The Denver Broncos have a rich history, especially with their coaches. From Jack Faulkner, who won the 1962 AFL Coach of the Year Award, all the way to Sean Payton, a former Super Bowl champion who has the Broncos back in the playoff hunt, and everyone in between, this franchise has been no stranger to having some of the best coaches in the league on the sidelines.
On Tuesday, two of those former head coaches, Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan, inched closer to having their names forever enshrined in history in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They were two of the 12 former coaches who advanced to the next stage of the 2026 selection process for the Hall of Fame. The list will be narrowed down to nine in the near future before the committee lands on one coaching finalist for the 2026 class.
Shanahan led the Broncos through some of the best years in franchise history from 1995 to 2008. He won back-to-back Super Bowls with the orange and blue (1997, 1998) and has coached more games as the Broncos’ head coach than anyone (224). His 138 regular season wins and eight playoff wins are both the top marks in franchise history. He is also well-known for his being the start of the Shanahan coaching tree, a group of some of the best coaches in modern football that features Gary Kubiak, the head coach for the 2015 Broncos squad that won Super Bowl 50.
Reeves doesn’t have the two Super Bowls that Shanahan has, but is still one of the most influential coaches in franchise history. In his time with the orange and blue (1981-1992), he won 110 regular season games and seven playoff games, both of which are the second-best marks in franchise history behind Shanahan. He led the organization to three AFC titles (1986, 1987, 1989) but was never able to capture that elusive Lombardi Trophy. He was also named as the UPI AFC Coach of the Year in 1989 and 1991.
Reeves passed away from dementia-related complications in 2022. He was 77 years old.
Both legendary coaches are already members of the Broncos Ring of Fame.
Another Denver coach, Alex Gibbs, also made the cut for the Final 12. He was an assistant coach who worked with the offensive line who spent 14 years with the Broncos in three different stints, two of which were the Super Bowl years in the late 1990s.
