Vic Fangio turned down Broncos’ coordinator job under Sean Payton in 2023 — here’s why

NEW ORLEANS — Vic Fangio rocked back and forth on his feet as he answered questions Monday night on the Superdome turf, back in the Super Bowl for the first time in a dozen years and the first time since his three-year stint as Denver Broncos head coach.

Now the defensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles, he has a defense ranked atop the league in defensive DVOA, total defense, passing defense and yards allowed on a per-play basis. He’s reached that point with the team for which he grew up cheering when he first watched football as a little boy in Scranton, Pa.

“It’s kind of come full circle,” he said.

And yet it’s possible that Fangio would have spent this week holed up in Broncos Park powered by CommonSpirit, diving into film wile heading into a third season as Broncos defensive coordinator — or, if one wants to be audacious, standing in the Superdome along with Broncos players and coaches.

At this time two years ago, Fangio was Sean Payton’s first choice to guide the Denver defense.

“Yeah, well, that was our plan,” Fangio said amid the hubbub of Super Bowl Opening Night. “We were going to do that, but at the time I thought it was too early to go back.”

Eventually, of course, Payton hired Vance Joseph for the position. Joseph was Fangio’s predecessor as head coach, so the idea was similar — and made Joseph the second former Broncos head coach to return to the team as a defensive coordinator, following in the footsteps of Wade Phillips in 2015 and 2016.

Fangio went to Miami for what proved to be a single frustrating season as Dolphins defensive coordinator. The team made the postseason for the first time in seven years, but ranked 19th in defensive DVOA and collapsed down the stretch as injuries pummeled the defense. Fangio departed for Philadelphia in the offseason and at least one Miami player, safety Jevon Holland, was thrilled, “>saying that the “difference” between new coordinator Anthony Weaver and Fangio was that Weaver “was a good person.”

But despite three losing seasons in Denver as a head coach, Fangio still has a lot of fans within the Broncos organization and beyond among those who played for him. Still, there would have been an awkwardness returning to Denver after a single season away that Joseph didn’t face, having been in Arizona four seasons before coming back to the Broncos.

“I don’t think anybody would have been ready for it at that point,” Fangio said. “You know, it would have been an unnecessary story angle for too many people.”

It all worked out for Fangio. And Joseph remains the Broncos defensive coordinator, as his unit displayed year-to-year improvement, although it struggled down the stretch in 2024.

But with Fangio’s defense objectively the best in the NFL in the 2024 season, some will wonder what might have been.

 

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