Broncos head coach Vance Joseph remains on the hot seat after his team lost to the Browns over the weekend, and John Elway apparently considered replacing him last offseason with a Denver franchise icon.
According to Woody Paige of the Colorado Spring Gazette, Elway secretly met with former Broncos head coach — and his own former coach — Mike Shanahan after last season. The two discussed the possibility of Shanahan returning to the place where he coached from 1995-2008 and won two Super Bowls, but ultimately the Broncos did not want to go in that direction.
As Ian Rapoport of NFL Media notes, Broncos CEO Joe Ellis told Elway he would need to conduct a genuine coaching search if he fired Joseph and was not open to the idea of bringing Shanahan back.
#Broncos GM John Elway & Mike Shanahan did meet last year to discuss a return. CEO Joe Ellis weighed in: If they moved on from Vance Joseph they needed to do a real search. Elway considered it, decided to stick with Joseph. Shanny’s 1 playoff win in his last 10 years didn’t help. https://t.co/bZEgwcN4K4
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 17, 2018
Elway, of course, decided to give Joseph another shot, but Denver was officially eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday and will probably begin searching after the season. It’s unclear if Shanahan would even be interested in coaching again given what his son Kyle recently said, as the 66-year-old has not coached since 2013 when he was with the Washington Redskins.
