Broncos' coach search starts with a bang...Garrett mentioned

Gryphon

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By Mike Klis
The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/popular/ci_11350685

The search for Mike Shanahan's replacement will start in full swing this weekend.

The Broncos have confirmed they will meet with New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Tampa Bay defensive backs coach Raheem Morris.

The interview road trip will take them to New York to talk with Spagnuolo on Saturday, then to the Boston area on Sunday to interview McDaniels. The team will then interview Morris on Monday.

The Broncos have also sought — but not yet been given — permission to interview offensive coordinator Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys.

Denver also reached out to University of Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, to gauge his interest in the coaching

Raheem Morris. (Getty Images)job, according to two NFL sources.
Spagnuolo, 49, is considered the No. 1 head coaching candidate in the NFL. He was the only defensive coach who frustrated the previously undefeated New England Patriots in 2007, helping the Giants upset them in the Super Bowl.

Spagnuolo became the Giants' defensive coordinator in 2007 after eight years with the Philadelphia Eagles. After being courted by the Washington Commanders last year, the Giants rewarded him with a three-year contract for more than $2 million a year.

Morris, 32, has gradually risen through the coaching ranks after playing at Hofstra and working his way up from graduate assistant at the school in 1998. He broke in with the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2002 as a defensive quality control coach and also spent a season as defensive coordinator at Kansas State.

During his time at Tampa Bay, Morris worked with assistants Kyle Shanahan, now with the Houston Texans, and Jeremy Bates, now the Broncos quarterback coach.

McDaniels, 32, directed a Patriots offense that set an NFL record with 589 points in 2007 and finished fifth in the league this season in yards gained, despite losing all-pro quarterback Tom Brady in the first quarter of the first game to a season-ending knee injury.

Garrett, 42, was the league's hottest head-coaching candidate last year. But he turned down offers to lead the Baltimore Ravens and the Atlanta Falcons, who both made it to the playoffs this year. Garrett instead stayed with the Cowboys where he became the league's highest-paid coordinator at $3 million a year, with the understanding he would eventually replace Wade Phillips as head coach.
 

dcfanatic

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Any opening that has a team with a young QB is going to have Garrett menitioned.

If Garrett gets an offer he is going to jump on it though.

Why would he want to stay here with this mess?
 

CoCo

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dcfanatic;2548611 said:
Any opening that has a team with a young QB is going to have Garrett menitioned.

If Garrett gets an offer he is going to jump on it though.

Why would he want to stay here with this mess?

I think the answer to that question lies in why he stayed last year? Presumably, Garrett stayed in Dallas last year because that is where he wants to be HC and expects to have that opportunity in the near future.

The alternative reason he'd have stayed would be because Baltimore & Atlanta were not attractive HC gigs in his eyes. He might have also considered himself not quite ready although frankly I doubt that - given that he interviewed well enough to get both those offers.

Now if he stayed because he wants his future to be here, why would he leave now? There is nothing substantial that has changed in 12 months about the Dallas landscape. The shiftings we've had are what most every club will have during a HC tenure. You don't run every time the ground shifts a bit. The primary purpose of your job as management is to take the pieces and assemble them into a winning formula.

I don't imagine Garrett going to Detroit, if offered. I can't help but think the crumbling US auto industry is going to somehow negatively affect turnaround efforts of the Lions. Would Garrett turn down the Ravens & Falcons last year and this year accept the Lions? I doubt it.

If Garrett somehow is offered the Broncos, I could see him taking that. Its a proven situation of great ownership and fan support. And the talent cupboard is far from bare. Many think its THE plum job available and one of the best in the NFL period.

But I Spags makes the most sense in Denver (given their significant defensive challenges) and will ultimately end up there.

Garrett, I think stays in Dallas because I don't think Garrett is going to run scared to wherever he can land just because of his tarnished image (vs last year). Nor do I suspect he's afraid of the "Dallas mess". All the same people were present in Dallas last year. Its the devil Garrett already knew very well when he turned down last years HC offers.

I'd sooner think that Garrett will stay this year for the same reasons he stayed last year and will not shy away from playing his substantial part in getting this ship righted.

But that's just my own speculation. :)
 
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