Broncos tab Fangio as new head coach

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Forget RPOs. John Elway is going with AARP.

The Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, 60, has accepted Elway’s offer to become the Denver Broncos’ next head coach, a person with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Broncos didn’t announce the hiring, something the team won’t do until Fangio signs his contract. He’s expected to be introduced as the club’s 17th head coach today.

Fangio replaces Vance Joseph , who was fired on New Year’s Eve after posting the franchise’s first back-to-back losing seasons since the early 1970s.

Cardinals taking a chance on Kingsbury

Cardinals president Michael Bidwill went outside the traditional boundaries to find his new head coach, identifying Kliff Kingsbury as someone who can ignite the team’s moribund offense and mold Josh Rosen into a dynamic NFL quarterback.

Kingsbury, with no NFL coaching experience and a losing record in six seasons at Texas Tech but a history of high-scoring offenses and prolific quarterbacks, was introduced as the Cardinals coach at a news conference at the team’s headquarters on Wednesday.

Kingsbury called it “an incredible opportunity.”

The reason for the hire, Bidwill made clear, is Kingsbury’s record as an innovative offensive coach.

“Look at today’s NFL and you look at the college game, especially the last several years, has come into the pro game,” Bidwill said. “When you look at the output of his offenses, both when he was a coordinator in college and as a head coach, it’s really impressive, the amount of points he puts up, where he positions his offenses. And you look at the six quarterbacks that he tutored and coached that have come into the National Football League.”

Bucs counting on Arians

Tampa Bay is counting on Bruce Arians to help Jameis Winston realize his potential, however the young quarterback isn’t the only component the twotime NFL Coach of the Year has to fix if the Buccaneers are going to end a long postseason drought.

A porous defense has been a problem for much of the team’s decade-plus absence from the playoffs and needs immediate attention, too.

So does an inconsistent running attack which ranked among the worst in the league this season, when Tampa Bay lost 11 of 14 following a 2-0 start to finish last in the NFC South for the seventh time in eight years.

Arians came out of retirement Tuesday to replace Dirk Koetter, who made significant strides with the Bucs offense but wasn’t able to develop Winston into a top-tier quarterback while going 19-29 over the past three years.

The 66-year-old Arians will be introduced during a news conference Thursday.

AP source: Browns lock up Kitchens

The Browns didn’t have to go far to find their new coach. Freddie Kitchens was already in the building.

The 44-year-old Kitchens, who had a dazzling eight-week run as the team’s interim offensive coordinator, is finalizing a contract to become Cleveland’s ninth coach since the franchise’s 1999 rebirth, a person familiar with the decision told the Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team is not commenting on the imminent hire.