Broncos Likely To Prioritize Offense In FA
- In his latest mailbag for the Denver Post, Ryan O’Halloran notes the Broncos shouldn’t have any financial restraints as they enter the 2019 free agent market (OTC has Denver with roughly $40.5MM in cap space for next year). While the hiring of new head coach Vic Fangio — a former defensive coordinator — could push the Broncos to add on the defensive side of the ball, Denver is more likely to target offensive players, per O’Halloran.
Broncos Release Andre Holmes
The Broncos have released wide receiver Andre Holmes, according to ESPN.com’s Field Yates (on Twitter). The veteran was acquired late in the season via waivers from Buffalo, but his time with Denver is through. 
Claimed off waivers just after Emmanuel Sanders tore one of his Achilles’ tendons, Holmes caught one pass during his Broncos tenure. The wide receiver was under contract through 2019, but his deal had no additional guaranteed money left for next season.
Prior to being released by the Bills in early December, Holmes had 12 catches for 157 yards on the season. Even though he had history with then-offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, he didn’t do a whole lot with the Broncos. After catching his lone target for five yards, Holmes wound up on IR to close out the year.
Holmes’ best ball came in Oakland, including a 2014 season in which he caught 47 passes for 693 yards and four touchdowns. Since then, he’s been much more of a role player and has not amassed more than 14 grabs in a season.
NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/22/19
Broncos Hire Former OL Chris Kuper
- Former Broncos offensive lineman Chris Kuper will return to Denver as the team’s assistant offensive line coach. Kuper spent the previous three seasons coaching under Adam Gase in Miami. He retired following the 2013 season with the Broncos, who deployed him as a starter for most of his career. Kuper will work under Mike Munchak.
49ers Notes: Draft, Coaching Staff
In 2017, the Niners traded the No. 2 overall pick to the QB-needy Bears in exchange for the No. 3 pick and three more draft choices. Matt Barrows of The Athletic can imagine a similar scenario unfolding this year as the Niners, once again, hold the No. 2 overall pick.
The draft board seems a little uncertain right now, but quarterbacks tend to drift up from the bottom of the first round to the Top 10 as the big day draws near. This year, teams like the Giants (No. 6 overall pick), Jaguars (No. 7), Broncos (No. 10) and Dolphins (No. 13), and Redskins (No. 15) could all be candidates to move up the board to get their next signal caller.
Here’s more out of SF:
- 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said he initially rebuffed the Broncos’ attempts to speak with Rich Scangarello because he wanted to ensure that Scangarello would in fact be moving up from quarterbacks coach to a play-calling offensive coordinator (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Nick Wagoner). Once that was confirmed, Shanahan cleared the way for Scangarello to become Vic Fangio‘s top offensive coach.
- Conversely, Shanahan says he declined requests for Mike LaFleur and Mike McDaniel to explore other opportunities because neither position they would have interviewed for would have been a promotion. In the case of both men, neither one would have been given play calling responsibilities. The Packers, Browns, and Vikings all expressed interest in LaFleur while the Packers and Cardinals reached out on McDaniel.
- Meanwhile, assistant offensive line coach Adam Stenavich was permitted to accept the Packers’ offensive line coach position.
Ware Wants To Stay On With Denver Staff
- DeMarcus Ware served as a pass-rushing consultant for the Broncos this season, but the future Hall of Famer’s role with the Vic Fangio-led staff is not certain. Fangio will spend time coaching Denver’s outside linebackers and hired Brandon Staley to oversee that position, leaving Ware with potentially less to do. However, the former Broncos starter wants to return and would like to do more if asked to come back, Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic writes (subscription required). A key Ware 2018 task was mentoring Bradley Chubb, who promptly broke Von Miller‘s record for sacks by a Broncos rookie with 12. Regardless of Ware’s Broncos employment, Jhabvala notes he plans on working with some of Denver’s players in the offseason.
Poll: Which Team Made Best HC Hire?
With the NFL now in the two-week waiting period until its final meaningful game, 30 of the 32 teams are going through offseason motions. And some of those teams are still deciding on coordinators.
Unless another Patriots assistant reneges on an agreement post-Super Bowl, or Zac Taylor makes an 11th-hour decision to remain in Los Angeles rather than taking over in Cincinnati, the eight NFL teams in need of head coaches made their choices.
So, which franchise best positioned itself for long-term success?
The trend being offensive innovation to keep up with some of the ahead-of-the-curve offenses, six of the eight teams hired offensively oriented coaches.
