Josh McDaniels: The Denver Broncos New Head Coach!

The Denver Broncos have hired the youngest head coach in team history. 

Josh 'wiz kid' McDaniels replaces Mike 'mastermind' Shanahan after a 14-year tenure as the new head coach. 

Despite McDaniels' early success in the league, this hiring came as a shock to many considering his age, 32, and his experience as an offensive coach.  Many experts assumed that the Broncos would naturally hire a defensive minded coach considering they had the second worst defense in the NFL last season. 

Despite McDaniels' youth and lack of experience, especially on the defensive side of the ball, he was the best candidate for the job.

Many fans and NFL insiders have been quick to point out the Broncos offense as a strength.  This is a somewhat shaded opinion. 

Yes, at times the Broncos offense seemed to move the ball at will.  With playmakers such as Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal, Tony Scheffler, and Brandon Stokley, Jay Cutler had every opportunity to succede.  In fact, he managed to set a franchise single-season record with 4,526 passing yards. 

Furthermore, the Broncos offense racked up an impressive 395.8 yards per game, second to only the Saints, who managed 410.7 per game.  The Saints finished first in scoring at nearly 29 points per game while the Broncos, on the other hand, only averaged 23.1 PPG—only 16th in the NFL. 

Even defensive minded teams such as Chicago, Minnesota, and Baltimore were able to outscore the Broncos over the course of the season.  Even a year ago in 2007 the Broncos ranked 11th in yards yet 22nd in scoring. 

It is evident that despite much potential it is simply premature to assume that the Broncos don't need help on offense.

This brings us to McDaniels.  In the past two years McDaniels has engineered two of the most impressive offensive showings in modern NFL history. 

Two years ago the Patriots offensive coordinator called the plays for Tom Brady, who broke the NFL record by throwing for an impressive 50 touchdowns.  Needless to say the Patriots led the NFL in scoring at 36.8 PPG and shattering NFL records in the process. 

Fortunately, for the rest of the NFL and the Denver Broncos, the reigning NFL MVP was hurt in the first game and in comes the little-known Matt Cassell.  Cassell then steps up to lead the patriots to an 11-5 record while posting a 89.4 quarterback rating, even better than Jay Cutler's.  Furthermore, the Patriots only fell to eighth in the NFL in scoring, and narrowly missed the playoffs. 

From a developmental standpoint, it seems to make perfect sense for the Broncos to bring in a coach such as McDaniels if only to help Jay Cutler reach his potential. 

More importantly, Jeremy Bates (The Broncos play-caller for 2008) attempted to copy the offense of the Patriots this season.  Now, with McDaniels as the new head coach, the Broncos will not have to worry about trying to copy the playbook, but instead simply use it.

But what about the defense? 

Well there is no question that the Broncos have a long way to go on defense.  In fact, the Broncos defense is so bad that it is almost a joke to think that one person, the head coach, can come in and immediately transform this defense.  Make no mistake rebuilding the defense will be a process that will take time. 

This being said McDaniels really doesn't have that much experience on the defensive side of the ball.  I could argue his short stint as a defensive assistant for the Patriots makes him a qualified defensive coach, but that just isn't true. 

However, McDaniels has made some choices that should benefit the defense right away, and in the long-term. 

First, and most importantly, in his original press conference McDaniels noted that one of the main problems for the defense was the lack of consistency.  He pointed out that every time as an opponent of the Broncos they were running a new defensive scheme. In fact, Mike Nolan, the new defensive coordinator will be the fourth coordinator in four years. 

When looking at the best defenses in the NFL, it is apparent that the scheme is the same year in and year out.  The Ravens, Eagles, Buccaneers, and Steelers have been running the same defense for several years.

Finally, it is important to realize that the decision by Pat Bowlen was not made only for next year. 

It is evident when looking around the NFL that the most teams that stick with coaches for long periods of time have much greater success than those that have a revolving door.  The most successful teams of the past decade; the Broncos (Shanahan), Steelers (Cower), Eagles (Reid), Patriots (Belichick), and Colts (Dungy), all have coaches that have been given a lengthy time period to succede. 

In other words by hiring McDaniels, Bowlen is hoping he will not have to hire another coach for another 10 years.  McDaniels will have some growing pains and the Broncos will hit a few bumps along the road but, buckle down Broncos fans because the Broncos are yet again going to become a contender year in and year out for the next 10 years!