Josh McDaniels will be introduced as the 12th Head Coach of the Denver Broncos at 5pm MST. Click here to watch the press conference. We’ll have live blog coverage and quotes below – be sure to join us and leave a comment!

New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick on newly-hired Denver Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels:

Josh McDaniels is one of the finest people and brightest, most talented coaches I have ever worked with. Since joining us eight years ago, Josh performed a variety of roles and excelled in every one of them. Between his work on defense, in scouting, player evaluation and coordinating the offense, Josh is a very well-rounded coach whose outstanding body of work speaks for itself. He is the product of a pure football environment which is evident in his approach to the game. On behalf of the entire Patriots organization, we thank Josh for tremendous success in New England and congratulate him and the McDaniels family for this most deserving opportunity for advancement.

Josh McDaniels has been hired as the 12th Head Coach in Denver Broncos history.

The Denver Broncos have just announced that they will introduce Josh McDaniels as Head Coach during a press conference set for 5:00 P.M. Monday. Naturally, we’ll cover the event live blog style.

Will he announce his defensive coordinator? Will he discuss the future of the offensive coaching staff, including passing game coordinator Jeremy Bates? Be sure to check back then. Press release below.

BRONCOS TO INTRODUCE JOSH McDANIELS AS HEAD COACH

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos on Monday will introduce Josh McDaniels as head coach at a 5 p.m. MST press conference at their training facility, President/CEO Pat Bowlen announced.

The 32-year-old McDaniels has agreed to a four-year contract to become the 12th head coach in Broncos history.

McDaniels spent the last eight seasons (2001-08) on the coaching staff of the New England Patriots, helping the franchise win three Super Bowls, four AFC championships and six division titles en route to posting the NFL’s best overall record (111-34 / .766) during that time. Click here to read the rest of this entry »

Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels (AP Photo)

Your wittiest, most cleverest captions in the comments.

Previous Caption Winner – Boise Broncoguy:

“Britney Spears’ new dancers practice their moves for her new song, “MISS me baby one more time!””

Remember to leave your caption for the top photo. Happy captioning! Go Broncos!

Josh McDaniels has been hired as the next Head Coach of the Denver Broncos. (AP Photo)

As news of the Broncos hiring Josh McDaniels as Head Coach continues to hit the streets late Sunday night, one thing is still uncertain – who will be the team’s next defensive coordinator?

In the few hours following the news breaking, three separate reports state that McDaniels will hire three different coaches as defensive coordinator.

Adam Schefter of NFL.com reports that former 49ers Head Coach Mike Nolan has locked up the gig. Nolan spent 1987-1992 with the Broncos as linebackers coach before serving as defensive coordinator for several teams.

Meanwhile, the Rocky Mountain News reports that two Broncos players have been told that former Texans and Panthers Head Coach Dom Capers will be the new DC. The Denver Post confirms that Capers will receive “strong consideration” for the position.

Earlier, ESPN reported that Philadelphia Eagles secondary coach Sean McDermott was McDaniels’ guy, but has since removed any references of him (here’s PFT’s story).

Who to believe? When in doubt, trust Schefter, although the RMN’s sources are obviously convincing. Nolan had a lot of success as Ravens defensive coordinator before struggling as Head Coach in San Francisco. Either way, we won’t know for sure until tomorrow or Tuesday – the McDaniels hiring still isn’t even confirmed by the Broncos themselves! Expect a news conference soon and some answers to go along with it.

It’s the Dawn of a New Era, Broncos fans. The McBroncos Era.

Josh McDaniels is the next Denver Broncos Head Coach.

McDanels was among seven candidates the Broncos interviewed since former coach Mike Shanahan was fired on Dec. 30th. The Broncos conducted a second interview with McDaniels on Thursday.

The 32-year old coach has spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, where the 2007 Tom Brady-led offense broke league records. The team followed with a 2008 11-5 record led by their backup Matt Cassel. He has spent his entire eight-year career in the NFL as an assistant with both the defense and offense of the Patriots.

According to the Denver Post, McDaniels will hire Dom Capers as defensive coordinator.

The Broncos have yet to confirm the move, but both ESPN and the DPO are reporting it as fact. McDaniels was among my Top Three candidates, so I’m very happy with the move. I imagine Jay Cutler has to be, too.

Leslie Frazier, Jason Garrett, Josh McDaniels, Raheem Morris and Steve Spagnuolo remain on the list of possible head coaches in Denver. Kind of — according to the Denver Post’s Mike Klis. What has actually been reported is that Rick Dennison and Todd Bowles were long shots, not that they were out of the running completely.

It was reported that the Broncos were down to five coaching candidates –and later omitted–  originally by the Denver Post. Early on Saturday, ESPN’s Chris Mortenson reported that a decision could be made this weekend and what he was hearing is that Frazier and McDaniels were the leading candidates for the job.

Which basically means the new head coach of the Denver Broncos will probably be Spagnuolo, Garrett or Morris. Given the amount of disinformation and speculation.

