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The Denver Broncos unsurprisingly fired QBs Coach T.C. McCartney on Wednesday, as Pat Shurmur takes over as the new offensive coordinator. When a new coordinator is hired, he often cleans house but it's not out of any ill intent. 

Rather, a new coordinator would prefer  to focus his time and attention on scheme and coaching players, as opposed to coaching the coaches. Every coordinator has a unique philosophy, and they're much more inclined to hire coaches to work underneath them who know how their particular sausage gets made. 

So who are the top candidates to serve as QBs Coach in Denver? It'll be an important hire for this team, as it'll be Drew Lock's position coach. Fortunately, the Rumor Mill has cranked out a couple of names. 

Mike Shula 

The son of Hall-of-Famer Don Shula, Mike is the top candidate. He worked with Shurmur as the OC and QBs Coach with the New York Giants the last two years. 

Shula interviewed for the Giants' OC vacancy but it looks like the job could go to former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett. Teaming Shula up with Lock would be a coup, as it would reunite the coaching team who helped Daniel Jones produce a prolific rookie campaign. 

Shula is also the brainchild behind the Carolina Panthers' prolific 2015 offense, coaching Cam Newton to the best season of his career which saw the QB earn MVP honors while posting 50 total touchdowns and winning the NFC Championship game only to fall to the Broncos in Super Bowl 50. 

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Ryan Roeder

Roeder was an offensive assistant under Shurmur and Shula in New York. As a general offensive assistant, Roeder is well versed in Shurmur's core philosophies. 

Roeder's prospects of joining Shurmur in Denver would increase if Shula gets hired elsewhere. Don't sleep on this as a possibility, though, as Shula might not want to take a step back as a position coach from being a coordinator. 

Troy Renck was the first to publicly connect the Roeder-to-Broncos dots as a possibility.

UPDATE

With Jason Garrett getting the Giants' OC job, the expectation is Shula will join Shurmur in Denver. 

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.