Report: Vic Fangio’s future ‘up in the air’ heading into season finale vs. Chiefs

The fate of Vic Fangio appears to rest on the Denver Broncos performance at home against the Kansas City Chiefs as Ian Rapoport of NFL Network has reported that his sources say Fangio’s future remains up in the air heading into the season finale.

Vic Fangio met with Broncos general manager George Paton in recent days to present his plans and make his case to stay for a fourth season as head coach, and sources say Fangio’s future remains up in the air entering Saturday’s finale against the Chiefs.

Multiple league sources not connected to the Broncos believe the team will ultimately decide to move on. But no final decision has been made or communicated to Fangio, who likely would make staff changes if he stays.

Other sources think GM George Paton will ultimately move on from Fangio, but nothing is finalizes as of Saturday morning.

Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network has also reported that if Denver does move on from Fangio a name he keeps hearing pop up is Dan Quinn as Fangio’s replacement.

“I think first we have to say that if Denver somehow gets into, squeaks into the playoffs — they are not going to fire Fangio,” Pauline said on December 30th. “They are 7-8 right now and have the Chargers and Chiefs left on their schedule, so it is an uphill battle. First thing I’m told is there’s no animus. There’s no dislike between George Paton, the relatively new general manager, and Fangio. But Fangio is a coach that Paton inherited. So if they don’t make the playoffs, they go 7-10, they’re going to move on.”

As Brad Spielberger of PFF noted on Twitter, what would Dan Quinn do that Vic Fangio hasn’t already done in Denver? That hire would be notable only because the move from Fangio to Quinn would have been done only for the pure need of changing the face leading the team. While that sounds bad, there are times when that’s all management needs to move forward with a positive focus.

If Fangio’s future here depends on the outcome of this game, he’ll need a special performance from Drew Lock and one from even more depleted defense that will be missing both Ronald Darby and Patrick Surtain.