ATLANTA — Wade Phillips. Wade Phillips. Wade Phillips.
Spend enough time around any Broncos fan and you’re sure to hear all about Wade Phillips.
And let’s be honest, it’s for good reason, too. In Phillips’ first year of his latest stint with the Broncos, he coordinated a defense that’s in the conversation with the greatest defenses of all time. On their path to hoisting the Lombardi trophy, Phillips’ defense mowed down Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady and Cam Newton, a group of quarterbacks that, at the time, boasted seven Super Bowl rings and four MVPs, with Newton, of course, being the MVP that season.
Just two years later, though, when the Broncos hired Vance Joseph to be their head coach, they elected to promote DBs coach Joe Woods to Phillips’ position, thinking they could capture some of Wade’s genius in a man who learned under him, while also holding on to a coach they believed to be a true up-and-comer.
Fast forward two years, and both Joseph and Woods have been relieved of their duties in Denver, while Phillips has led another defense to the big game.
In what may, in part, be an effort to recapture the Wade magic, though, the Broncos have hired yet another defensive mastermind, and according to their ex, it may be an upgrade.
“Oh he’s a great coach,” Phillips told BSN Denver of the Broncos’ new head coach, Vic Fangio. “I know Vic pretty well and he’s a tremendous coach. He was the best defensive coordinator in the league this year.”
That’s high praise from one of the best defensive coordinators of all time.
“Better than you?” BSN asked Phillips.
“He was the best,” he responded without hesitation.
Last season, Fangio’s Bears defense gave up just 17.7 points per game and 299 yards per game, good enough for first and third in the league, respectively, so it’s pretty hard to argue with that, but the praise from the “Son of Bum” should help Broncos fans who miss Phillips feel better about the future.
And Wade wasn’t the only one singing Fangio’s praises on Super Bowl media night, we asked legendary Patriots head coach Bill Belichick about him, too.
“Vic has done a great job. He certainly did a great job with the Bears, we had the opportunity to practice against them a couple years ago and being able to work with Vic out on the field and see him work with his players and develop his defense—it was obviously an early stage in training camp—but he’s a good football coach, he’s tough, he’s got a lot of experience and I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”
Of course, it’s always hard to predict the success or failure of an NFL coach until the ball is kicked in Week 1, but it’s very clear that Vic Fangio has the respect of his peers, and that says a lot.
