The Denver Broncos are reportedly bringing in Rob Calabrese, Rich Scangarello’s replacement at Wagner, as an offensive assistant.
The Denver Broncos are setting in place the infrastructure of a very interesting coaching tree, one that could pay huge dividends both in 2019 and well into the future.
The latest reported hire is Rob Calabrese, who will be taking an assistant position within the offensive coaching staff. Calabrese is not a hire that will draw many national headlines, but it’s a significant one for the structure the team is currently putting into place.
Rob Calabrese, the Broncos’ new offensive assistant, was Wagner's offensive coordinator the last two seasons.
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) January 29, 2019
When Rich Scangarello was Wagner’s OC in 2016, Calabrese was the RB coach.
When Scangarello left to become the 49ers QB coach in 2017, Calabrese became the OC.
Everything right now seems to be pointing to the Broncos setting up an offensive brain trust to develop a young quarterback. Let me explain, but first, get to know the Broncos’ newest offensive assistant coach a little bit better.
Calabrese talks at the beginning of this video about working with Scangarello with the Wagner Seahawks as a running backs coach before being promoted to the offensive coordinator position after Scangarello left to work with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco.
Two years later, Scangarello has brought T.C. McCartney (former San Francisco offensive assistant) and Calabrese, both college backup quarterbacks and both very young guys with bright futures in the coaching industry.
Their inclusions in the coaching staff make me wonder if the Broncos aren’t planning on setting up a strong offensive coaching infrastructure for the future to keep continuity for a young quarterback.
The hope was that Gary Kubiak would be that rock for Paxton Lynch in 2016, but Kubiak had to step away for health reasons and Lynch was a draft bust.
Incidentally, Calabrese was coached in college by Charlie Taaffe, Lynch’s personal QB coach.
This is looking way too far into the future, but a couple of years from now if Scangarello is getting a head coaching gig, the Broncos may have the perfect pieces in place to promote a guy like McCartney to offensive coordinator and Calabrese to quarterbacks coach, and that cycle could continue on.
It’s exciting to see the Broncos setting up an offensive coaching pipeline with young coaches who will all be on the same page together year one. These guys have worked together, they know each other well, and they’re going to be given the task of developing a top young quarterback as quickly as possible.
It should be a lot of fun to watch, and hopefully, Scangarello’s crew can have a lot of success right away.