Inch by inch, Vic Fangio is already changing the Broncos’ culture

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Last year in the Broncos’ headquarters, being on time simply meant just being on time.

As long as players were able to sliiiiiide through the doors before a meeting commenced, then all was good.

“Last year, we had guys coming in two seconds before [meetings], and they aren’t even seated when the time the meeting is,” fullback Andy Janovich said on Thursday, echoing nearly the same sentiment of Bradley Chubb just minutes before. “But [they] were there.”

The saying “If you’re on time, you’re late” wasn’t uttered under the old regime.

That’s all changing under Vic Fangio.

“Vic, he’s a no-nonsense guy,” Janovich, a fellow no-nonsense guy himself, said on Thursday.

Instead of showing up at 7:59 a.m. for an 8:00 a.m. meeting, the team is now showing up at 7:55 a.m.

“But now it’s five minutes early, now we start five minutes early, so it’s just extra time to sharpen every tool you have,” Janovich explained. “The classroom, you spend more time there then you do on the field in practice, so it’s more of a mental game a lot of times. Just to have extra time is big.”

But it’s not actually a big deal, right?

Wrong, Vic Fangio would say.

In fact, this is precisely Fangio’s motto, death by inches.

“The little things, they add up, and he doesn’t want them to turn into big things,” Ed Donatell, Denver’s new defensive coordinator, said, explaining what Fangio’s death-by-inches philosophy means.

“If he wants you touching the line in the drill, he wants that. He wants you in alignment in a certain place, he wants your eyes to be where they’re supposed to be, and he wants people to be responsible to the team.”

Last year, all of the little mistakes caught up to the Broncos.

“We shot ourselves in the foot. Guys just weren’t tuned in all the time and come game day that kills you,” said Janovich. “It’s the details that we need to fix. It’s as simple as that.”

Fangio’s one of the best defensive minds in the game, if not the best. During the first week of the team’s offseason workout program, it’s becoming clear that attention to detail has been one of his secret ingredients over the past three decades.

Just three days into the 2019 Broncos season, players already feel a new, and improved, culture.

“I definitely feel like definitely a lot of guys are a lot closer this year. I feel like the culture’s changing,” Chubb said. “A lot of guys are holding each other accountable, whether that be in the weight room or in meetings. If I’m not writing something down, Jeff [Holland] is checking me just like, ‘Make sure you write that down.’ Just stuff like that.”

The past two seasons, details appeared to be a suggestion.

But after 11 combined wins the last two seasons, Fangio’s “death by inches” approach has swept through the UCHealth Training Center.

“I think [Fangio’s] going to bring back the old school, we’re going to work hard—not saying we didn’t work hard last year, but people are excited with all of the new changes,” Janovich stated. “It’s going to be good.”