After taking over as the New York Giants’ head coach in 2018, Pat Shurmur got to work assembling his staff and eventually settled on James Bettcher, formerly of the Arizona Cardinals, as the team’s defensive coordinator.
However, Bettcher may not have been who Shurmur initially wanted.
Having been fired by the Giants after just two seasons, Shurmur was quickly scooped up by the Denver Broncos earlier this week, where he’ll serve as their offensive coordinator. And during his introductory interview with the team, Shurmur implied that he wanted Vic Fangio, not Bettcher, as the Giants’ defensive coordinator.
“I’ve always admired the #Broncos & what they stand for — a winning organization. … I really believe in Vic Fangio and the staff that he’s put together.” – Pat Shurmur on becoming our new OC pic.twitter.com/sZeDzMKoaZ
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) January 16, 2020
“I admire him as a coach and as a person,” Shurmur said of Fangio. “I tried to get it so that we could work together once before here recently, but it didn’t happen. Fortunately, now it did happen.”
Prior to Shurmur’s hiring of Bettcher in 2018, there weren’t many rumors regarding his potential interest in Fangio, who was serving as the Chicago Bears’ defensive coordinator at the time.
It’s possible Shurmur and the Giants had requested to interview Fangio and were denied, but it never leaked to the press. It’s also possible Shurmur was handcuffed into hiring Bettcher, but again, that is not information that ever reached the light of day.
None of it really matters now, but the “what if” game is always fun. And what if Shurmur had hired Fangio instead of Bettcher? It’s quite possible things would be very different today.
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