Could Vic Fangio’s job be on the line in the Denver Broncos’ Sunday Night Football matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs?
Do the Denver Broncos have their 2022 head coach and quarterback currently under contract?
That remains to be seen, and there’s a lot that could happen between now and the 2022 offseason, even if there’s not a lot of actual time between now and then.
In the 2019 offseason, the Denver Broncos searched for a new head coach after firing Vance Joseph, who was the team’s head coach in 2017 and 2018. They wound up obviously hiring Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who was a rookie head coach at that time. Not quite three years later, are the Denver Broncos preparing to potentially move on from Fangio in the 2022 offseason?
How impactful is the Chiefs game on Vic Fangio’s future with the Broncos?
Standing in the way of the Denver Broncos pulling off basically a complete reset of the coaching staff and quarterback position is this Sunday night matchup in Kansas City against the Chiefs.
The Chiefs are on a four-game winning streak, they have been red hot in the month of December the last couple of years, and Andy Reid is 19-3 historically after the bye week.
In addition to this being a road game, do you need any more reasons to bet against the Broncos in this one?
How about the fact that dating back to 2015, the Chiefs have won 11 straight against Denver?
No one would disagree that this is a tall order for Vic Fangio and his staff. There are few people who look at the Denver Broncos right now and see a Super Bowl contending team, but the Broncos are obviously better than a lot of people assumed they would be this season, and even if they don’t make it to the Super Bowl, a win in Kansas City could function as a Super Bowl of sorts for Fangio.
General manager George Paton could have fired Fangio as soon as he was hired into his position, but he didn’t. In fact, he stated that Fangio was a big reason he took the Denver job.
Whether you believe him or not is irrelevant — it’s what he said.
Still, there are plenty of reasons to think that Fangio might not be the right guy for the job in the future.
He obviously delegates just about everything to the offensive coaching staff, and some people don’t necessarily view that as a good thing (I would tend to disagree and say that Fangio is doing the right thing, there).
He does struggle badly with in-game management and decisions a lot of the time. His clock management decisions are questionable at best and whoever is advising Fangio on throwing his challenge flag in the 2021 season should probably have a different role or none at all.
Fangio has also made some questionable decisions when it comes to retaining certain coaches and getting rid of others. Tom McMahon’s special teams unit has been a weak area for years now, but Fangio won’t replace him.
It’s also probably a fair perception that Fangio seems to think he’s right about most everything and is slightly stubborn when it comes to taking heat for poor decisions during games or making certain choices with the team’s depth chart. Of course, the fans are not always right, either…
Player development under Fangio has been a mixed bag, as one might expect, but for the most part, Fangio has proven in Denver to be exactly what he has been throughout his NFL career.
Fangio is a very sharp defensive mind who can call a defensive game plan with the best of them.
Under Fangio’s watch, the Broncos have seen a lot of positive development from their own drafted defensive players and guys that have emerged from draft classes in the previous regime or who came in as unheralded, undrafted players.
He has assembled a veteran coaching staff with some of the best assistants in the league.
There are plenty of reasons to buy into Fangio, a tremendous coach who would be one of the most coveted defensive coordinator candidates on the market if the Broncos would let him go.
It does feel like this game against Kansas City will have massive implications on his future in Denver.
Win, and the playoffs are a legitimate possibility, if not probability, with just five games to play and a matchup next week against the Detroit Lions.
Lose, and the playoffs become increasingly unlikely, and the streak of losing against the Chiefs extends to 12 games over six seasons.
There’s still plenty of season left. As long as the 2021 season has felt, that’s weird to even say. With that being said, Fangio has to prove that his team is not going to run hot and cold at the worst possible times. Getting off to a 3-0 start against some bad teams has proven to be very important for the Broncos, who have now gone 3-5 over the last two months, but 3-1 in their last four games.
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A win vs. Kansas City would be absolutely huge for Fangio’s future with the Denver Broncos, whatever that may be.