Less than two weeks after McDaniels acted in a way he would never tolerate from his players - like a petulant child - when he refused to provide his team its best chance to win its final game by benching Pro Bowl wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Tony Scheffler, he called in defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and told him in no uncertain terms his Broncos would not be blitzing next season like they did this year.
The blitz, especially in some run situations, has long been a staple of Nolan’s approach to defense, and it has served him and his teams well. That included McDaniels’ Broncos, who were 29th in the league in defense a year ago but finished seventh this season, their first under Nolan, despite a late-season slide that coincided with a less than brilliant 2-8 finish to McDaniels’ roller coaster first season as a head coach.
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McDaniels’ problem with Nolan was that he’d grown up (sort of) under Belichick’s less wild-eyed defensive philosophy. He was never comfortable with the amount of run blitzes Nolan favored or his gambling style against the pass. He wanted to tone things down, sticking with the 3-4 but with more control. Pees is well suited to provide that.