It was December 2017 when John Elway pitched the idea of bringing Mike Shanahan back to lead the Broncos. The head coach at the time, Vance Joseph, was nearing the end of his first year — a forgettable 5-11 season that featured a rotation of relatively inexperienced starting quarterbacks — and it was clear then that the plan with him just wasn’t working.



What did work in Denver were Elway’s years with Shanahan and his West Coast, play-action system that has since been borrowed and copied by numerous teams across the league.



Shanahan hasn’t stood on the sideline as an NFL coach since he was fired by Washington in 2013, and he hadn’t watched a practice in Dove Valley since he was fired by the Broncos in 2008. But his desire to return never waned. He just wanted the right job. The right situation. He wanted a team that was built to contend for a Super Bowl.



He viewed the Broncos as that perfect fit back in...