On Tuesday, NFL.com released a number of it’s midseason awards and predictions, with several key Denver Broncos taking home some imaginary hardware.
Perhaps most interesting in the batch of “if the season ended today” prognostications was a hilarious and slightly outrageous claim by Dave Dameshek that Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips is Coach of the Year. It’s funny because no offensive or defensive coordinator has ever won the award, which is intended for head coaches.
However, there’s some real merit to “Dr. Dave’s” cooky notion. Enough that the guys from The Big Show tackled the topic in advance of the Broncos taking on the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
Benny Bash points to the game against Green Bay as the best example as to why Phillips has been so masterful this year. Phillips solved the riddle of how to contain Aaron Rodgers, which is to blanket his receivers downfield while keeping him in the pocket and severely delaying the blitz.
The Broncos have been known through much of their seven wins to be one of, if not the most blitz-happy team in the league, so it was a major change of pace that Rodgers wasn’t expecting. Instead of unleashing Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware from the edges, Phillips let Derek Wolfe have the biggest game of his career while Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib put Randall Cobb and Richard Rodgers in the NFL’s version of “timeout.”
Benjamin Allbright, co-host and a former NFL scout, looks at the hard numbers and points out that the defense, which was already stacked with talent last year, “went from a top-10 defense under [Jack] Del Rio to a dominant No. 1 defense, and it isn’t even close.”
Kent Erickson, who spent more than two decades working for the Broncos, including during Kubiak’s run as offensive coordinator, says Phillips has proved to be the most important acquisition of the offseason, even more than Gary Kubiak.
Bash wonders if Kubiak isn’t getting a little bit of the short stick in the Coach of the Year debate, but Erickson knows from his time inside Dove Valley that Kubiak is only nominally involved in the defense.
The defense is hands down the biggest reason the Broncos head to Indy on Sunday with a perfect record intact and Wade Phillips undoubtedly has transformed this unit from a very good one to an exceptional one.
Is that deserving of the NFL’s Coach of the Year award? The opinion seems to be starting to swing that way, even if it’s purely hypothetical.
Listen to the full discussion, including why Bash is so angry with Herm Edwards, in the podcast below…
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