4. Broncos
Head coach: Vic Fangio
Talk about biding your time before getting a shot. Fangio got his first defensive coordinator job in 1995 and was an NFL defensive coordinator for 19 years before finally getting the call to be a head coach last season.
The Broncos were sitting at 3-8 with five games to go last season before Fangio made the call to put in Drew Lock at quarterback. They went 4-1 to finish the season 7-9.
Being a great coordinator isn’t all that matters when it comes to being a head coach. And though the defense deserves some credit for the Broncos strong finish, it clearly was Lock’s insertion that made the difference. That’s not a knock on Fangio because every team needs a good quarterback to have success and Lock was on the partial season injured reserve list before that, so he wasn’t even available for Fangio before that. It just means that after one season on the job, the jury is still out on Fangio as a head coach.
It’s also worth mentioning that Fangio inherited one of the league’s best defense. What happens when he loses some of those guys and has to make the picks to replace them? We’ll see.
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