The Broncos buck NFL trends, hire Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio as head coach

While the rest of the league hired QB-developing coordinators, Denver doubled-down on defense.

In a year where teams are hiring more and more inexperienced offensive coordinators as head coach, the Broncos are bucking the trend. On Wednesday, news broke that Denver would hire longtime NFL defensive coordinator Vic Fangio as its new head coach. The team officially announced the news on Thursday.

Fangio has coached in the league since 1986, taking only a single season off to handle DC duties at Stanford. He spent his last two seasons with the Chicago Bears, turning a top 10 unit in 2017 into the league’s most fearsome defense this fall. Fangio’s Bears used the addition of stars like Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith to build a unit that led the NFL in both points allowed and turnovers forced while carrying the franchise to its first NFC North title since 2010.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Dan Graziano were the first to report the hiring.

Fangio will be asked to rehabilitate Denver’s crushing defense

The Broncos have a handful of standouts along their defensive front, but Denver earned a diminished return from its stars last fall. After ranking in the NFL’s top five in points allowed each season from 2014 to 2017, the club fell to 22nd in 2018. The Broncos gave up 20+ points in nine games last season, including three times in the 1-3 slump that smashed the team’s postseason hopes into dust to close the year.

A deeper look at the club’s advanced stats suggests Denver was fairly mediocre despite a roster that included talented players like Von Miller, Bradley Chubb, and Chris Harris.

By hiring Fangio, general manager John Elway is hoping he can unlock the extra level he did with Mack in Chicago. The 2016 defensive player of the year was a man possessed after being freed from Oakland, recording strip sacks in each of his first four games with the Bears. And when teams adjusted with constant double teams, Fangio’s planning allowed Mack’s teammates to fill the gaps created in his wake.

It worked like a charm — three Chicago defenders, including Mack, were first-team All-Pros. Akiem Hicks was a Pro Bowler. Roquan Smith was a tackling machine who should receive a handful of defensive rookie of the year votes.

There’s a clear parallel for that success in Colorado, and it starts with Von Miller— the edge rusher who had been the league’s top-paid defensive player before Mack signed a record-setting contract extension with the Bears. Miller has proven he can be the type of disruptive presence that creates a rising tide for his teammates. The question is whether or not the rest of the Denver roster can thrive under Fangio.

The rapid development of Chubb, the No. 5 overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, will help. Chubb was a valuable bookend to Miller, and the duo paired up to collapse pockets from the outside in. They combined for 26.5 sacks and 47 quarterback hits this fall.

The key for Fangio now will be finding the kind of interior presence who can absorb blockers and shrink the pocket from the inside out like Smith and Hicks could in Chicago. The 2018 Broncos got an underwhelming performance from their three-man defensive front, and there’s plenty of room for upgrades among a group that started Adam Gotsis, Derek Wolfe, and a 34-year-old Domata Peko on its defensive line.

But the Broncos still need to fix their offensive problems

While Denver’s defense backslid in 2018, its biggest issue is the problem that’s haunted the franchise since Peyton Manning’s retirement: subpar quarterback play. Fangio will have to decide whether he’s ready to pay Case Keenum $21 million to be the team’s starter in 2019 or start from scratch while eating $10 million in dead cap space in the process.

Keenum fell off after turning in an outlier season under Pat Shurmur in 2017, but he was still better than his career average in Denver — even if that wasn’t especially good. His 81.2 passer rating ranked 29th among starting quarterbacks last season, beneath the since-deposed Joe Flacco and slightly ahead of Blake Bortles.

Fangio will have an opportunity to reset the team’s quarterback depth chart, but his options aren’t especially appealing. The Broncos will pick either ninth or 10th at this year’s draft, but 2019’s crop of quarterback prospects can’t compare to 2018’s group. Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins or Duke’s Daniel Jones could be appealing picks, but there’s no sure thing among that lineup, and the guy Elway and Fangio are targeting could be gone by the time Denver’s on the clock.

The team could also turn to a robust market of flawed veteran quarterbacks in hopes of a stopgap solution. Could Teddy Bridgewater, a guy Fangio’s defense faced twice in his Pro Bowl 2015 season, move the needle for Elway? Is Tyrod Taylor the kind of turnover-averse quarterback who can do enough to allow a dominant defense to win game? Does Joe Flacco have anything left to offer a playoff team?

There are several options in play for a Broncos offense that needs a quick infusion of passing talent, but nothing close to a sure thing among the bunch.

Elway originally planned to install Denver staple Gary Kubiak as offensive coordinator or in a similarly high-leverage advising role. Instead, it looks like the two sides didn’t see eye to eye on the team’s future, and now the Broncos will have to find someone else to counterbalance Fangio’s defensive focus.

No matter who gets hired, the Broncos can have some faith in their overachieving offensive line and the fact Phillip Lindsay is pretty good.