When the Denver Broncos hired Vic Fangio as their new head coach this offseason, it represented a deviation from what other NFL teams have been doing over the past couple of years.
Fangio, a defensive-minded guy, is not the same type of coach most other teams have been hiring. You know, the Adam Gase's, Matt LaFleur's, and Zac Taylor's of the world.
Clubs are merely trying to find the next Sean McVay, which is resulting in a trend of offensive-minded coaches earning the head-coaching jobs.
There was a time, however, when the NFL was a defense-first league, and Fangio, who spent the 2018 campaign as the Chicago Bears' defensive coordinator, thinks that defense will reign king again at some point:
“Football is a trending sport, always has been, always will be,” Fangio said, according to Chris Perkins of The Athletic. “Probably the most successful head coaches over time, going back to the ’60s and ’70s, were defensive coaches. So we’ll get back there someday.”
Fangio represented one of just two defensive coaching hires this offseason, with Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins comprising the other.
Earlier in the season, after the Los Angeles Rams' 54-51 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, Fangio was asked if those types of scoring outputs were the new trend, to which he answered “no.”
Then, later in the year, Fangio's Bears defeated the Rams by a score of 15-6, and afterward, he had this to say.
“I went in and asked them all if that was the new trend,” said a laughing Fangio.
Maybe at some point, that will become the norm again, but for now, there is no doubt that the NFL is an offense-first league.
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