ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Sometimes, head coach material is disguised behind poor stats.
Aaron Glenn may be an example. Start with he’s a Detroit Lion. The Lions have not had an assistant coach get hired away as head coach since Chuck Knox in 1973. You know, the year of Tony Orlando and Dawn’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the ole Oak Tree.: The same year Picasso died.
Glenn would seem a longshot to break the Lions’ coaching drought. He just finished his first-ever season as a defensive coordinator and his Lions finished No. 31 in points allowed. The Lions gave up 38 points to the Broncos’ offense in an early December game.
But Glenn, 49, has earned a solid reputation first as 15-year defensive back from 1994-2008 and then as a five-year defensive backs coach for Sean Payton’s New Orleans Saints from 2016-20.
George Paton, the Broncos’ general manager, is aware of Glenn’s approval standing around the league and wants to find out for himself. Paton and five other members of his head coach search committee – Darren Mougey, Kelly Kleine, Rich Hurtado, Ray Jackson and Patrick Smyth – will fly out Thursday morning to Detroit and interview Glenn on Thursday afternoon.
RELATED: Paton-led search committee to begin head coach interviews with Glenn, then Hackett and Getsy
Glenn will be the first of 10 head coach candidates Paton and company will interview in their quest to replace the recently dismissed Vic Fangio as Broncos’ head coach.
Paton’s Platoon will then fly Thursday night to Green Bay and prepare for interviews Friday afternoon with Packers’ offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and Saturday morning with Hackett’s quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy.
Then it’s back to Denver by Saturday evening. The search committee will have seven candidate interviews the following week, spreading from Rams’ offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell in Los Angeles to Patriots’ inside linebackers coach Jerod May in New England. In between are Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Dallas defensive coordinator and odds-on favorite Dan Quinn, Dallas offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, Cincinnati offensive coordinator Brian Callahan and Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jonathon Gannon.
Paton is expected to name the Broncos’ new head coach during the week of Jan. 24-28.
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