Broncos Say No Mo’

The Maurice Clarett project is officially over in Denver, and is anyone really surprised? Clarett never cracked the top four on the depth chart in Denver causing the Broncos to cut their third round pick. Head coach Mike Shanahan said the decision to draft Clarett was a mistake and it was time to move on.


``I think any time you cut somebody in the third round, you feel like you made a mistake,'' Shanahan said. ``When you do that, you make a mistake and you go on. At least you evaluate it. That's not to say that Maurice doesn't have a chance to go to another football team and make that team and contribute. But in a true evaluation of your own organization, when you use a third-round draft choice and he does not make your team, obviously it's not good.''

After troubles off the field and a dismal performance at the NFL combine it really comes as no shock that Clarett didn’t make the team. What is a shock is that he didn’t even play a down in the preseason. Shanahan is the guy who takes fifth round picks and turns them into All-Pros and Super Bowl MVP’s. Maurice Clarett proved to be too big of a project for even him.

``We've made mistakes before,'' Shanahan said. ``We'll make mistakes in the future. Just because we draft somebody in the third round doesn't mean they're automatically going to be on our football team. We've cut our first-rounders, second-rounders before. You don't feel very good about those scenarios, but they do happen.''