ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Vic Fangio is about to help interview his new working partner.
The Broncos’ general manager search committee has a first-round of Zoom interviews scheduled for Friday and Saturday with the chance of also conducting one Thursday afternoon. There are five known candidates – Chicago’s Champ Kelly, Minnesota’s George Paton, New Orleans’ Terry Fontenot, New England’s Dave Ziegler and the Broncos’ own college scouting director Brian Stark. Some of the interviews are set, some still have to be finalized.
After the Zoom interviews, the Broncos will be allowed to bring in one or two finalists for an in-person interview. An agent for one GM candidate said that because five other teams are looking to fill the same position, he expects the process to move quickly with a hire made by by Monday or Tuesday.
The Broncos’ GM search committee will be comprised of team president Joe Ellis, outgoing GM John Elway, public relations guru Patrick Smyth and Fangio, the head coach.
Fangio understands it will be the GM who runs free agency, the draft, the 80- or 90-man offseason roster and the cutdown to a 53-man roster with a practice squad once the season begins. And it will be left to Fangio and his staff to coach that roster.
“I think it’s an important hire and what’s really important is the candidate that gets the job has a wide skill set, a deep skill set, and more importantly can work with Vic and his staff,’’ Ellis said. “Most directly with Vic to shape the roster from player 1 to player 53 the way it needs to be shaped for us to be successful, for Vic to be successful when coaching the team.’’
Together, Fangio and the new GM are to pick not necessarily the best players, but the players who best fit Fangio’s defensive scheme or Pat Shurmur’s offensive system. So what will Fangio be asking the GM candidates during the Zoom interviews?
“Just his vision of where he thinks our needs are,’’ Fangio said. “What we need to do to get better. The type of players he likes. What does he see in our roster right now as far as strengths and weaknesses. How does he visualize the evaluation process for the draft and free agency, etcetera. All the things that are normal.”
