Broncos fire Fangio after 3 seasons
DENVER — The Broncos are looking for a new head coach to lead them out of a six-year playoff drought and a half-decade of losing seasons that marks the most protracted plunge by a Super Bowl champion in NFL history.
The Broncos fired Vic Fangio after he went 19-30 over three years, including 7-10 this season despite having one of the easiest schedules and the highest-paid defense in the league.
Had Fangio’s dogged determination, unpretentious personality and first-rate professionalism led to better results on the field, he wouldn’t have been let go Sunday morning by team president/ CEO Joe Ellis and first-year general manager George Paton.
Paton sounded more like a man hiring Fangio than firing him when he declared, “He’s the best coach I’ve ever been around. And I don’t take that lightly. His attention to detail, his toughness, his work ethic and his football mind is unparalleled.”
“He put his heart and soul into this job,” Ellis concurred. “I’ve never seen a coach work harder. At the end of the day, we’re judged on one thing, and that’s winning.”
Fangio’s .387 winning percentage includes a 6-11 mark at home over the last two seasons, the worst two-year stretch in Denver since the team went 4-10 in 1967-68. His teams were just 5-13 against the AFC West.
The Broncos are the first team in league history to follow a Super Bowl championship with six straight non-playoff seasons, half of which came under Fangio’s watch.
Fangio, 63, burnished his reputation as a defensive master during his first headcoaching gig in Denver, yet his teams struggled mightily on offense under obdurate coordinator Pat Shurmur and on special teams under Tom McMahon.
Fangio isn’t expected to be out of work long. He will be a strong candidate for a defensive coordinator job in the new round of coaching changes this month.