Drew Lock should have a new quarterbacks coach soon

The Denver Broncos hired a new offensive coordinator — Pat Shurmur — to help lead Drew Lock into prosperity. Who will be his position coach?

One of the big positives for Drew Lock and the Denver Broncos about a month ago was the fact that the team was going to have some continuity on the offensive coaching staff with Rich Scangarello and company presumably returning for a second season with the team.

That was the plan until it wasn’t.

The Broncos let go of Scangarello after just one season on the job, his first as an NFL offensive coordinator. The NFL is a tough business. Despite some signs of progression and success from Scangarello, it wasn’t enough for the Broncos to pass on what they felt was an upgrade with new offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.

Shurmur comes over after a couple years on the job as head coach of the New York Giants. He has worked as a head coach before for the Cleveland Browns and comes from the Andy Reid coaching tree.

Shurmur doesn’t have quite the same type of coaching tree of a guy like Andy Reid, but he certainly has his ‘guys’ which is why the Broncos let go of quarterbacks coach TC McCartney, who came over this past year with Scangarello from the 49ers.

With both Scangarello and McCartney out and Shurmur in as offensive coordinator, who is coming in to be the Broncos’ new quarterbacks coach?

As of a couple of days ago, a couple of options made sense.

One was John DeFilippo, who previously coached with the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, and Jacksonville Jaguars. Filippo was a hot coaching candidate after his work with the Eagles’ quarterbacks on Doug Petersen’s staff back in 2017.

He wound up signing on with the Chicago Bears, leaving New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Shula as the most logical fit for the Broncos.

Benjamin Allbright says that move is ‘likely’ to happen.

Shula is the son of Don Shula, the NFL’s all-time winningest coach and has a lot of coaching experience himself.

A three-year starting quarterback at Alabama in the 1980s, Shula became an NFL coach in 1988 as an assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He’s coached with the Buccaneers, Dolphins, Bears, Jaguars, Panthers, and Giants in the NFL, and was the head coach of his alma mater Alabama from 2003-06.

After he was fired by the Crimson Tide, Nick Saban took over in 2007. How’d that all work out?

Since he was let go as head coach of the Crimson Tide, he’s carved out a nice niche in the NFL as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and actually was the offensive coordinator against the Broncos’ historic 2015 defense in Super Bowl 50 when he was coaching with the Carolina Panthers.

Most notably, Shula has overseen the development of a number of young quarterbacks and his resumé is that of a coach who can be trusted with Drew Lock. As a matter of fact, I thought he did a tremendous job along with Shurmur of bringing Daniel Jones along quickly for the Giants last year.

Jones was not the most talented QB in the 2019 NFL Draft class in my opinion, but the Giants had him looking like the most NFL-ready player in the league by the time preseason rolled around. As a rookie, Jones threw a very respectable 24 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions in just 12 games, and had three games with at least four touchdown throws.

Shula was hired by the Panthers in 2011 when they drafted Cam Newton, so he oversaw his development from the moment he entered the NFL and worked with the Panthers until 2017.

The Broncos will obviously have a different group of people coaching Drew Lock this offseason, and that won’t be anything new to Lock who has gone from one coordinator to another in his post-high school days.

Denver’s move to get Pat Shurmur should bode well for Lock, and a potential move of Mike Shula would be the icing on the cake.