Ousted from his three-year gig as Broncos head coach, Vic Fangio said early this offseason he would take the 2022 season off. But the longtime NFL defensive coordinator is keeping the door open to a return down the line.
Fangio interviewed for the Jaguars’ HC job in January — a job that went to Doug Pederson, who took the 2021 season off — but was not connected to other top gigs during an offseason that featured 10 HC changes. Prior to Fangio’s Denver role, he resided as one of the NFL’s premier defensive coordinators. A return to the league would likely be in a DC post.
“We’ll see where things stand and develop and what’s available to see if I’m a good match for somebody, but it’s definitely a possibility — probably as a coordinator,” Fangio said of a coaching return, per Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (on Twitter).
Not unlike Mike Zimmer becoming a head coach at nearly 60, Fangio, 63, did not see his DC chops lead to a top sideline position until 2019. The Broncos’ quarterback problems and injury issues — particularly at edge rusher, where Von Miller and Bradley Chubb barely played together during three Fangio seasons — largely undercut Fangio’s defenses. Denver still ranked as a top-10 scoring defense twice during Fangio’s tenure (in 2019 and ’21), though DVOA was less bullish on those teams’ defensive capabilities.
Nevertheless, Fangio’s defensive blueprints are all over the league presently. It would seemingly not be difficult for him to land another DC gig in 2023. Such a job would be his sixth in that position. A pro assistant dating back to USFL 1.0 in the mid-1980s, Fangio — after a successful run guiding Pro Bowler-laden Saints linebacking units — has worked as a coordinator for the Panthers, Colts, Texans, 49ers and Bears. The latter two stops, respectively, produced three straight NFC championship game berths, a Super Bowl XLVII appearance and an Assistant Coach of the Year nod in 2018.
After DeMeco Ryans is hired as a head coach, Fangio will come back to SF as DC
Vic is one of the best defensive minded coaches and he would be a great addition to any team.
Sort of a moot point, as no team would hire him as a HC again after his dismal showing in Denver. Some people just aren’t cut out for that job, as it takes time and attention away from what got them notoriety in the first place.
I highly and completely disagree. Fangio did a pretty good job in Denver, considering the incredible amount of injuries (more than the usual amount for any team), the tough conference, and most of all, the quarterback issues that his team faced.
Every time that Danver lost a defensive starter, they still ended up playing well. That’s even more impressive considering two factors: the amount of little known contributors or players regarded as busts who made names on that defense (Johnson, Jewell, etc) is an indicator that it was a function of coaching over talent is the first factor. The other is how much time they spent on the field due to the poor offense.
In spite of having one of the bottom offenses in the league (they scored under 20 points a game last year, and barely 20 the year before), Denver was still in the hunt until the back end of the season. They won 7 games with no quarterback. Bridgewater got hurt, and Lock was the worst quarterback in the league the last two years.
People do enjoy saying that Lock had no help-but that’s simply not the case. His decision making was incredibly and uniquely terrible (his deep shots to covered receivers and inability to throw the ball away), and his mechanics (mostly setting his feet properly when pressured and throwing frequently across his body or from his back foot), and he single-handed LT lost Denver several games. Bridgewater is a quality backup and good option as a short term starter, but he is not one of the better QBs in the league. Even an average starter would have won Denver a handful more games, and that’s all they needed to have a winning record and make the playoffs. If that had happened, we’d be having a much different discussion. I hardly blame Fangio for being saddled with such poor quarterback play and coming so close to winning despite that in two seasons (2021 and 2019).
There certainly are several things to blame Fangio for (the poor time management is one, but relatively few coaches when you count names actually stand out in that field according to fans), and the biggest is definitely retaining Shurmur. In all honesty, firing Shurmur likely would have made Denver much better by default. The quarterbacks were bad after Bridgewater’s injury, but the playcalling was just as bad the entirety of Shurmur’s tenure. Fangio with another quarterback, especially a veteran like Wilson, would given Denver a much different outlook than what they ended up getting.
That rules out the Patriots.