passed along yesterday, Brandon Marshall has requested that the Denver Broncos trade him. According to reports from the Denver area Tuesday, that request will be granted by Broncos' owner Pat Bowlen.

"Yes there was a meeting between Brandon, and Mr. Bowlen. There was a request for a trade. Mr. Bowlen has said that ownership will do everything in it's power to accommodate his wishes," said Marshall's agent Kennard McGuire to Fox31 Sports' Josina Anderson Tuesday morning.

Later in the day, McGuire told FanHouse's Calvin Watkins that the two sides will progress with trade talks, despite Broncos coach Josh McDaniels' claim that he expects Marshall to attend the team's training camp.

The word from the front office in Denver (outside of McDaniels) wasn't much, as they merely offered a "no comment." Teaming the report with the information we have in front of us -- in addition to the way the Jay Cutler fiasco went down -- it would appear Marshall will be wearing a different uniform come Week 1 of the season.

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Denver wide receiver Brandon Marshall wants a new contract, but isn't sure if he wants it with the Broncos or another team

A source told FanHouse that Marshall spoke with Broncos owner Pat Bowlen on Friday about his future. Bowlen impressed upon Marshall that he wants to keep him in Denver, especially after the team supported the wideout during some off-field troubles.

But Marshall is concerned about the direction of the club in light of the team dealing quarterback Jay Cutler to the Bears.

It's been more than four months since Pat Bowlen fired close friend Mike Shanahan. The subsequent search to replace the man who gave Denver 14 years and two Super Bowls was, at times, bumpy. It got bumpier after Bowlen settled on 32-year-old Josh McDaniels.

A fresh-faced Bill Belichick protégé, McDaniels had coordinated up the most explosive offense in NFL history: the 2007 New England Patriots. As often happens when coaches relocate, McDaniels wanted to bring in his "his" players to run "his" system. Hours into free agency, the Broncos inked former Pats wideout Jabar Gaffney. And then, after Denver tried to acquire Matt Cassel, incumbent Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler demanded a trade, things got messy, and, ultimately, the Broncos ended up with a couple first-round picks, Kyle Orton and a lot of questions.

Detroit, Minnesota, Tampa Bay and the Jets all took cracks at prying Jay Cutler away from the Broncos, but in the end, Denver may have been left with a choice between Chicago and Washington, according to the Denver Post's Mike Klis.

"Washington, I know, was working hard on this," Klis said when I caught up with him on the phone late Thursday night. "Basically, this deal got done because Josh McDaniels liked Kyle Orton better than Jason Campbell, that's what this tells me."

Klis also discussed whether Denver fans should be happy with this deal or not, as well as what this means for the Broncos' 2009 season and pending draft plans. The highlights are after the jump.

I don't know about you, but when one of my bosses urgently needs me, he either calls or yanks me by the earlobe into his office. We're still waiting for Pat Bowlen to have such contact with Jay Cutler, which shocks me. For a quarter-century, Bowlen has been among the dynamic owners in American sports, a primary reason why the Denver Broncos have been an elite NFL franchise.

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Jay Cutler's dreams are finally coming true: the Broncos have agreed to trade him. Of course, if he weren't so sensitive -- or if new head coach Josh McDaniels had better controlled the flow of information -- it never would've come to this.

When the season ended, nobody could've imagined that the Denver Broncos would trade their 25-year-old Pro Bowl quarterback. Yet a month after Jay Cutler learned that the organization had contemplated making a deal for Matt Cassel, that possibility might finally be realized.

Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, who admitted to to being "very disappointed" in the way Cutler has handled the situation from the outset, issued this statement Tuesday:

No team has been more active in free agency than the Broncos. They've signed 12 players, including wide receiver Jabar Gaffney, who followed Josh McDaniels to Denver from New England.

And while adding Gaffney seems innocuous enough -- he's a role player and that's it -- apparently, the Patriots took umbrage at McDaniels pilfering from his former employer on the way out the door. So much so that, according to Brad Briggs' sources, they decided to send Matt Cassel to Kansas City instead of Denver, and created the whole Jay Cutler melodrama in the process. Good times.

Even though head coach Rex Ryan has publicly stated otherwise, the Jets are in the market for a starting quarterback. Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff are young and full of potential, but if New York can land a Pro Bowl-caliber veteran, why wouldn't they?

The short answer, I guess, is: they did ... last year, and look how that turned out. Fair enough. Blowing a third-round pick on an old, slow and banged-up Brett Favre was a tad impetuous in hindsight, but surely there is some middle ground between an over-the-hill, future Hall of Famer and a fourth-year guy with 12 career starts.