“I still have a lot of coaching left in me,” 64-year-old Vic Fangio returns as DC for the Dolphins, CONFIDENT he will coach for at least 10 more years
Vic Fangio returns to the league after one year of sabbatical.
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Vic Fangio (Image via Danville Register & Bee)
Most of the teams in the league are hiring young coaches as opposed to experienced ones. They are willing to bet on the fresh blood and keep them for a long time with them. It all started with the Rams signing Sean McVay back in 2017, who was 30 at the time, as their head coach. McVay revamped the franchise and took them to the Super Bowl twice in six years and won Super Bowl LVI.
The majority of the league followed suit (it is a copycat league!) and started hiring younger coaches. However, Miami Dolphins made a new hire that shocked everyone. The Dolphins signed veteran coach Vic Fangio as their new defensive coordinator. Fangio, 64, will be one of the oldest defensive coordinators in the league.
Vic Fangio took the 2022 season off as a sabbatical but did work as a consultant with the Eagles during the NFC Championship game and the Super Bowl to help them on the offense. Fangio has a plethora of experience as a coach in the NFL which is longer than Dolphins’ head coach Mike McDaniel’s age and will boost the defense in the upcoming season.
Vic Fangio wants to make the Dolphins a playoff contender every year
Vic Fangio spent 33 seasons in the NFL on the defensive of various teams before he was hired as the head coach of the Denver Broncos in 2019. He was fired after three seasons following a 19-30 record. The sabbatical he took in 2022 wasn’t his retirement as he is looking to spend at least another decade in the league, as he said during the introductory press conference on Monday when he announced the defensive coordinator for the Dolphins.
“I still have a lot of coaching left in me,” Fangio said. “It’s not like I’m thinking about retirement or anything. Somebody asked, ‘How much longer are you gonna do this?’ I don’t know. It might be 10 years, if they’ll have me here for 10 years. It’s just who I am, what I do, what I enjoy doing. I like the competition. I like teaching players. I like to see players improve as individuals. And putting something together is challenging and fulfilling.”
Fangio’s defense has been ranked amongst the top 5 in every category for almost a decade. Miami’s defense ranked 18th overall during the 2022 regular season and was 27th in third-down defense and 25th in red zone defense. Vic Fangio’s wealth of knowledge will help the Dolphins create a stronger defense that will scare their opponents. The Dolphins have star players in Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb, Christian Wilkins, and Emmanuel Ogbah. With Fangio on board as the DC, these players will flourish and create a formidable defense.
Fangio added, “I think the Dolphins are one of those franchises that the NFL is a better league when the Dolphins are relevant — in the hunt. Hopefully, we can get it back to that.” Miami already has a great offense thanks to McDaniel and with Vic Fangio bringing in his expertise on defense, the Dolphins just might become the next-best team in the league, hopefully.
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Yash Karandekar
(1023 Articles Published)