The Denver Broncos will wrap up their first round of head coaching interviews on Friday. The team may then look to do second interviews with some of the candidates.
There are currently five head coaching vacancies in the league and no team has yet to fill that hole. In addition to the Broncos, the Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers are all looking for a new coach.
The Broncos will have their sixth different coach (counting Jerry Rosburg) since winning Super Bowl 50. The Broncos need to get this decision right and it seems that all teams are being very thorough in their search.
Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn will be the last known candidate to have his first interview with the team. Following that, Greg Penner and his staff will really put their heads together and likely make a decision as soon as this coming week.
Here, we are going to take a look at each of the candidates and rank them. These rankings won’t necessarily be from best to worst but rather, who is most likely to land the head job next season.
One candidate, Jim Harbaugh, was already eliminated from the list when he chose to remain at the University of Michigan.
That leaves us with seven candidates to take over the job held last season by Nathaniel Hackett. Who is most likely to be the man hired by Penner, George Paton and the Denver Broncos?
Broncos coaching predictions
7. Jim Caldwell
One of the first interviews the Broncos conducted in this process was that of former Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell.
Caldwell has not been a head coach since the 2017 season but is interested in re-joining those ranks. He was successful in that regard, taking the Colts to the Super Bowl and having winning seasons in three of the four years he coached the Lions.
Caldwell has a lengthy coaching background that started in the college game before he came to the NFL. He has been a quarterbacks coach for numerous teams and could have the eye to help Russell Wilson get back on the right track.
But Caldwell is certainly not the splashy hire that the Broncos seem to be aiming for. Despite his success in the league, he has just a 62-50 overall record and a good portion of his success can be attributed to taking over a Colts team that had a great run under Tony Dungy, who was there before him.
Given what the Broncos are facing in terms of turning around a long downtrodden franchise, Caldwell may not be the right man for the job.
Though no coach on this list can be dismissed entirely, it would seem fairly shocking if Caldwell ended up being the man chosen for the spot.
Broncos coaching predictions- No. 6: Ejiro Evero
It’s hard to determine where to place Ejiro Evero on this list.
I would place him higher due to the fact that he has worked around this team for the past season and may have some great ideas about what kinds of changes need to take place, but I just don’t feel there is much of any chance he gets his job.
The nice thing for Evero is that he has caught the eye of most of the teams looking for a new coach in this year’s cycle but the Broncos would likely love to keep him on the staff due to the job he did as defensive coordinator this season.
He is only 42 years old and will most likely be a head coach at some point down the line, it just may still be a little early in his career for that to happen right now.
The biggest question with Evero will likely come down to whether or not he will be part of the staff that the new head coach puts in place.
He is the only in-house candidate that the Broncos have interviewed for the job.
Broncos coaching predictions- No. 5: David Shaw
Like last year when the Broncos interviewed numerous candidates from the coaching staff of the Green Bay Packers (before ultimately landing on Nathaniel Hackett), the team interviewed David Shaw, who once worked alongside Jim Harbaugh.
Was any part of that interview to see if Shaw would be willing to be part of a potential staff led by Harbaugh?
Shaw worked in the NFL prior to joining Harbaugh at Stanford before becoming the head coach of the Cardinal, being in that role for the past 12 seasons. He resigned following a 3-9 season this past year and now could be free to come back to the NFL, where his name has come up as a possibility for a head coaching job with teams in the past.
Shaw would be the true wild card hire if it were to happen. If he got this job, it would be because he had an interview that the front office just simply could not ignore, which may be a good thing or a bad thing.
It would be one of the most interesting head coaching hires by any team in the league in quite some time if it happened.
Broncos coaching predictions- No. 4: DeMeco Ryans
San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans is one of the hottest names on the market in terms of coaching candidates and if this were any other year, he might be the best option for the Broncos.
But the team is 0-for-3 in its last three attempts with a first-year head coach and for that reason, in my opinion, the Broncos almost can’t hire him. The next coach must come with prior experience because this is not going to be a situation that a rookie coach can comfortably step into.
He is this high on this list because of what he has done with the 49ers as well as the high praise he receives from former teammates, such as J.J. Watt.
Like Evero, Ryans will be a head coach someday. He may even get one of the other vacancies as he has had more than one interview. But it just does not seem like the right place or the right time for him to come into this situation and look to resurrect the Broncos.
Broncos coaching predictions- No. 3: Raheem Morris
As I wrote about here, Raheem Morris could be the true dark horse to land this job. Others may see Shaw as that guy, but Morris makes more sense in my mind as he has coached at the NFL level and he has taken over in difficult situations.
On top of that, he helped lead the Los Angeles Rams to a Super Bowl win last season as the team’s defensive coordinator.
Morris is ready to lead an NFL team again as it has been over a decade since he was coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But there is a reason his name comes up as a potential candidate every offseason.
Morris is a defensive coach but he has worked with Sean McVay for the last couple of seasons. If he has gained anything offensively from him, it wouldn’t hurt his cause.
Morris is still young at 46 years old but he has a ton of coaching experience so while he could still relate to the players, he knows how to build a winning culture and championship locker room.
How well he would mesh with Wilson as a defensive guy would be the big question.
Broncos coaching predictions- No. 2: Dan Quinn
It was a tough call between number one and number two here, but Dan Quinn falls into this slot. He could still easily get the job though because the Broncos have been rumored to be high on him and he interviewed with the team last year as well, so they have had their eye on him for some time.
Quinn would not be the most exciting hire but the more you think about it, the more it sounds like a suitable plan.
Quinn has been to a Super Bowl. Yes, his team blew a 28-3 lead in that game but that should not disqualify him for a high-ranking position again. Since then, he has turned the Dallas Cowboys’ defense into one of the best in the league, the same way he once did with the Seattle Seahawks.
And speaking of that, he is familiar with Wilson due to their time there together when they went to back-to-back Super Bowls in 2013 and 2014. That led to him getting the head job with the Atlanta Falcons, but perhaps his time with Wilson could lead to a comfortable setting for the both of them.
Quinn was the last candidate to interview for the job, barring any others that the team adds to the list, and he is the only one that the team also interviewed last year.
That says something right there.
Broncos coaching predictions- No. 1: Sean Payton
What seemed highly unlikely at one time is starting to look more and more possible with each passing day. The Broncos and Sean Payton are said to have mutual interest and a deal could be struck soon.
The big question then would become, what did the Broncos give up to the New Orleans Saints in order to make the deal happen?
As soon as it was announced that Harbaugh would be staying at Michigan, the focus for most Broncos fans turned completely to Payton, who is easily the biggest and most recognizable name out there right now.
Payton has been lauded for the job he did as coach of the Saints from 2006-2021 which included helping Drew Brees become a Hall-of-Fame-quarterback. The hope would be that he could turn Wilson around and make the Broncos’ offense potent once again.
It remains to be seen which coach ends up getting this position but there is no doubt that this hire would create more buzz inside Broncos Country since the team’s last Super Bowl win.