John Fox Addresses Media For First Time As Broncos Head Coach
By Editorial Staff
John Fox was formally introduced as the Broncos 14th head coach this afternoon.
“He’s a dynamic leader. He’s a guy that has energy and a guy that gets the most out of his players,” John Elway said on Friday during the press conference. “We did so much research on all the candidates and there was nothing that came back on John Fox that was negative in any way whether it be from a player’s standpoint or a coach’s standpoint or a general manager’s standpoint.”
Fox is a well-liked coach, and a well-liked guy. One would have to be in order to coach in the league for 25 years. His NFL coaching career started in Pittsburgh as a defensive backs coach. He made the rounds as a defensive coordinator before landing his first head coaching job in Carolina in 2001.
One of the most appealing things about Fox is his ability to bring teams back from the brink to being contenders very quickly. After going 1-15 the year before arrived in Carolina, the Panthers reached the Super Bowl in his second season coaching the team. He also brought the Panthers to the NFC Championship game in 2005 (two years after their Super Bowl appearance).
When Pat Bowlen said, “He has some unique qualities that gave me a lot of confidence,” that’s what he’s talking about.
John Fox, Pat Bowlen, and John Elway hit it off immediately. After interviewing all day Wednesday, the three went out to dinner. The reconvened the next morning, and shortly thereafter, the hiring announcement was made.
“This is an organization that I’ve admired from afar,” Fox acknowledged.
The first order of business will be hiring a coaching staff and bringing more talent to the field.
“We will do everything we can to get the best human talent on the field,” Fox reassured the crowd.
Mike McCoy is not necessarily guaranteed to be the Broncos offensive coordinator next season. Rick Dennison could easily be added to the staff to fulfill the Broncos need in that area. After coaching Arian Foster to a record setting season, Dennison could be just the guy to take the Broncos’ running game back to grade A form.
As far as the quarterback situation goes, Fox respects Tim Tebow and thinks that his potential is limitless.
“He’s got work to do, but he’ll do whatever it takes. He’s got as good intangibles as any athlete I’ve ever been around. I think nothing but upside is going to occur for him moving forward.”
Defensively is where Fox will have the bulk of his work cut out for him.
“There’s no question defensively that we need to be more disruptive and create more turnovers. Turnovers are what I call layups meaning that you set your offense up to score points.”
Lucky for us, defense is Fox’s bread and butter. That’s most likely the reason that he was hired. He said that he would be upgrading the talent on that side of the ball through the draft and the free agent market.
It’s clear that he will make defense a top priority, but seeks balance on both sides of the ball. He said that the successful teams are not one dimensional, but multi-faceted.
For a team where a plaque with Murphy’s Law written on it has been sitting next to the team logo since 2005, deficiency on one side of the ball has been the issue.
Fox is here and he’s going to slyly bring this team back to life.
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