DENVER FIRES OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
Broncos coach Vance Joseph fires offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and promotes quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave to interim coordinator.
In the hours after the Broncos took their sixth consecutive loss, coach Vance Joseph reviewed the game film and came to the conclusion that a major change was needed. Another major change.
Monday morning, in a decision all his own, Joseph informed offensive coordinator Mike McCoy that he was fired. Bill Musgrave was promoted as interim coordinator and play-caller for the remainder of the season, and Klint Kubiak, previously offensive assistant/quarterbacks, was elevated to quarterbacks coach.
The coaching change appeared weeks in the making after the Broncos’ steep drop from a 3-1 team before its bye week to a 3-7 team in the weeks after. A quarterback swap from Trevor Siemian to Brock Osweiler in Week 9 failed to stabilize the offense and eliminate pesky turnovers. And frustration continued to permeate the locker room and front office as the Broncos searched for answers to their myriad issues — most of which have been on the offensive side.
“I thought at this moment for our football team moving forward that a change was needed, going from Mike to Bill Musgrave simply because I want to have a more efficient pass game,” Joseph said. “You have to have that. Our running game has been good, but our passing game has not been good, in my opinion. We have to find ways to have a pass game where it’s more completion passes, we can call them with more confidence, we can call them in hard parts of the game and execute. That hadn’t happened. So that’s why the change was ultimately made.”
When Joseph was hired in January, McCoy was his top choice as
offensive coordinator after he was let go by the Chargers, where he had been the head coach for four years. The two had visions of creating an offense with “swagger” and “flexibility” that was both prolific and efficient.
In the Broncos’ first two victories, the goal appeared to be achieved.
But over the last six weeks, the Broncos have plummeted to near the bottom of the league in most major offensive categories and might be on to their second quarterback change of the season.
Starting Sunday, the Broncos’ offense figures to sport a new look.
“Moving to Billy, I think we’re going to have a chance to have a more efficient pass game with simplifying the concepts and helping our quarterbacks have a cleaner progression on where to go with the ball,” Joseph said. “That’s why it was made. I’m looking forward to Bill having a chance to put his touch on the offense and having a chance to watch our pass game grow a little bit and not be so scattered in our passing concepts.”
The simplification, Joseph said, will be made for the offense as a whole. Not just the quarterback’s role. And the tweaks will inevitably alter the scheme.
“It has to. It’s a different coordinator,” Joseph said. “Now, again, when you’re talking about an NFL offense, terminology is the key. Everyone runs similar concepts, but the terminology of what you call things, that’s where the problems come in. We have to figure out a way to keep the terminology the same but simplify the concepts and get to a more efficient brand of a passing game.”
Since Week 6, the Broncos’ “brand” has been dismal. They averaged 14.2 points per game, the second-fewest in the NFL, and amassed an NFL-high 17 turnovers.
They were shut out for the first time in 25 years (Week 7) and Sunday lost to the Bengals at home for the first time in 42 years. Denver currently ranks 24th in scoring (18.3 points), 29th in red-zone efficiency (45.5 percent), 27th in passing yards per play (5.49), 31st in turnovers (23).
When Joseph decided to bench Trevor Siemian in favor of Osweiler, he issued a disclaimer that the move wouldn’t correct the offense’s many problems. And it didn’t. Monday, Joseph provided a similar disclaimer after parting with McCoy.
“Mike chose us, and I chose Mike. Mike was my first call,” Joseph said. “So I don’t want to put this all on Mike McCoy. Even with the Trevor decision, it wasn’t all on Trevor. We could have coached better and played better around Trevor. I feel the same way about Mike here. … Mike didn’t fumble the ball. Mike didn’t throw interceptions. But ultimately it falls on Mike’s plate. … Mike took the fall for it because he’s the coordinator. But ultimately Mike’s a good football coach and a good person, and that was hard.”
Now Musgrave, the former Broncos quarterback and longtime playcaller, will take over in time to face his former team, the Raiders.
A 20-year coaching veteran with 11 years experience as an offensive coordinator, Musgrave helped an Oakland offense that ranked last in total yards (282.2 per game) and 31st in scoring (15.9 points per game) in 2014 leap to the top seven in both categories (373.3 yards, 26 points) by 2016.
Though the Broncos sit at 3-7 and their window for a playoff run has all but closed, perhaps a change will spark a turnaround before the clock on 2017 runs out.
“Right now, I feel that we’ve got a lot of good offense and a lot of good plays that we’ve missed. But we haven’t mastered anything,” Joseph said. “I think Billy’s going to bring a sense of consistency to our offense that we can master four or five concepts, and that’s good enough to get better.”