Jack Del Rio likely to stay put in Denver as DC

As of Tuesday afternoon, three teams have been aggressively pursuing Broncos’ offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, seeking to fill vacant head coaching positions.  As for Denver’s defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio, no teams have come calling, yet.

That may be for the best, because Del Rio isn’t exactly itching to leave Denver and run a team again, at least not in 2013.

“When you’re a young guy and you haven’t been there, the urgency and desire to get that opportunity is such that you’d take just about any job given to you,” Del Rio told the Associated Press, indicating that he would be very choosy when considering head coaching offers.

“If there’s something that fits and the right situation comes along, so be it. But in the meantime, I’m all in, 100 percent as a lieutenant on this staff.  I’m somebody that John Fox, John Elway … and the players can count on. I’m 100 percent invested in helping them be their best.”

JDR has certainly invested in helping the defense play at a high level.  In regular season play, the Broncos’ defense ranked 2nd overall in the NFL, while tying for the league lead in sacks with 52 on the season.  Under Dennis Allen last season, the Broncos recorded 41 sacks (10th overall).

“It’s like anything else. When you have team success, I’m sure there’s a lot of playoff teams that are going to deal with the same thing,” Coach Fox said when asked about Denver’s coordinators drawing head coaching interest from other teams.

“Those guys are all professionals; they understand the focus it’s going to take for us to get where we want.  They’ve got a lot of investment in it, so I don’t anticipate that being a problem for us or really anybody else.”

Ultimately, both JDR and Mike McCoy are focused on the Broncos’ current playoff run first and interest from other teams second.  For Del Rio, however, it sounds like the defensive coach is planning on focusing on Denver’s defense for at least one more season, undoubtedly bringing relief to Broncos fans following the coaching carousel.

It’s nice to see guys like Del Rio and Matt Russell want to stay in Denver. With Denver’s brilliant front office running the show and the Broncos having the success they are, wanting to stick around is only logical—at least in the case of JDR and Russell, who would have difficultly finding a better situation somewhere else.