Early reports indicate that Wade Phillips may return to the Broncos

One of the many big questions surrounding the Denver Broncos right now is what will they do with Wade Phillips? His contract is now up that the Broncos season is over and with soon to be former Head Coach Gary Kubiak on his way out, will the Broncos bring back Phillips?

Well thankfully, there appears to be some mutual interest from both sides on Wade returning for his third season as the Denver Broncos Defensive Coordinator.

BTW, Wade Phillips WANTS to come back to coach the Broncos defense. Absolutely wants to. No desire to go anywhere else. #broncos

— Les Shapiro (@LesShapiro) January 2, 2017

According to 104.3 The Fan's Cecil Lammey, the early buzz surrounding Wade Phillips future with the Broncos is that he has a job with the team as long as he wants.

This is great to hear considering Phillips has coached a Broncos defense that has been one of if not the best defensive unit in the league for two straight seasons. So it is great to see that the Broncos would like Wade back for obvious reasons and that Wade would reportedly like to return as well.

Now with all that said, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said that "some are suggesting that Wade will consider retiring" but that the Broncos would like him back. So that figures to be something to keep an eye on in the coming days.

This also seems to suggest that the Broncos are not currently considering a defensive minded Head Coach if they want Wade Phillips back. So your top Offensive minded Head Coaches appear to be on the Broncos radar and they plan to pair that coach with Phillips and the rest of the Broncos defensive staff.

Kubiak was asked about Wade's future earlier in the week, and he called him a "tremendous football coach".

"First off, I’d say that’s not uncommon. You have so many guys’ coaching contracts, ‘are they up this year?’ Not everybody is on the same cycle. We think the world of Wade. Everybody knows the job that Wade has done. Those are things that will be addressed after we get through this week as we head into the offseason. Wade is a tremendous person and a tremendous football coach."

Broncos safety Darian Stewart made his case for why Wade Phillips and Stewart's positional coach Joe Woods should remain with the Broncos.

"You can’t change that up, has us playing at a high level. I definitely don’t see that changing. I love my position coaches, too. We watch so much film. A lot of coaches that don’t prepare as well as they do. That’s going to be the hard part if we have to see them go."

Broncos Pro Bowl cornerback Chris Harris Jr. also pleaded his case on why Phillips and Woods should return to coach the defense.

"We’d love them to come back. I think up top, they don’t want to lose those guys either, I don’t see any of those guys going anywhere unless the new head coach doesn’t want them. And why wouldn’t you want them?"

Harris speaks the truth here. Why wouldn't any new Head Coach joining the team not want to retain the man who coaches the "No Fly Zone" secondary and the man who has coached an elite defense for two year's straight? You're being handed a top five defense once you're hired, so no reason to screw it up.

Thankfully the early reports indicate that the Broncos decision makers are not letting Wade and the rest of the Broncos Defensive Coaches get away.