Mike Nolan was to arrive in Denver today after reaching an agreement on a two-year contract to become the Broncos’ new defensive coordinator, a team official confirmed.
Nolan becomes the team’s fourth defensive coordinator in four years, but first for new head coach Josh McDaniels. Previous defensive coordinators were Bob Slowik (2008), Jim Bates (2007) and Larry Coyer (2006).
The first task for Nolan and McDaniels is to figure how to make the conversion, or if it should, to a 3-4 defense with players suited for the 4-3 system. Nolan said his 22 seasons of NFL coaching have been evenly split between the 3-4 and the 4-3, but McDaniels comes from a New England organization that has primarily been a 3-4 base defense in the Bill Belichick era.
“We still have to go through the evaluation process of our own players, and then see who’s going to be out there in the free agent market, who’s available in the draft,” Nolan said. “We have a ways to go before we make that decision.”
McDaniels was also to interview three offensive assistant coaches from Mike Shanahan’s staff in the next 24 hours — running game coordinator Rick Dennison, running backs coach Bobby Turner and receivers coach Jedd Fisch.
McDaniels will not only call the plays, he wants to work with the quarterbacks and run the quarterback meetings so current quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates would have to accept a demotion to stay. Bates is scheduled to interview with the Oakland Raiders sometime this week.
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
