Vic Fangio's 'Nothing to Lose' Locker-Room Mantra Provides Insight into Job Security

During the Denver Broncos' loss to the Los Angeles Chargers broadcast, the announcers spoke to head coach Vic Fangio having a 'nothing-to-lose' mindset. CBS Sports also mentioned how Fangio wrote that maxim up on the whiteboard during team meetings.

Some of Denver's early fourth-down decisions last Sunday reinforces that newfound philosophy. It isn't a good sign when a head coach turns to such an outlook.

Unfortunately, one Vance Joseph had that mindset before the Broncos fired him at the end of the 2018 season. I'm sure the gist of Fangio's nothing-to-lose axiom was along the lines of the Broncos having pretty well played themselves out of playoff contention because the team would have had to win out, and get help from other teams, to make it.

However, it probably goes deeper than that.

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Fangio has heard the calls for him to be fired. That was made clear this past week when he was asked during a presser how he felt about his job security.

While Fangio said that he can't think about that topic right now with fish still to fry, it was a coach-speak answer, and he most definitely had to be thinking about it. Promulgating that nothing-to-lose mantra in the locker room, although part of it spoke to the team's playoff situation, it also highlighted his knowledge of his job security, even if in a Freudian way.

After all, if we're talking about stakes, Fangio still had his job as an NFL head coach on the table, unless he'd already been told or felt that he would be fired at season's end. So then it became a situation of a coach rallying his players to leave it all on the field, which didn't work out for the Broncos.

If Fangio is on his way out, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur will go with him. And that will mollify Broncos Country in the short term — pending which coaches GM George Paton hires to replace them.

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