Take a brief look at Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub's career. Toub interviewed with the Broncos on Friday. (Photos by AP)
The Broncos' process of searching for their next head coach hit the interview stage Friday in Kansas City when CEO Joe Ellis, Executive Vice President/General Manager John Elway and other members of the Broncos' staff met with Chiefs Special Teams Coordinator Dave Toub.
"He's a great coach and person who has a very impressive track record with special teams," Elway tweeted after completing the interview.
Toub, 54, arrived in Kansas City in 2013 as part of Andy Reid's first Chiefs staff, and his work paid immediate dividends. The Chiefs rocketed up 20 places in Dallas Morning News writer Rick Gosselin's annual special-teams rankings, which incorporates 22 different statistics.
Kansas City's special teams ranked No. 3, No. 8 and No. 9 in Gosselin's rankings for 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The 2016 rankings will be released later this month, but the Chiefs should be among the league's leaders again. This season they led the NFL in punt-return average, ranked third in average per punt return allowed and led the league with three touchdowns on various types of special-teams returns.
Toub's success in Kansas City came as no surprise given the quality of of his special teams on Lovie Smith's staff with the Chicago Bears from 2004-12.
In those nine years, the Bears racked up 22 kickoff and punt-return touchdowns, most coming from Devin Hester. No other team had more than 16 total special-teams return touchdowns in that span.
Not only have Toub's special teams amassed 31 touchdowns in the last 13 seasons, but they have allowed just three scores on returns. No single NFL team has permitted fewer than four kickoff and punt-return touchdowns since 2004.
In his 13 seasons as a coordinator, Toub's special teams have a plus-28 touchdown margin; no team other than the Bears -- fueled by the work of Toub's special teams for nine seasons -- is better than plus-12 in that span.
A veteran of 15 previous NFL seasons, Toub also worked on staffs at Texas-El Paso and Missouri. During his 12 seasons at Mizzou, he worked under head coaches Bob Stull and Larry Smith and served on coaching staffs with three future NFL head coaches: Reid, Marty Mornhinweg and Dirk Koetter.
TOUB'S COACHING RESUME
1986:Texas-El Paso, graduate assistant
1987-88:Texas-El Paso, strength and conditioning
1989-1997:Missouri, strength and conditioning
1998-2000:Missouri, defensive line
2001-03:Philadelphia Eagles, assistant special teams/assistant defensive line
2004-12:Chicago Bears, special teams coordinator
2013-present:Kansas City Chiefs, special teams coordinator