Denver Broncos: Vic Fangio and Pat Shurmur should not be fired
The Denver Broncos have dropped two straight games after a 3-0 start, but firing coaches won’t solve the issue the team seems to have.
Through three weeks, the Denver Broncos looked like one of the best teams in the league. After dropping two straight, they now barely look like a playoff team, and their issues have begun to look more and more obvious.
One of the biggest issues seems to be Pat Shurmur’s puzzling playcalling at times, and Vic Fangio’s inability to make in-game adjustments, and often confusing time management skills.
Many in Broncos Country have called for both men to be fired, along with inept Special Teams Coordinator Tom McMahon.
However, I’m not sure firing any of these coaches will help improve the performance of the team.
First of all, coaches who typically get fired mid-season are part of bad football teams.
Think in years past, when a head coach gets fired during the season–the team itself is almost always struggling and clearly out of the playoff picture.
I think this holds true for coordinators as well. The Denver Broncos firing Vic Fangio and/or Pat Shurmur would indicate that the front office doesn’t think they can win with the current coaching staff.
This would make sense if the Broncos weren’t currently 3-2 and sitting at the 7th and final playoff spot in the AFC.
I would understand firing either coach if the team continued to lose games, but even if the Broncos lose against the Raiders on Sunday, they’d be 3-3, which is still a reasonable spot to make a playoff push.
We also cannot forget that Ronald Darby is returning to the lineup, as is Jerry Jeudy and Bradley Chubb farther down the road.
Furthermore, if the Broncos were to fire Vic Fangio, who would replace him as head coach? Pat Shurmur proved to be an inadequate head coach in his career, and Mike Munchak last was a head coach in 2013 with the Tennessee Titans, where he compiled a 22-26 record.
Who exactly presents a better option at head coach than Vic Fangio?
Fangio has built some sort of culture in his three years as head coach, and he has the respect of his players and command of the locker room.
Firing Vic Fangio now would effectively send the locker room spiraling into unknowns, leaving the Broncos even less likely to make the playoffs.
Firing Pat Shurmur is also a bad idea, in my opinion. I think there is an ever so slightly better argument to firing him, since Quarterbacks Coach Mike Shula has had some success as an OC in the NFL, namely being Cam Newton’s offensive coordinator during his 2015 MVP season.
However, Teddy Bridgewater has played very efficiently to start the season, and the Broncos offense has shown many signs of being legit, so would the team want to risk the offense falling completely out of sync, more so than what they already have?
If the Broncos win on Sunday against the Jon Gruden-less Raiders, they’d improve to 4-2 and likely move up in the AFC playoff race.
The Broncos starting 4-2 would give them their best start in over five years, all as Jerry Jeudy soon returns from his injury and Bradley Chubb looks to recover further from his ankle surgery.