Prior to spending eight seasons coaching alongside Vic Fangio in San Francisco and Chicago, Ed Donatell collected a pair of Super Bowl rings in Denver. The Broncos have employed the latter for two stints and may be set to bring him back.
Fangio’s new team will interview Donatell for its defensive coordinator position, Mike Klis of 9News tweets. This meeting has been rumored for a bit now, to the point it would be an upset if Donatell did not get the job. He was previously weighing between staying in Chicago or following Fangio to Denver.
This interview, the Broncos’ first for their DC job, could well be a sign he has chosen the latter path.
Donatell served as the Bears’ defensive backs coach for the past four seasons. Prior to that, he led the 49ers’ secondary. He held this position with the Broncos in the late 1990s, being on both of Mike Shanahan‘s Super Bowl-winning staffs. Donatell returned to Denver in 2010 before following Fangio and Jim Harbaugh to the Bay Area a year later.
Although he has coached secondaries throughout the 2010s, the 61-year-old assistant is a three-time DC — with the Packers (2000-03), Falcons (2004-06) and Redskins (’08). Fangio said he would call plays for Denver’s defense, so this gig would not bring the kind of responsibility many in the NFL do.
The Broncos are not retaining two-year DC Joe Woods, who has drawn interest as a DBs coach from multiple teams.
There is not much of a decision for Ed to weigh as Chicago chose Pagano over him.
Depends if Ed wants to move and be a DC without the responsibilities of one or stay Good luck. He has never been a DC for a 3-4 defense before. Something that hurt his chances with the Bears. Of course Fangio is really the DC anyway in Denver.