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Rich Scangarello explains what the “evolving” Broncos’ offense will look like

Zac Stevens Avatar
January 24, 2019

Rich Scangarello’s never called plays in the NFL.

He’s only been in the league for four seasons.

Heck, he’s only been a quarterbacks coach — the highest post he’s held in the league — for the past two years.

But despite all of that, he has a clear and precise vision of exactly what his offense with the Denver Broncos will look like as he takes the reins as their offensive coordinator.

“Philosophically, my roots have always been in the zone-run system that Kyle Shanahan has run,” Scangarello unsurprisingly said on Thursday in his introductory press conference. “I started that with my first mentor, my first head coach I worked with, Tom Cable, and it evolved over the years.”

“I see an offense that’s willing to take shots, that’s aggressive, but is detailed in every way. An offense that takes care of the football and empowers its players to be the best they can be by putting them in a position to be successful.”

Doesn’t sound half bad, especially compared to Denver’s offense last year, which put up just 20.6 points per game, the ninth-worst mark in the league.

The two themes that continued to resonate throughout Scangarello’s introduction on Thursday were Kyle Shanahan’s clear impact on Denver’s new coordinator and Scangarello’s commitment to constantly evolving the offense and “staying ahead” of the league.

“I think you’ve seen it with the misdirection — a big thing that’s in vogue is the fly sweep and the actions that come off of it creating different ways to attack a defense,” he said, explaining one way offenses have evolved. “With that can come innovative ways to run the ball, as well. That doesn’t always mean running outside zone, it can mean running different types of schemes.”

Despite popular belief, Shanahan and Sean Mcvay — the young offensive genius’ in the league — aren’t running brand new offenses. In fact, they both run offensive systems that have been rooted in the game for decades. They both just put their own creative, modern touch on them.

Scangarello won’t stray from his former boss in that philosophy. He and the Broncos will run a West Coast offense with some flair, pizazz and spunk thrown in.

“I think it’s the same in the pass game and the variety of protections that you have to handle, what you’re going to see in and out with the D-coordinators that you’re going to see,” he said. “That is how you stay ahead and you’re innovative and balanced by keeping people off balance and doing a good job of hiding your tendencies.”

As for the quarterback, the most important position in sports, Scangarello described the likes of a modern day, prototypical quarterback as his type of guy.

In his eyes, it’s important for his quarterback to be balanced in his ability to work from under center on first and second down, but have the ability to work out of the gun when needed, too.

“With Jimmy [Garappolo], early in his career, he wasn’t under center a lot, so early on we felt it was easier to maybe put him in the gun and that’s our job to put players in the situations to do what they can do best,” Scangarello stated. “I think our offense empowers the quarterback to have success and it can adapt to his skill set.”

“You’ve got to adapt to the type of quarterback you have.”

But Scangarello made sure he didn’t focus entirely on the prospect of having a new quarterback in Denver.

“I’m excited to work with Case,” he said, talking about Denver’s current starting signal caller. “He really played outstanding in Minnesota, and he was a big part of helping them get to where they got in that NFC championship game. He’s gritty, he’s a winner, he’s competitive, and you see that on the film.

“In our system — I think you can see that based with Kyle’s history and that’s what I believe as well and in San Francisco where I was directly coaching those guys — each guy is a little unique, and you have to adapt to them. I see traits that can help Case be the best he can be.

Scangarello believed the key to getting Keenum to play to the best of his abilities was to empower him, something he didn’t have in Minnesota but had last year in Denver when he threw for a career-high 3,890 yards to go along with 18 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

Unsurprisingly, Denver’s new play caller is ready to maximize the soon-to-be sophomore class.

“I am excited about the pieces we do have,” Scangarello said, specifically pointing to the “outstanding job” the Broncos did in the draft last year. “They played a lot of young players early in their career, and you can see them evolve over the season and I’m excited about working with those guys.

“There’s no doubt I love the core group, and I’m excited to work with them.”

In 2019, the young core will be paired with a fresh new coordinator in an attempt to evolve Denver’s offense back to the glory day.

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