Renck: How Vic Fangio bounced back after Broncos, the oldest coordinator leading youngest defense to Super Bowl

NEW ORLEANS — The oldest NFL defensive coordinator slips into a gray chair, tucked in the back row of a hotel conference room. Super Bowl kickoff is four days away, and there are wrinkles to iron out. He chomps on his gum with impatience, the watch on his left wrist screaming to be checked.

He doesn’t want to leave. But he doesn’t want to be here.

It isn’t that Vic Fangio minds talking football — he could provide a PhD lecture on the 3-4, the 4-3 and ILBs. He just has better things to do. Like watching film. Analyzing tendencies. Studying data.

What the numbers show is remarkable. At 66 years old, Fangio has the league’s youngest defense. And the best. When looking for reasons the Eagles could prevent a Chiefs three-peat, their defense ranks behind only running back Saquon Barkley.

Fangio could not turn the Broncos around in his three seasons as head coach, but as a coordinator he has few peers.

He inherited the league’s worst group, and the Eagles finished this season first in total defense and second in scoring. It marks the first time they’ve ranked in the top two in those categories since 1981. That was four years before Fangio began his pro career with the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars, handpicked by Jim Mora as an assistant just two years removed from leading the defense for Dunmore High School in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Fangio grew up a Philadelphia sports fan and now is a central figure in the Eagles’ attempt to win a second title.

Did he ever think he would have an opportunity to coach with this much at stake again after things did not go according to plan in Miami and Denver?

“I wouldn’t have left Miami to come here if I didn’t. They had a good team in place here. But we had to retool the defense,” Fangio said matter-of-factly.

Fangio is four decades older than most of his players. Ernest Hemingway had “The Old Man and the Sea.” The Eagles have “The Old Man and the D,” so coined by ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio.

“I just knew the scheme would work,” said Fangio when I asked him about connecting with the younger generation of athletes. “We just had to have good players.”

Football, for Fangio, is as much a game about aptitude as execution. You can’t have one without the other. And the connecting thread is communication. In Denver, Fangio’s defenses were decent in two of his three seasons. He was miscast as the boss — paying too little attention to the offense and special teams — and undermined by inadequate quarterback play and a worldwide pandemic.

“It was a great opportunity. We overcame some of the challenges, but not enough of them. I don’t regret going there at all. I just wish we had won more games. COVID made it difficult, trying to be the head coach, defensive coordinator and having that come across my desk,” Fangio said. “And to get to this level, to a Super Bowl, your quarterback doesn’t have to be a Hall of Famer, but he has to be competent and be able to win some games. The last year I was there, (Teddy) Bridgewater was 7-5 in the games he started and finished. Maybe if he hadn’t gotten hurt you would have been stuck with me another year.”

A Fangio encore was set to happen. Sean Payton and Fangio both sat out the 2022 season. Payton arranged to bring him to his next stop. But Denver would have been awkward for Fangio, returning only one year after getting fired.

“That was the plan to go with Sean. And if he had gotten any other job I probably would have gone with him,” Fangio said. “It was just too soon.”

All the concern of him being too old and the players too young has dissolved. He has been the right man at the right time since Week 5. The Eagles rank first in points allowed per game (15.9) and have delivered 30 takeaways, including 10 in the playoffs.

“Vic is a wizard. He just develops that trust over time with his players,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “He held us accountable all the way through.”

Added All-Pro inside linebacker Zack Baun, a free agent discovery by Fangio, “He’s cool. He’s hard on us, a tough egg to crack but he will joke around a little bit.”

Fangio is direct, intentional. Those are the modern adjectives. In truth, he is brutally honest.

“I don’t wake up saying I will be that way. It’s just who I am. I never demean players,” Fangio said. “I just let them know what I want. I think they appreciate that.”

The Eagles responded. Young players like Cooper DeJean say they “love it,” and veterans admit they needed it. Now all they have to do is stop Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, who is 8-0 lifetime against Fangio, a record connected to terrible Broncos offenses more than anything else.

“Is it a fun challenge? You think I am a masochist? I would rather be playing Tulane,” Fangio said. “They haven’t lost many games to anyone. He is the reason why. But I think our guys are up to it.”

So Fangio sits on the biggest stage in New Orleans where his career took off coaching the Saints’ Dome Patrol linebackers Pat Swilling, Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson.

The only thing missing from his career is a Super Bowl ring. Fangio acknowledged its importance, calling the achievement the “pinnacle.” A few moments later, a PR staffer announces no more questions. The news conference is over. But this is not the end for Fangio.

He has one more game to win.

“He’s grumpy but I can tell deep down he’s enjoying this,” defensive end Josh Sweat said. “It would mean everything to get this for him.”

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.