Broncos' DL Dre'Mont Jones Says DC Ejiro Evero's Defense is 'Schematically the Same' as Vic Fangio's
The Denver Broncos have a new defensive coordinator named Ejiro Evero. Hired by Nathaniel Hackett, who succeeded Vic Fangio as head coach in Denver, Evero is a first-time coordinator.
The former Los Angeles Rams secondary coach springs off the coaching tree of many different defensive czars, including Fangio and Wade Phillips. But what will Evero's defense look like in Denver, now that it's his turn to call the shots and coordinate the unit?
“Schematically it’s the same," Broncos' defensive end Dre'Mont Jones said on Tuesday. "The challenging thing is a lot of new terms and some of the terms are combined together to make it easier for you. But I feel like I’m a smart enough player, and so are those guys too, so we can get it.”
Jones' to-the-point answer to the question might be simplifying things a bit but the fourth-year defensive lineman is saying that Evero's scheme is the same as the Fangio unit that prioritized gap-and-a-half principles upfront with match-quarters zone coverage in the secondary. Fangio's unit finished 2021 ranked eighth in yards per game (326.1), third in points per game (18.9), and third in red-zone efficiency.
Fangio deserved some plaudits for how he improvised around the ravages of the injury bug, which decimated the Broncos' defense last year. But overall, the unit still lacked teeth.
The Broncos finished 21st in takeaways with just 19, 18th in sacks with 26, and 28th in third-down efficiency, allowing opponents to move the chains a whopping 44.9% of the time on the 'money down.' Thus we see that Evero has plenty of room to improve the Broncos' defense.
Frankly, it makes sense that Evero doesn't plan to mix things up much in base defense as Fangio's scheme and philosophies are the 'tendance du jour' in the NFL. Teams are snatching up any Fangio acolyte that can prove even six degrees of separation from the venerated defensive czar's coaching tree.
If you're a coach and you've even enjoyed a cup of coffee with Fangio, odds are, the NFL's got a place for you. Just ask the Los Angeles Chargers. It's ironic, considering Fangio's failure to move the needle for Denver as head coach.
Evero will get plenty of help from incoming free-agent acquisitions like edge rusher Randy Gregory and defensive tackle D.J. Jones, among others. When Dre'Mont first saw Gregory in the building, he wondered who that wide receiver was.
“He’s taller than I thought," Jones said of Gregory. "I didn’t think he was that tall. I obviously didn’t know the guy, but him being in the room I thought, ‘Damn, is that a receiver or something?’ He was tall. He’s a beast in his own right, too.”
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