By a substantial margin, the Cardinals won the outside-the-box trophy. After washing out as an NFL quarterback in the mid-2000s, Kliff Kingsbury spent more than a decade as a college coach. The 39-year-old groomed some sought-after NFL talent in Patrick Mahomes, Case Keenum and Davis Webb, while also bringing Baker Mayfield to Texas Tech for a short stay. But he finished his stay in Lubbock, Texas, with a sub-.500 record. The Cards added Vance Joseph and Tom Clements to be his top assistants. Because of their unconventional hire, the Cardinals will be one of the most interesting teams in 2019.
Bruce Arians‘ CBS stay lasting one year will bring one of the more interesting coaches in modern NFL history back to the sideline. Tampa Bay’s new coach is the oldest ever hired, at 66 years old. Arians will be tethered to Jameis Winston, and it does not sound like he has issues with that. Arians hired several former Cardinals assistants to help him attempt to snap the NFC’s longest active playoff drought. Arians led the Cardinals to their best season, record-wise (13-3 in 2015), since the franchise has been in Arizona but is also barely a year removed from retiring.
The Packers and Browns opted for OCs, the former seeing a major difference in Matt LaFleur‘s vision than those of the other coaches that interviewed. Cleveland made the biggest continuity move of this year’s HC-seeking octet,promoting Freddie Kitchens over candidates with more experience.
LaFleur’s Titans offense regressed from Mike Mularkey‘s final unit, with Tennessee ranking 27th in points scored last season. But the 39-year-old coach, who will be working with ex-Jaguars assistant Nathaniel Hackett in overseeing the back end of Aaron Rodgers‘ prime, trained under Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan. Kitchens rose from position coach to head coach in less than three months, but Mayfield’s performance in the second half of the season was obviously different from his play under Hue Jackson and Todd Haley.
Taylor and Adam Gase round out the offensively geared hires, the former being perhaps the highest-variance candidate among the non-Kingsbury wing.
Although Taylor was the Dolphins’ interim OC in 2015 and McVay’s quarterbacks coach this season, he spent 2016 running a Cincinnati Bearcats offense that ranked 123rd (out of 128 Division I-FBS teams) with 19.3 points per game for a 4-8 team and was the Rams’ assistant wideouts coach as recently as 2017. Gase led the Dolphins to the playoffs in 2016, but Ryan Tannehill‘s issues staying healthy and living up to his draft slot limited the former Broncos and Bears OC. The Jets saw enough to add the formerly in-demand assistant, who may be ready to bring longtime coworker Dowell Loggains with him to the Big Apple.
Denver and Miami went with defense, with the Broncos having no competition for 2018’s assistant coach of the year and, arguably, this decade’s top DC.
The Dolphins cancelled their Vic Fangio summit, and he will be in charge of elevating a Broncos team that finished with back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since the early 1970s. John Elway‘s plan to reinstall Gary Kubiak as OC also hit a snag, with the longtime friends’ disagreement on staffing leading to the Broncos hiring 49ers QBs coach Rich Scangarello. The Dolphins will become the fifth franchise to hire a Bill Belichick-era Patriots defensive coordinator (or de facto DC, in Brian Flores‘ case), following the Browns (Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini), Jets (Mangini), Chiefs (Crennel) and Lions (Matt Patricia). Flores helped the Patriots to yet another top-10 ranking in points allowed — their 15th in the past 18 seasons — and another Super Bowl berth.
Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section!
Which team made the best HC hire?
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bruce Arians 26% (1,934)
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Cleveland Browns, Freddie Kitchens 20% (1,491)
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Denver Broncos, Vic Fangio 16% (1,192)
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Green Bay Packers, Matt LaFleur 15% (1,097)
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New York Jets, Adam Gase 7% (546)
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Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores 6% (465)
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Arizona Cardinals, Kliff Kingsbury 6% (447)
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Cincinnati Bengals, Zac Taylor 4% (282)
Total votes: 7,454
Broncos Notes: Munchak, Paradis, Modkins
Gary Kubiak went from Broncos front office exec to impending Denver OC to Vikings assistant head coach. We heard the Super Bowl-winning head coach wanted to bring back former Broncos assistants Rick Dennison and Brian Pariani to be part of the next Broncos offensive staff, and that led to the breakup between the coach and the team with which he is most associated. But John Elway‘s HC interview with Mike Munchak, while not being enough to deter the GM from offering the position to Vic Fangio, went well enough he wanted the Pittsburgh offensive line coach to come to Denver as an assistant. That was a deal-breaker for Kubiak, who sought Dennison to oversee his offensive line concepts, Mike Klis of 9News notes. The Broncos fired Pariani in 2017, and the franchise was not ready to rehire him, Klis adds. Pariani will now coach tight ends in Minnesota. Rich Scangarello is now the Broncos’ OC.
Here is the latest from Denver:
- On the subject of Scangarello, it looks like the former 49ers quarterbacks coach will be hiring someone to serve in that role in Denver. Previous QBs coach Mike Sullivan, as could be expected following the dismissal of 2017-18 Broncos OC Bill Musgrave, is not expected to be part of the 2019 staff, according to Klis (on Twitter). Sullivan had two NFL tours as an offensive coordinator, with the Buccaneers from 2012-13 and with the Giants from 2016-17.
