Just one day after the Denver Broncos lost their offensive coordinator, they're rumored to have hired a new one.
Yesterday, Mike McCoy became the head coach of the division rival San Diego Chargers, and Wednesday morning, Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News tweeted, “I'm hearing Ken Whisenhunt goes to Denver as OC to replace Mike McCoy...”
The Chargers, Browns and Eagles all interviewed Whisenhunt for their once open head coaching positions, with him not landing any of them.
Whisenhunt played as a tight end from 1985-1993 in the NFL for the Falcons, Redskins and Jets, before becoming a coach at Vanderbilt University. He moved up into the professional coaching life in 1997 as the Baltimore Ravens tight ends coach, moved to the Browns with the same position in 1999 and as the Special Teams coach with the Jets in 2000.
Then he moved to Pittsburgh, where the then 39-year old Whisenhunt was the tight ends coach from 2001-2003 before he was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2004 and held the position through 2006.
After his Steelers won Super Bowl XL, he was hired as the Arizona Cardinals head coach in 2007, led the team to their first NFC Championship in 2008 and remained with them until his firing in 2012.
Pro Football Talk points out that Whisenhunt will still be paid for this season by the Cardinals, meaning if he does indeed take the offensive coordinator position with Denver, the Broncos almost certainly wouldn't have to pay him because Arizona will be paying him more. But Mike Florio believes he would come to Denver in order to work with Peyton Manning and further elevate his profile as a head coaching candidate.
Nothing is certain at this point as far as the Broncos offensive coordinator spot is concerned, though longtime Manning man Tom Moore and Denver QBs coach Adam Gase are also possibilities.
CBS's Andrew Mason mentioned that because Manning is such a student of the game, he wants someone he can learn from. Mason also tweeted that no OC will be hired without Manning's consent.
Stay tuned as this story develops.
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Rich Kurtzman is a freelance journalist. You can follow Rich on twitter or facebook for all your Denver Broncos news and opinion.
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