NEW BRONCOS COACH “ALL IN” WITH DENVER
Fangio “all in” with Denver, but don’t expect bells and whistles
The easy way for Broncos general manager John Elway would have been what he described as the “glitz-and-glamour” route. The NFL is in the midst of a scoreboard-exploding revolution, which the Broncos have missed out on.
After firing coach Vance Joseph on Dec. 31, Elway would not have been faulted for securing the services of an up-and-coming play-caller to resuscitate his offense.
But as the other coaching openings were gobbled up by offensive minds, Elway took a detour … to the defense. To a return to the basics. To Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
Fangio, 60, was introduced Thursday as the new coach of the Broncos, and his message at his first news conference was the same one he delivered to Elway during his interview Monday. A Fangio-led team will not take shortcuts.
“All of the other coaches who got hired are great coaches, but what was best for us is starting at the ground again and building up,” Elway said. “I just loved Vic’s basic attention to detail and how he goes about it. That’s what the basis of football is all about, and that’s what he talked about the most.”
No, the Broncos won’t be wearing leather helmets and running the wing-T next season. But the comments from Elway and Fangio certainly had an old-school quality.
The Broncos need to get back to the basics. They need to do the little things better. They need to play with more discipline. If Fangio can accomplish that, the Broncos have more than a puncher’s chance of ending their three-year playoff drought.
“We’re not going to cut any corners,” Fangio said. “I’m a fundamentals coach. Everybody thinks (the
game) has changed and it’s a highscoring league, etc., but fundamentals are still what wins. There will be no death by inches.”
Denver’s 6-10 season in 2018 was death by a thousand paper cuts. The Broncos committed 125 penalties, second most in the NFL, had losing streaks of four (early), two (middle) and four (late) games, and scored fewer than 21 points in nine games.
Fangio’s presentation during a three-hour interview Monday in suburban Chicago quickly resonated with Elway, who made his playing legend as a quarterback, but also won a Super Bowl as an executive by helping build an elite defense. Fangio was the last of the five candidates interviewed, and when Elway returned to his office Tuesday for final deliberations, he kept returning to Fangio.
“All of the candidates we interviewed were very good,” Elway said. “Vic just jumped out when we talked. I thought it was a perfect fit for us and where we needed to go.”
Confident and insightful during a question-and-answer session with the media, Fangio sounded the part during his first-ever appearance as a head coach following 32 years as an NFL assistant.
Fangio will call the plays on defense. He praised quarterback Case Keenum, whom he gameplanned against in 2017 when Keenum was with the Vikings. He did not announce a role for Broncos senior adviser Gary Kubiak; it’s been speculated Kubiak will become the offensive coordinator. He said if a stalemate is reached on a roster decision, Elway has the final call because “it’s John’s baby.” And he talked about his mother, his late father, his orange tie (given to him by the Bears as a parting gift) and his coaching philosophy.
For Broncos fans who lamented Joseph’s on-the-job training, it should have served as welcomed fresh air. Same for the Denver players, all of whom are adamant that they are better than their 2018 record suggests.
“I was listening to people say this wasn’t that good a job to take or whatever, but we have so many core pieces here and all we need is a little direction and we’re right back into playoff position,” defensive lineman Shelby Harris said. “Even this year, with all of the dysfunction we had, we were talking playoffs after the Bengals game (that win evened Denver’s record at 6-6). That just shows you we’re not that far away. Bringing in a little new flavor will make everything a lot better.”
If a player is using “dysfunction” to describe the season, Elway probably saw the same thing on and off the field and focused on a veteran to right the ship, instead of an assistant coach closer in age to the players.
Fangio may not have any head coaching experience, but in coaching a position, coordinating a defense, calling the plays, going through rebuilds, he has been through so many situations that the Broncos believe a transition to the big chair will be seamless.
“You just build up so much experience and see so much,” said Broncos president and CEO Joe Ellis. “And you can learn so much by listening and watching and not necessarily talking. I look at that as a real bonus for us. Here is a guy who is ready to emerge.”
Fangio has been ready to emerge for years. Even when his teams had success, including San Francisco’s Super Bowl appearance after the 2012 season, he had to wait. The work and patience finally paid off.
“I’ve always felt I’ve never fit the match or the profile of what certain teams were looking for or I was with teams that weren’t succeeding at that time,” Fangio said. “I was happy with being a defensive coordinator in the NFL for (19 years). If a good situation ever arose and I matched what a certain team was looking for, I’d be all in. I believe I’ve found that here, and I’m all in.”