DENVER — John Elway said Friday on an interview with KDSP (102.3 ESPN radio) that he wanted a new defensive coordinator in place “rather quickly.”
Hours later, he and the Broncos had their man.
Ex-Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio will become the Broncos’ defensive coordinator, agreeing to terms with the club on Friday night. The hire reunites him with John Fox, who gave Del Rio his first — and only previous — defensive coordinator job in 2002.
In that one season together, Del Rio and Fox guided one of the most remarkable single-season improvements for a defense in league history, improving Carolina’s unit from 31st in the league rankings to second. The Panthers also improved from 28th to fifth in scoring defense, allowing 6.7 fewer points per game.
Del Rio’s work drew such attention that he was immediately hired by the Jaguars after the season — a situation that was paralleled this month when Dennis Allen parlayed his Broncos work into the Raiders’ head-coaching job.
“We are thrilled to be able to add such a well-respected defensive coach to our staff,” Fox said in a statement. “He was an integral part of our turnaround on defense during my first year with the Panthers in 2002.”
Del Rio guided the Jaguars to a pair of playoff appearances and three winning seasons in his eight-plus years as head coach, but the club struggled after 2007, a year in which the Jaguars went 11-5 and scored a wild-card win at Pittsburgh. That offseason, Del Rio’s defensive coordinator, Mike Smith, was hired by Atlanta as its head coach. The following year, Jacksonville crashed to a 5-11 finish, but improved to 7-9 in 2009 and 8-8 in 2010 before crumbling to a 3-8 record in 2011 before Del Rio was fired.
In Del Rio’s final season, the Jaguars’ defense improved from 28th to sixth in the league’s defensive rankings.
“(I) think Del Rio was a great piece added to our team,” cornerback Cassius Vaughn tweeted.
“I knew we would hire a good one,” defensive end Robert Ayers tweeted.
Perhaps the ultimate testament of Del Rio’s desire to work with Fox again — and vice versa — is in the finances of the arrangement. Del Rio will earn no more money for coaching the Broncos than he would have by sitting out 2011. Del Rio had one year left on his Jaguars contract when he was fired in November, and anything he earns from the Broncos will be deducted by the same amount from his Jaguars contract.
Del Rio wasn’t the only ex-Jaguars coach hired by the Broncos on Friday; they named Jacksonville’s former strength and conditioning coach, Luke Richesson, to the same position. Richesson worked under Del Rio from 2009-11.
Perhaps the only question now for the Broncos is this: can they keep this defensive coordinator more than one year? Del Rio becomes the Broncos’ seventh defensive coordinator in as many seasons, following Larry Coyer (fired after 2006), Jim Bates (2007), Bob Slowik (2008), Mike Nolan (2009), Don “Wink” Martindale (2010) and Allen.
“Love the hire, just hope we can keep him around,” said safety Brian Dawkins via Twitter.
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