ENGLEWOOD – Broncos general manager John Elway continued his latest coaching search Thursday by interviewing Zac Taylor, the Rams’ 35-year-old quarterbacks coach who’s long on football pedigree but short on experience.
Elway and player personnel director Matt Russell flew to Los Angeles to interview Taylor near the Rams’ headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California, a day after meeting with former Colts coach Chuck Pagano in Denver.
Elway also plans to speak with Bears assistant Vic Fangio, Patriots assistant Brian Flores and Steelers assistant Mike Munchak.
With the Rams off this weekend, Taylor also is expected to meet with the Arizona Cardinals about their head coaching vacancy.
Elway is searching for his fourth head coach in six seasons after firing Vance Joseph on Monday with two-year record of 11-21.
“This is no fun going through this. It’s not something I want to do, but then again, I understand what my job is,” Elway said. “My job is to give us, the Denver Broncos, the best chance to win.”
That could be by hiring Taylor, a high-risk/high-reward outlier on Elway’s short list of candidates.
Taylor has never been a coordinator much less a head coach. But the son-in-law of former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Sherman has a strong track record working with quarterbacks and has earned praise in his two years on Sean McVay’s staff.
He also has football in his blood: Taylor was the 2006 Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Year at Nebraska; his father, Sherwood, was a defensive back and captain at the University of Oklahoma; and his younger brother, Press, 30, is the QBs coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.
While Elway’s other candidates either have deep defensive roots or lots of experience, Taylor is the only one who boasts strong credentials in the run-pass option craze that has filtered from colleges to the pro ranks in recent seasons.
And Elway concurred with cornerback Chris Harris Jr.’s assessment this week that the Broncos have fallen behind by not adapting on offense or defense in the three years since they won their last Super Bowl title.
“Yeah, no doubt, especially if you look at where the rules are going,” Elway said. “The rules are getting shifted to the offensive side, too. We’ve relied on our defense for a long time. I think that we’re still going to rely on the defense, but we definitely have to get better on the offensive side.”
Taylor tutored the Rams’ receivers in 2017 and was Jared Goff’s position coach this season, when the 2016 top overall draft pick threw for 32 touchdowns and 4,688 yards while leading the Rams to a 13-3 record and the NFC’s No. 2 playoff seed.
After college, Taylor served as a graduate assistant and tight ends coach on Sherman’s coaching staff from 2008-11 at Texas A&M, where he worked alongside current Broncos offensive assistant Klint Kubiak.
Taylor jumped to the NFL in 2012 as a member of Joe Philbon’s Miami Dolphins staff and tutored Ryan Tannehill during the quarterback’s most productive seasons from 2013-15.
He served as the Dolphins’ interim offensive coordinator for the final five games in 2015, then returned to the college ranks for a year as offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati.
Pagano was first
Chuck Pagano was head coach in Indianapolis from 2012-17. He posted a record of 53-43 in the regular season and 3-3 in the playoffs. After posting 11-5 records in each of Andrew Luck’s first three seasons and leading the Colts to the AFC championship game in 2014, Pagano won eight, eight and four games (with Luck injured) in his final three seasons.
Pagano has worked with Broncos special teams coordinator Tom McMahon, who declined to comment last week on Pagano’s coaching credentials given his possible return to the NFL after a year’s absence. But he did vouch for Pagano’s character.
“I’ll tell you this, Coach, as a human being, is one of the greatest men I’ve ever been around in my life,” McMahon said. “As a man, nothing like him.”
Unlike the last two hires, Gary Kubiak in 2015 and Joseph in 2017, Elway doesn’t appear to have a preferred candidate going into his latest head coaching search.
Elway agreed with star cornerback Chris Harris’ damning assessment that the Broncos need to modernize their offense and their defense to catch up to the NFL’s run-pass option trend that teams such as the playoff-bound Chiefs, Ravens, Rams and Eagles have already integrated into their playbooks.
That doesn’t mean Elway necessarily prefers a young coach with offensive roots, as evidenced by his short list that includes three coaches that are about his age – 58 – and a mix of offensive and defensive expertise.
“I want them to be great on one side of the ball and great at what they do, whatever that position may be, whether it be a coordinator or whatever they’ve done,” Elway said. “I look for greatness on that side. For me, I look for experience. I want the guys that understand the game, they understand X’s and O’s but also have the ability to lead men. That’s a big part of it in today’s world.
“We’re going to try to find that guy with that ‘it’ factor, that can make those right decisions and also lead men. We’re confident that we can find that guy.”
Vacancies with the Packers, Browns, Jets and Cardinals are seemingly much more appealing because those teams all have their franchise quarterback in place. Denver has the middling Case Keenum at quarterback, a public ownership squabble, a three-year playoff drought, holdovers from Joseph’s staff still under contract and a demanding general manager and fan base short on patience.
Still, Elway insists the Broncos’ gig is as enticing as ever.
Elway said he has faith in the Bowlen family trust that’s run the team since Pat Bowlen stepped down several years ago to battle Alzheimer’s. And he said the Broncos provide everything a head coach needs to win, including state-of-the-art training facilities and a front office willing to make the moves necessary to upgrade the roster.
“I think the right kind of guy wants to come into a situation like this because he knows what the expectations are and what our expectations have been,” Elway said. “Therefore, I think guys want that opportunity. They want to come into a spot where they know it’s about football and about winning games.
“Given that opportunity, the resources behind him that we can give him, I think it’s a great job.”
