ENGLEWOOD - Just don't get on Mike Shanahan's bad side, is all I'm saying.

When Shanahan trades you to the Raiders - the team that fired him and then refused to pay off his remaining salary - he wants you out of town in the worst way.

Which is pretty much the way Gerard Warren went Monday. The Broncos get a fifth-round pick if Warren makes the Raiders roster. It was the best offer Shanahan had for the third overall pick in 2001, the man drafted two spots ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson. By the Browns, of course.

So the Browncos are done. It's a little hard to remember just why collecting Cleveland castoffs ever sounded like a good way to build a defense. Nevertheless, the plan was to rehabilitate Browns busts like Warren and Courtney Brown and in the process cleverly assemble top-of-the-draft defensive line talent without ever actually drafting up there.

In the end, the Browncos gave the Broncos approximately what they gave the Browns. Sometimes, things are exactly as they appear. Brown's knees forced him from the game. Michael Myers is in Cincinnati. Ebenezer Ekuban went out for the year Saturday in Dallas.

Did I mention that the Browns are in town this weekend for a preseason game? If you're a Broncos fan, I suggest you do everything you can to keep officials from the two teams apart.

The stunning part of Shanahan's change of heart on Warren is that he gave him a $36 million contract just last year, following Warren's first season with the Broncos. This is football, so the aggregate numbers don't really mean anything, but something approaching $10 million was guaranteed, and that number means something. You don't give $10 million to a guy you expect to kick to the curb a year later.

My understanding is that Warren and linebacker Al Wilson were the two players at the heart of the disagreement over personnel within Shanahan's staff at the end of last season. First, defensive coaches Larry Coyer, Andre Patterson and Kirk Doll were shown the door. Wilson and Warren soon followed.

The issues for Warren are always conditioning and motivation. Playing for a contract in 2005, both were pretty good. After getting it in 2006, both slipped noticeably.

Then, too, there was his failure to adapt to Jim Bates' new defensive scheme. Warning: football jargon ahead.

Warren is a "one-gap" defensive tackle who aims for a particular gap between offensive linemen and tries to bull his way through.

Under Bates, the Broncos want their tackles to play two gaps, lining up directly opposite an offensive lineman and covering gaps on either side of him.

(Bates denies it is a "two-gap" defense because only the tackles are asked to play that way. The ends, for example, line up wide and play one gap - the last one. As Dr. Strangelove's Gen. Buck Turgidson might point out, we seem to have a nomenclature gap, but that's for another day.)

Simultaneously, the Broncos are dealing with the loss of Ekuban. Normally an end, Ekuban was also working inside in pass-rush packages. But his injury was not enough to change Shanahan's mind about Warren.

Meanwhile, not to give undue weight to games that don't count, but the post-Browncos defense - and particularly its front seven - has been lousy in the first two preseason games.

"We aren't catching on as fast as we'd like," Bates said Monday. "But we still have ample time to get it done."

When I asked Shanahan if fans had reason to be concerned based on Saturday's one-sided half between the two first teams in Dallas, this was his reply:

"I think anytime you don't play up to your capabilities, there's always a concern. If there's not, you don't have the right type of guys. But I give our team the benefit of the doubt.

"We didn't put in a game plan. We played a team that played on Thursday night compared to Monday night. We went two times a day. We put them through a tough week. It was a part of camp. And that's part of the process.

"This week we do have a game plan going in. It's more of a sense of urgency, really trying to play a game like you play during the regular season, even though it's not complete. So we'll find out if we get a little bit better."

Frankly, just playing Cleveland should make them a lot better, assuming they don't trade for a carload of Browns afterward. But the next time you hear breathless appraisals of how this or that acquisition is the greatest thing since . . . well . . . since two spots before L.T., remember Gerard Warren. One minute, he was leading the Broncos to the promised land. The next, Al Davis was taking him off their hands.

This much we know: When Shanahan trades you to the Raiders, you were most definitely done in Denver.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com