Broncos appear to have two favorites to land head coaching job

The Denver Broncos are diving right into their search for a new coach, bringing in several different candidates to interview for the job.

George Paton is working diligently to find a successor to Vic Fangio and attempt to get the Denver Broncos heading back in the right direction. As a result, he has identified 10 different candidates to bring in for interviews.

The team completed its first interview on Thursday, bringing in Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn. He was one of the surprise candidates on the list, but also one I placed on this list of candidates the team should avoid.

The candidate list doesn’t contain many (or any) big splash names, such as these outside-the-box candidates, but it seems that Paton is content to take the sensible, calculated approach to find the new man to lead the team.

Keeping those candidates in mind, it seems that two names have risen to the top in terms of favorites to land the position, at least if you ask the members of the local media that cover the team.

Those would be Dan Quinn and Nathaniel Hackett.

Dan Quinn is the only former head coach Broncos are lined up to interview

Quinn was one of the first names to come up when Fangio was relieved of his duties and possibly even before the move was made official. Of the 10 names on Paton’s list, he is the only one with previous head coaching experience, having gone 43-42 with the Atlanta Falcons which included an appearance in Super Bowl LI.

Because of what he has done in his lone season as defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys this year, Quinn is likely on the shortlist of many of the teams looking for a new coach.

Hackett is a little lesser known, but having been the offensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers since 2019, he is starting to get looked at by teams around the league. Prior to that, he was offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars and helped them reach the AFC Championship Game in 2017.

But Matt LaFleur is still in charge of playcalling duties in Green Bay and having Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback may give Hackett a little more shine than he might deserve at this stage in his career.

That is what Paton needs to find out.

Hackett is the son of Paul Hackett who at one time was considered one of the best offensive minds in the league, so he has that on his side. There’s also the thought that if Hackett were hired, Packers quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy, who is also one of the 10 candidates, could be brought on as the new offensive coordinator.

If Quinn and Hackett are the frontrunners to land this job, are the Broncos on the right track? Or is the media giving these names too much credit when Paton will end up going with more of a surprise choice?

These questions should be answered soon.