Following Monday’s terrible news that John Elway has accepted a “high” role in the Denver Broncos office, the team will hire a new GM. The future of the franchise is very much in question.
Vic Fangio’s position as head coach, however, is not. The Broncos aren’t “flying it all,” but they keep Fangio in search of continuity.
Just a day after the most important news that reached the Broncos Country in almost a decade spread like wildfire, Fangio talked about the job security of his current staff and whether there will be coaches fired as a result of the end of the team 5-11.
“No, I anticipate he will return in full,” Fangio said Tuesday. “As always when things happen in the first part of the offseason, some guys may have some chances to advance. We’ll always look at that, but other than that I’m anticipating the staff coming back.”
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It was just last week ESPN Adam Schefter reported that Fangio would return for his third season in Denver. While the announcement was not necessarily a surprise to those in the city of Mile High City, the timing was strange due to the important areas for improvement that Fangio and his staff had yet to fully master. .
In the season finale against the Las Vegas Raiders, Fangio once again demonstrated his difficulty in managing the game as head coach. In the Raiders ’final drive, the defensive guru opted to use Denver’s two remaining timeouts, which Las Vegas used to regroup and explode with a touchdown and a two-point conversion in consecutive plays.
The Broncos’ offense was left with just 24 seconds to try a drive that, hopefully, would establish a winning field goal in the game. It wasn’t on the cards, as the Broncos dropped their eleventh loss of the season, falling 32-31 to the Raiders.
For the past two seasons, it has been painfully obvious that Fangio is not comfortable with time management, offense and special teams. As in the loss to the Tennessee Titans at the start of the season, which saw Fangio’s clock management and use of clutch timeouts lead directly to the team’s first defeat, his 32 games as head coach revealed that his defensive Xs and Osten insight, and play-calling, interrupted his responsibilities as head coach.
Fangio has compiled a 12-20 record with a earnings percentage of .375. When asked if he evaluates his own performance of the season, Fangio was cautious.
“Absolutely. From A to Z we’ll evaluate everything, and we’ve already started that, “Fangio said.” We will study other teams, as many as we can in the allotted time, and we will turn them all to stone in an effort to improve. “
It has been theorized that veteran coach Ed Donatell has been severely underused as Denver’s defensive coordinator. With 30 years of experience as an NFL coach, Donatell reaches his third stint with the Broncos and has worked the last ten years with Fangio in previous passes in San Francisco and Chicago.
Fangio has said he prefers to call the games from the stand, he gave a vague answer when asked if he would consider handing over the game tasks to Donatell.
“I think that depends on what I said before,” Fangio said. “Anything we can do from A to Z to improve, we’ll analyze it, evaluate it, and see if we think it’s the best we can do.”
Another area for improvement is undoubtedly the special equipment unit that has been abysmal under coordinator Tom McMahon. The 51-year veteran coach was hired by Denver in 2018 and many fans have publicly called for McMahon’s resignation on social media, and the same can be said for offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, who will also return.
The fact is that the last time the Broncos special teams unit was ranked in the top ten was in 2001. It can be argued that special teams have gone down the road as a result of the inconsistency and lack of depth of the list.
“I think the performance of our special teams was very similar to our offense and our defense,” Fangio said Tuesday. “It simply came to our notice then. We allowed too many negative plays to take place against us in the return match. We had a blocked point or two that you can’t have. “
Fangio was also asked what he trusts in McMahon.
“I have confidence in Tom that he will be able to turn it around,” Fangio said. “Tom was a boy than John [Elway] he highly recommended me the first time I took this job and we kept Tom. He is a tireless worker, very knowledgeable about the game of kicks. We just have to push a button, as we do in attack and defense, to avoid disastrous plays. “
Aimed at the third season of Fangio, there seem to be more questions than answers. What is the identity of the team? What is Fangio’s mission statement? How will Fangio improve?
Assuming the NFL and Broncos are better prepared and equipped for another odd season with possible COVID-19 restrictions, Fangio maintains an optimistic outlook for his future.
“Hopefully the third year will be the magical year for me, where everything will be a little smooth again,” Fangio said.
Follow Luke on Twitter @LukePattersonLP i @MileHighHuddle.