Denver Broncos: Vic Fangio could bring defense-centric success
The Denver Broncos hired Vic Fangio to be their next head coach, and his presence could take them back to success based on his defensive prowess.
Not that long ago, the Denver Broncos landed Peyton Manning at the end of his career and one of the greatest quarterbacks off all time had some of his most jaw-dropping statistical seasons of his career. Yet, it was in arguably the worst season of his career when the Broncos went on to win the Super Bowl, and the main reason for their success was the strength of their defense.
Clearly that’s what the Broncos have in mind with their latest head coaching hire, bringing in former Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to replace Vance Joseph as head coach in Denver.
Fangio’s prowess in regards to his scheme and play-calling on defense have been proven to be second-to-none in the NFL in recent years. Last season, with the Bears defense struggling with big holes, injuries and other shortcomings, Fangio still had them as the 14th-best defense in the league in Football Outsiders’ DVOA. In 2018, of course, the addition of Khalil Mack helped vault Fangio’s unit to being tops in the NFL in the same metric.
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Coming into Denver, Fangio will again be blessed with an otherworldly pass rusher in Von Miller, but other high-caliber defensive pieces as well, such as young Bradley Chubb, Chris Harris Jr. and maybe Bradley Roby, should he be re-signed in free agency in the 2019 offseason. That bodes well for this defense.
What has obviously set the Broncos back in recent years has been their offense. In the era of Trevor Siemian, the Denver offense struggled due to quarterback play. With a slight upgrade to Case Keenum this past offseason, though, the problems did not go away as the system, offensive line and general level of play were consistently less than mediocre.
New Broncos offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak will be key in addressing that and at least making them a league-average unit on that side of the ball. And it’s entirely possible that will happen. However, the less talked about reason for the Broncos dropping off is that their defense has not been good enough to carry them in recent years.
The inclusion of Fangio in the Denver locker room and on the sidelines, however, has the potential to change that. Yes, he’s a hire that stands in contrast to others made around the league at head coach with him being an older veteran in addition to a defensive-minded guy. Having said that, this is the perfect team for him to employ that.
Perhaps Fangio is not cut out to be a head coach. We’ve seen that plenty of times before in the NFL. Moreover, perhaps the Broncos offense isn’t good enough to help this team contend no matter what the defense looks like. That’s all in the realm of possibility with this team.
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Even so, it’s clear that John Elway and the Broncos are looking at their defense with the mindset that they have won a Super Bowl with a philosophy that rides that unit to success. And with that perspective, Fangio makes a ton of sense for what they can potentially do.