Broncos Hire Jack Del Rio As Defensive Coordinator
Added on Jan 28, 2012 by Jack Thurman in
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Jack Del Rio definitely ‘landed on his feet’ after being dismissed as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. In fact, he’s back working with the coach that propelled him up the NFL coaching ladder. On Friday the Denver Broncos announced that they’d hired Del Rio as the team’s defensive coordinator, once again partnering him with John Fox. Del Rio was Fox’s original defensive coordinator with the Carolina Panthers. He left after one season to assume the head coaching job in Jacksonville. The Jaguars fired him in November.
Del Rio will inherit a Denver defense that showed a lot of promise late in the season. After Tim Tebow became the Broncos’ starting quarterback the defense did a good job containing their opponents and keeping scores low which helped leverage Tebow’s unique skill set into victories. The architect of that defense was Dennis Allen, who left after the season to take over the vacant head coaching job with the Oakland Raiders.
Denver has struggled to maintain any continuity on the defensive side of the ball in recent years and the defensive coordinator role has been no exception. Del Rio becomes the 7th Denver defensive coordinator in 7 seasons following in the footsteps of Larry Coyer (2006), Jim Bates (2007), Bob Slowik (2008), Mike Nolan (2009) and Don Martindale (2010). It’s not like his predecessors have enjoyed much success in the role– Allen was the only one who left for a head coaching job elsewhere in the NFL.
John Fox is pleased to have Del Rio back in the fold. He issued the following statement on the Broncos’ official Twitter account:
“We are thrilled to be able to add such a well-respected defensive coach to our staff.”
“He was an integral part of our turnaround on defense during my first year with the Panthers in 2002. His defenses with the Jaguars have ranked among the NFL’s best, and we are excited he’s a Bronco.”
The Broncos also took steps to ‘get stronger’ as they hired Luke Richesson as their head strength and conditioning coach. Richesson comes to Denver after three years spent with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the same role.