- However, the Broncos will retain one of their other offensive assistants. Running backs coach Curtis Modkins will be back, Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic tweets. The 2016 San Francisco OC who then worked with Fangio in Chicago as the Bears’ 2017 running backs coach, Modkins succeeded longtime Denver RBs coach Eric Studesville and oversaw the stunning development of Phillip Lindsay. He will have a chance to continue working with the Pro Bowl back and third-round pick Royce Freeman in 2019.
- Perhaps the Broncos’ best center since Tom Nalen, Matt Paradis is not a lock to return to Denver as a free agent. The Broncos would like him to come back, but Klis notes he will test the market. This could be a significant development, as the 29-year-old blocker will probably be the top center available come March. Denver brass and Paradis entered into extension discussions last year, but the sides could not reach an agreement. Paradis’ ironman streak ended in November as well, with a broken fibula ending his season. The Broncos stand to hold $40MM-plus in cap space and have some cap-casualty candidates, but Paradis going to the market may well mean it will cost a team eight figures annually to sign him.
Broncos Notes: Staley, Harman, Kuper, Hill
Von Miller, Bradley Chubb, and the rest of the Broncos‘ pass rushers will have a new coach in 2019, as Denver has announced Brandon Staley as its new outside linebackers coach. Staley had worked in the same role with the Bears for the past two years, and he’ll follow ex-Chicago defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to the Mile High City. After leading Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd in Chicago, Staley will now be tasked with taking over a Denver pass rush that ranked ninth in adjusted sack rate a season ago. The Packers also had interest in interviewing Staley, tweets Tom Pelissero of NFL.com, but the Bears evidently didn’t want him to remain in the NFC North, so they blocked the request.
- Staley isn’t the only coach headed to Denver, as the Broncos have also hired Wade Harman as their new tight ends coach, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Harman was Atlanta’s offensive line coach in 2014, but switched to tight ends in 2015 and remained in that role through last season. He played a role in the development of Austin Hooper, who posted career-highs in receptions (71), yards (660), and touchdowns (four) last year. Broncos tight end Jeff Heuerman is a pending free agent, but even if he doesn’t return, Harman will work with young options such as Jake Butt and Troy Fumagalli, each of whom ended the 2018 campaign on injured reserve.
- The Broncos are interviewing former guard Chris Kuper for their assistant offensive line coach job, per Mike Klis of 9News (Twitter link). Kuper, who spent his entire playing career (2006-13) in Denver, coached in Miami for the past three seasons. He’d be working under one of the NFL’s best offensive line coaches in Mike Munchak, who was hired earlier this week. In 2018, the Broncos ranked as a top-11 club in both adjusted line yards and adjusted sack rate, according to Football Outsiders.
- Former Broncos safety Renaldo Hill is back with the club as secondary coach, tweets Klis. Hill’s playing career actually ended after general manager John Elway cut him following the 2010 season, but he’s gone on to an impressive coaching career since, and Klis notes Hill is considered a “rising star” in the coaching ranks. After six years in the college ranks, Hill acted as the Dolphins’ assistant defensive backs coach in 2018.
- The Denver-to-Arizona connection is still going strong: the Cardinals have hired ex-Broncos coaches Marcus Robertson (defensive backs) and Greg Williams (assistant DBs), per Rapoport and Klis (Twitter links). Robertson and Williams will continue to work under new Arizona defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who helmed the Broncos from 2017-18. In addition to Joseph, Robertson, and Williams, the Cards also brought former Broncos offensive line coach Sean Kugler aboard.
Broncos Fire OC Bill Musgrave
The Broncos have fired offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, according to Ryan O’Halloran of the Denver Post (on Twitter). This was the expected move after the team hired former 49ers assistant Rich Scangarello to serve as the team’s new OC. 
In theory, Musgrave could have stayed on with the Broncos in a different role, but Thursday’s move to dismiss him takes that option off of the table. From here, Musgrave can seek out other assistant jobs, and conceivably put himself in the running for some of the league’s remaining OC vacancies. The Bengals, Cardinals, Dolphins, Jets, Titans, and Cowboys are still in search of a new offensive chief.
Musgrave was elevated to Broncos’ OC position in the middle of the 2017 season when Mike McCoy was fired from the post.The Broncos went 2-4 after Musgrave took over play calling duties in 2017 and they went just 5–11 with him in 2018.
Musgrave was the Raiders’ offensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016 before the team declined to offer him a new contract following the ’16 season. Under Musgrave’s in ’16, the Raiders had the No. 6 ranked offense in the NFL.