The Denver Broncos’ new coaching staff is starting to come together. With Friday's hiring of special teams coordinator Ben Kotwica, along with Mike Westhoff to be the assistant head coach while overseeing special teams, Denver is still on the hunt to acquire the other two coaches to run the offense and defense.
Typically, a team fills out its coordinator positions before trickling down to the positional coaches on staff. For Denver, on the offensive side of the ball, this won’t be as likely, given that head coach Sean Payton is expected to lead the design and play-calling.
So Denver hiring offensive assistants without an offensive coordinator already in place is not all that surprising. However, hiring or retaining position coaches without a coordinator hired on the defensive side of the ball would run somewhat counter to the norm of cultivating a staff.
That is, unless the positional coaches are extremely well-regarded and considered exceptional up-and-coming talents on their side of the ball. In a recent report from 9NEWS' Mike Klis, Denver would like to retain two defensive position coaches.
"Whoever Broncos pick as defensive coordinator, they want defensive line coach Marcus Dixon and secondary coach Christian Parker to remain on staff, per source. All other defensive coach positions are available," Klis tweeted on Saturday.
Parker is considered by many to be one of the better-ascending coaching talents in the NFL. Having been interviewed for the defensive coordinator position, the 31-year-old would likely hold that position somewhere in the league sooner than later.
What Parker has been able to do coaching Denver's secondary while learning under Vic Fangio, Ed Donatell, and Ejiro Evero, will serve him well. With how well the Broncos have played in the secondary the past two seasons, retaining Parker on the new coaching staff across three different coaching regimes speaks to how the young defensive coach is viewed by the organization.
Dixon’s first year in Denver was 2022, as he was brought over by Evero from the Los Angeles Rams to be the defensive line coach. Helping to coin the Broncos' defensive line slogan “the dark side,” Dixon embodied doing the dirty work and toughness for the interior last season.
Dixon helped extract arguably career seasons from Mike Purcell, Dre’Mont Jones, and D.J. Jones, so retaining the 38-year-old coach should help a unit that may face some turnover this offseason. It's perhaps worth noting that Dixon played three seasons under Rex Ryan, who is reportedly the "favorite" to land the defensive coordinator job in Denver.
Denver does not yet have its defensive coordinator in place, and according to Klis, nearly all of the team’s defensive coaches are available and able to seek other opportunities this upcoming season. The Broncos and Payton, however, seem to see something and value Parker and Dixon.
Whoever is in charge of the Broncos' defense next season will have two promising young defensive coaches already on staff to work with and hit the ground running.
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