Mike McCoy, Bill Musgrave are game-changing moves

The Denver Broncos coaching staff is filling up quickly, with Vance Joseph hiring both Mike McCoy and Bill Musgrave on Friday…

The Denver Broncos officially added Mike McCoy as their offensive coordinator and on Friday also added former Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave to their staff as quarterbacks coach.

John Elway apparently doesn’t know anything but winning, even in the coaching free agent pool…

This is quite literally, and figuratively, a game-changing move for the Denver Broncos. While I wasn’t overly keen on the idea of Mike McCoy being back as the team’s coordinator, I had to go back and look at the bigger picture and what he has done throughout his career as a coordinator/head coach to adapt his offense to specific players.

The first time he was in Denver, he helped lead Kyle Orton to career years statistically, no matter how terrible Orton was as a player back then. He changed the offense mid-season to fit the skillset of Tim Tebow, when it was apparent the Broncos were going nowhere with Orton and something — anything — had to be done.

Then after Tebow’s magical 2011 season, McCoy was rewarded for his patience with a year of Peyton Manning. Manning’s 2012 season wasn’t his best in Denver, but it was MVP caliber in my opinion. McCoy seemed to have a pretty conservative nature with the Broncos as offensive coordinator, but in the later years, that could have been due to the presence of notoriously conservative John Fox as the team’s head coach.

Adaptability was essential in McCoy’s candidacy for this job. He’s adapted to more injuries with his rosters in San Diego than any head coach would care to have to deal with. That adaptability was highlighted in Vance Joseph’s remarks after the hire was made official:

“Mike is an experienced play-caller who can build a system around our players,” Joseph said. “It was our goal to find an offensive coordinator who has flexibility with his scheme, and Mike has done that as both a head coach and coordinator. He’s had a lot of success in this league with many different styles of offense, including here with the Broncos.

“Mike will bring energy and creativity to our offense, and we’re excited to welcome him back to Denver.”

Also a welcomed sight back to Denver is Bill Musgrave, the team’s new quarterbacks coach. A 20-year coaching veteran with 18 years of experience as a coordinator/quarterbacks coach, Musgrave is the architect behind one of the best quick turnarounds on offense in the NFL over the last couple of seasons.

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He was hired by the Raiders in 2015, inheriting an offense that ranked dead last in yards, 31st in points scored. That offense bloomed in the last two seasons, and was the reason the Raiders made the playoffs in 2016, finishing second in the AFC West.

The addition of Musgrave is astronomical for the young quarterbacks in Denver. Having both McCoy and Musgrave? Absolutely a spoil of riches.

The Broncos couldn’t have asked for a better scenario with two veteran coaches who have worked with the best of the best when it comes to quarterbacks in this league. Musgrave has coached an interesting array of quarterbacks to Pro Bowl seasons, most recently with Derek Carr and then with Matt Ryan (2010), Michael Vick (2005), and Steve Beuerlein (1999).

With the experience the Broncos now have on the offensive side of the ball, fans should be at least somewhat at ease with the fact that Kyle Shanahan remains coaching the Atlanta Falcons for the foreseeable future. While Vance Joseph didn’t win anyone over by demanding that Wade Phillips stick around, he has definitely won me over with this strategy of adding two of the best offensive coaches in the game, let alone on the coaching free agent market.

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