The Broncos’ defense, No. 1 in PFSN’s Defense Impact Score, is on pace to break the NFL record for team sacks in a season. Since no good deed goes unpunished, it’s not a surprise that defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s name is popping up in the impending head coach search of select teams. The question becomes if Joseph will stay with the Broncos or blindly take a promotion — even if the environment isn’t ideal.
Examining Vance Joseph’s Interest Around the League
ESPN‘s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano released their weekly in-season column on Wednesday. In it, they write about the latest buzz, questions, news, and fantasy tips. This week, Broncos’ Joseph popped up under a section looking at the hottest names on the head coaching market right now. Fowler kicked things off.
“This cycle feels different than the past one, which featured two clear-cut standouts in Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel. Those two quickly turned around Chicago and New England, respectively. This cycle is far more wide open. The group of “formers” — coordinators with head coaching experience — will be a factor. Vance Joseph’s defense in Denver might break the NFL record for sacks in a single season, and he has ties to Miami and Cincinnati if those jobs come open,” Fowler wrote.
Joseph was the defensive coordinator for the Dolphins and the defensive backs coach for the Bengals, respectively. Both stops led to Joseph becoming the Broncos’ head coach in 2017. In Year 2, Joseph’s Broncos were 6-6 with Case Keenum as the starting quarterback and four games left in the season. The former was fired after losing all four games down the stretch. Graziano, meanwhile, chimed in as well.
“I do hear a lot about (Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse) Minter as a potential candidate in a couple of places. But to bring this back to where you started it, I was in Denver last week and got an up-close look at that Vance Joseph defense. I continue to think he might just end up being the guy at the top of a bunch of these lists,” Graziano wrote.
Joseph got seasoning as the head coach for the Broncos for two seasons. He was hired two seasons after Denver won Super Bowl 50. Since then, Joseph has spent seven seasons as a defensive coordinator again. Four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and three with the Broncos.
