Newly hired Broncos general manager George Paton spent his entire offseason giving his head coach Vic Fangio all the pieces he needed to have a successful season and contend for the playoffs.
Paton went out and put together the most expensive defense and secondary in all of football and even kept future hall of famer Von Miller for one more season with a near $20 million cap hit (before ultimately trading him to the Los Angeles Rams). Fangio was given two quarterbacks to choose from between Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater and yet nothing seems to work for Denver.
Changes will be made this year, whether it’s during the season or immediately after the season. A lot of speculation has circled around suggesting that the Broncos can’t hire a new head coach until after they receive a new team owner. Well, that’s actually not the case.
I’ve been told that Paton isn’t going to wait around for a new owner to make changes. He’ll pull the plug whenever he feels like it and hire a new head coach.
With that being said, let’s take a look at some early potential candidates that can replace Fangio.
Eric Bienemy
A lot of people would love the hire of Eric Bienemy after the success he’s had with the Kansas City Chiefs. Bienemy has become the hottest name on the market and it’s for good reason, he wins with Patrick Mahomes.
There is a connection between Paton and Bienemy. Bienemy was the running backs coach in Minnesota while Paton was in the front office from 2006-2010. The former Colorado Buffaloes player and coach was also named assistant head coach for the Vikings in 2010.
Leslie Frazier
One name that has continued to pop up as a potential head coaching hire this upcoming offseason is Bills assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.
Since taking over as the defensive coordinator for Buffalo in 2017, Frazier’s defenses have never been worse than the 18th best scoring defense. In fact, Frazier has had two top-three defenses in football including this season for Buffalo.
Dan Quinn
If Broncos Country wants a true players coach as their leader, then Dan Quinn is the guy. It’s hard to find a bad thing said about Quinn as players have continued to express how much they love him in the locker room. A former offensive lineman that played under Quinn told me that Quinn would be his first choice if the Broncos were looking for a new head coach.
Once again Quinn is a defensive minded head coach and in fact, George Paton has only been part of an organization that had an offensive minded head coach one time and that was with Brad Childress in Minnesota. Quinn and Paton were together in Miami from 2005-2006.
Brian Daboll
One of the hottest names that will be on the market this offseason will be Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. Now a lot of people might look at the coaching tree that he’s been apart of and freak out because he comes from Bill Belichick’s tree, but he’s going to be the exception.
After bouncing around as an offensive coordinator with Cleveland, Miami, and Kansas City, Daboll went down to the college ranks. In 2017, Daboll was hired as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Nick Saban at Alabama. That year, Alabama won the National Championship beating Jake Fromm’s Georgia Bulldogs with Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa at the helm.
Joe Brady
Let’s go with another offensive minded guru. Now Brady doesn’t have the most coaching experience in the world and has only coached in the NFL for four years, but teams around the NFL were interested in him after the success he had at LSU.
In 2019, Brady was a big part of LSU winning the National Championship with Joe Burrow leading the way. Burrow arguably had the greatest college season of any quarterback, but before LSU Brady was learning from one of the best offensive minds in the NFL in Sean Payton. From 2017-18, Brady was Payton’s offensive assistant and was able to learn from him and Drew Brees.
Mike McDaniel
Not many people know this name yet, but people within the NFL know that Mike McDaniel is on the rise. If McDaniel is hired, it would shock a lot of people like Zac Taylor did when he was hired by the Bengals.
McDaniel is a Colorado native and interned for the Broncos back in 2005. As time went on McDaniel hooked on with the Shanahan tree and has followed Gary Kubiak to Houston and then reattached himself in Washington under Mike and Kyle Shanahan. Since then, Kyle has brought him along everywhere he’s gone and is the offensive coordinator for the 49ers as we speak.
Nathaniel Hackett
For Broncos fans still hoping that a trade for Aaron Rodgers is still in play, they might want to hope that this guy is their head coach to attract Rodgers. Hackett is a players coach that everyone loves.
Hackett actually interviewed for the Falcons job this past offseason and made a lot of people around the league raise their eye brows. Everywhere he has coached, he’s raised the level of play from his quarterbacks. Hackett had success at Syracuse as an offensive coordinator, quarterback coach, and tight ends coach.
Just remember George Paton will not wait for a new owner to hire his new head coach of the Denver Broncos.
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