On the morning of Jan. 7, 2017, Kyle Shanahan met with the Broncos’ selection committee for nearly four hours inside an Atlanta hotel conference room to interview for a job he knew wouldn’t get.



He reminisced with John Elway, the former quarterback turned general manager who hosted the Shanahan family for many Thanksgiving dinners back in the day. They even talked a bit about the league’s current quarterbacks, as Broncos president/CEO Joe Ellis, director of player personnel Matt Russell, director of team administration Mark Thewes and public relations boss Patrick Smyth sat in on the meeting.



They capped the reunion with lunch, and then the Broncos’ contingent returned to Colorado to interview their final candidate in their head-coaching search.



Shanahan, then the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl LI-bound Atlanta Falcons, was the second of the three to interview for the Broncos’ job that year, and fans in Denver hoped and...