Vic Fangio stepping down to become Broncos DC is unrealistic
Many in Broncos Country believe that the best route for the team to take is to demote Vic Fangio to defensive coordinator and hire a new head coach to command the Denver Broncos. Unfortunately, this is not realistic, and will not happen.
Vic Fangio’s time as Head Coach of the Denver Broncos might be coming to an end. I do not think this decision will be easy to make if you’re George Paton, as he has said that Fangio himself was one of the selling points of taking the job.
However, Fangio has seemingly failed to take the leap as a coach that many of us hoped coming into the 2021 season. The team is better record-wise, but Fangio’s in-game decisions and clock management have not improved.
One of the main reasons why losing Vic Fangio would be detrimental to the team because of the potential drop-off from the defense, and player development.
Fangio’s defense, at least this year, has been elite. Even with the departure of Von Miller, the absence of Josey Jewell and Alexander Johnson, and Bryce Callahan missing time, the defense is among the league’s best. In fact, they might be the league’s best.
Fangio should also be credited with some of the player development on defense Dre’Mont Jones has developed into a stud, Mike Purcell came out of nowhere in 2019 to now being an every-week starter, Patrick Surtain II already is a top 10 cornerback, and Fangio’s specialty–the linebacker position, has seen quality contributions from a plethora of players.
There are also reasons to fire him as well, as I mentioned above.
One of the proposed solutions from many in Broncos Country is to simply demote Vic Fangio to defensive coordinator, hire a new head coach, and fire other coaches like Pat Shurmur and Tom McMahon, whose special teams unit just made another mistake as a write this piece on a Tuesday morning.
Those who advocate for this are right on firing Shurmur, McMahon, and perhaps hiring a new head coach, but demoting Vic Fangio to defensive coordinator is about as likely as the Broncos winning the Super Bowl this year.
It won’t happen, unfortunately.
Firstly, something like this has not ever happened before. What do teams typically do if their head coach fails at his job? They get fired, and their contract with the team gets voided. This is a common practice, as there are usually 5-7 head coaching vacancies a year in the NFL.
Those head coaches who get fired get fired typically because the team underperformed under their leadership, so why would that fired head coach happily take a demotion, and why would the front office offer a demotion?
Just think, imagine if the Jacksonville Jaguars, who just fired Urban Meyer, offered him a demotion to stay with the team.
Imagine if the New York Jets, before hiring Robert Saleh, wanted to keep Adam Gase on the staff, but asked him to take a demotion.
There is no sense or reason for doing such a thing, which is why teams don’t do it.
We must also consider the potential conflict of interest in doing so. If Vic Fangio was demoted, Denver Broncos risk the new head coach and Fangio clashing. Fangio was in charge of this team for 3 seasons, and the team could risk Fangio wanting to overstep the new head coach’s authority.
This becomes even more true if the new head coach was given his first gig as well.
In a perfect world, this situation could probably survive, but there are way too many possible negative variables that make this situation unrealistic.
So, if Vic Fangio does get fired, he will not be with the team anymore.