ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On Sunday evening, the Denver Broncos said goodbye to their playoff chances, for all practical purposes, after losing to the Las Vegas Raiders 17-13.
Despite being only one loss away from their third-straight losing season, George Paton did not say goodbye to Vic Fangio as Denver’s head coach following the Broncos’ eighth loss of the season.
Less than 24 hours after falling to 7-8 and seeing his team’s playoff hopes dip to less than 0.1 percent, Fangio stated he does not worry about his job status.
“And I know you think that’s a standard answer, but for a lot of reasons I do not worry about it. Those reasons are personal to me,” the head coach said firmly. “But do I acknowledge that it’s certainly out there and could happen? Absolutely. But do I worry about it? I absolutely do not worry about it for many, many reasons.”
For the time being, the 63-year-old head coach has cleared the first hurdle in returning for the 2022 season. Monday marked the first day that teams can talk to potential head coach candidates around the league as long as they’ve either fired their head coach or notified their coach that they will not be back after the season.
As of Monday afternoon, Fangio hadn’t been fired nor been told he would not be returning. The veteran coach doesn’t believe either of those should happen.
When asked if he and his staff deserve a fourth season leading the Broncos, Fangio was quick to respond, “Absolutely.”
“Direct, short answer, absolutely,” the head coach stated.
If Fangio does return in 2022, it will be the final year of his deal. Typically in the NFL, coaches are either fired or given an extension before they coach on an expiring contract. Despite the precedent, Fangio said he will “absolutely” return in 2022 without an extension.
“George and I have a great relationship. I think I said a month or two ago that one of the best assets the Broncos have is George Paton. And I firmly, firmly believe that,” Fangio stated about his relationship with his boss and Denver’s general manager. “I’ve been around a lot of General mangers, some that are in the Hall of Fame, and I think this guy is just great at his job and he’s going to continue to be great at his job and he’s going to have a major impact here on the Denver Broncos. Him and I get along tremendously.”
Along with having a great relationship, Fangio added the two do discuss the future of the team together.
“Most of our discussions right now are at the task at hand. With juggling the roster with everything going on,” Fangio said. “Yeah, we do talk about the future. Sometimes those conversations lead into the future, but we don’t go too far into the future. We’re focused on the task at hand right now.”
The Broncos streak of losing seasons extends beyond Fangio’s tenure in Denver. The organization that once prided themselves on having more Super Bowl appearances than losing seasons over the past many decades has fallen far from that standard.
The next two weeks, instead of worrying about his job status, Fangio is focused entirely on closing out the year with back-to-back wins and getting Denver their first winning season since 2016.
“We’re going to do everything we can to win this next game. I’m not worried about if I have to win the next two to secure the job,” Fangio added. “That’s totally not in my frame of thought right now. We’re going to do anything and everything we can to win this game this week… I just want to do as good of a job as I can do leading this team to get a win this week. That’s my total focus.”
After starting the season 3-0, the Broncos have stumbled to a 4-8 record. Yet Fangio doesn’t see a struggling team. Instead, he views the Broncos as “close.”
“These last three losses, they’re all losses it really doesn’t matter what the score is, but they’ve all been close games that have come down to the wire,” Fangio explained. “We just need to find a way to get those turned in our favor.”
With his hot seat baking, Fangio remains confident that he and his staff will not only get the Broncos turned around, but that they should be given the opportunity to do so for at least one more season.