Not so fast though, Adam Schefter of the Denver Post NFL Network just reported that the Broncos met with McDaniels for five-hours on Thursday night in Massachusetts. He said that there will be a decision by early next week. Which would almost rule out Spagnuolo for the most part, given that the Broncos wouldn’t be able to speak to him again unless the New York Giants lose to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

Update (thanks to East):

Stick here and let’s see this thing through. What do you think Nation? Josh McDaniels? Hmm…

April may be several months away, but there is no better time than now to kick-off what will be the best NFL Draft coverage in regards to the Broncos on the internet. As many of you know, I made my mark in the Broncos blogging community by providing elite content regarding the Broncos and the NFL Draft. The Beat, which is now out of commission, in lieu of a bigger and great cause (BroncoTalk!) was my way of taking my love for the NFL Draft and Broncos and meshing them together. In case you didn’t know, the passion and dedication that I had there will be exclusive to BroncoTalk and will be the centerpiece to my contributions on this site over the next several months. I hope you the contributions and I would be more than happy to answer any questions you all would have (time and schedule permitting, I’m a pretty busy guy!) and will do my best to satisfy your draft hunger and needs.

To begin my first entry, I thought I would stress the importance of the future coach hiring’s and the impact they will have on the draft. It has been rumored that Josh McDaniel’s is one of the final three candidates to be in the running for the head coaching job here with the Denver Broncos. In my humble opinion, I believe he would be an excellent hire for several reasons. (A) He’s an offensive minded guy who will undoubtedly get the best out of the wealth of youth and talent we have on that side of the ball. (B) It has been rumored that he would bring in Dom Capers as his defensive coordinator. Coach Capers has had a tremendous track record in the NFL in his time as a defensive coordinator. The catch is that Capers would more than likely bring his 3-4 defense here to Denver, and the question is whether or not we have the talent right now to adequately make that switch.

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It’s circled around the message boards, someone with a(n alleged) connection to the New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has posted what he could say about what took place in the interview.

This person lists his location as Boston, MA — if you’ve seen the youtube videos or read anything at all from a Spagnuolo biography, you may have detected the accent.

So here’s what the man had to say (take it for what it is):

• It is their (don’t know if the we they’re referring to is Spagnuolo or not) understanding that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel had the most pull out of the candidates that were interviewed.
• It was brought up to him, if McDaniels was hired, would Spagnuolo be interested in coming into Denver as the defensive coordinator/assistant head coach.
• It was also brought up to him, the idea of Spanuolo as the head coach and McDaniel’s as the offensive coordinator/assistant head coach.
• The Broncos are prepared to offer McDaniels a significant raise and a promotion to assistant head coach.
• The Broncos want to run the spread offense, similar to the Patriots with Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal doing their best Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker impression.
• That offense is a conflict with Spagnuolo, he would prefer a run-first ball control offense to compliment a strong defense and special teams. He likes Cutler is a balanced, down the field attack [as opposed to the up the field attack, which would be just as beneficial].
• He told the Broncos that he would like to talk to Giants quarterback coach Chris Palmer about running a similar system [to the Giants offense apparently].
• The poster then editorialized that Denver wanted both Spagnuolo and McDaniel and were just trying to make the puzzle pieces fit.

I’m guessing a lot of people just got really geeky over the thought of a Spagnuolo/McDaniel combo in Denver. Of course the Broncos would like that ideally, but the reality of the two men being able to work together as one got the head job and the other an assistant job as a consolation prize isn’t completely feasible to me.

What I’m really looking forward to is what you guys have to say, let’s see what you’ve got in the comments.

(source)

The Denver Defensive Line had a hard time getting to the quarterback in 2008. The defense only accounted for 26 sacks on the year.

Denver understands the importance of an offensive line to anchor an amazing offense, so now it’s about time they reciprocate defensively. How many times this year when Denver was on defense did you find yourself yelling on 3rd down

“GET HIM GET HIM GET HIM!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!?”

The answer is nearly every 3rd down.

The facts are:

• Denver got to the passer only 26 times this season
• Which also ranks 26th in the NFL.
• The Oakland Raiders had 32 sacks on the year.
• Even the Detroit Lions had 30.

Taking Action in the Draft

If Denver wants to get to the passer the whole entire D-Line needs some resurrection. The line has a potential star in Marcus Thomas and this 6’3, 305lb, back flippin’ monster needs some help this draft instead of trying to sign the super expensive, injury prone, poor sport Albert Haynesworth.

Enter the potentials.

• Name: B.J. Raji
• School: Boston College
• Standing: Senior
• Height: 6’1
• Weight: 323
• 40 projection: 5.15
• Pros: This Boston College manbeast eats up blocks like no other. This kid is like having two DTs for the price of one. Mike Mayock ranks him 8th for top senior prospects. Raji is very good at not over pursuing and returning to the ball. He is very versitile and can fit a 4-3 or a 3-4, which is good seeing how the new head coach and defensive coordinator have yet to be hired. Seriously, if you don’t believe me check it here and here.
• Cons: Raji has encountered some maturity problems, which include being academically ineligible the 2007 season and he was also ejected from a game in 2006 due to throwing a punch. Stamina is also another questionable point of Raji’s game which has lead to some inconsistencies. However, Raji has rebounded to a problem free 2008 season where he has climbed his way to a top 15 pick.

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