Broncos All-Pro Reveals Biggest Difference in the New Vance Joseph
In case you missed it, Vance Joseph is back in the building at Denver Broncos HQ. This time around, though, Joseph isn't the head coach — he's the defensive coordinator under Sean Payton.
Joseph returning to Denver so soon after a failed two-year stint as head coach (2017-18) has many fans dubious about the direction the Broncos' defense is headed, but not safety Justin Simmons. The Broncos' All-Pro is psyched about Joseph's return.
Simmons was drafted in 2016, which was Gary Kubiak's final year as head coach, but it was under Joseph, affectionately called "VJ" by his players, that the young safety first blossomed in the NFL. With the Broncos holding another OTA session at Centura Health Training Center, Simmons was asked about what the biggest difference has been having Joseph as the coordinator instead of head coach.
“I think the biggest difference is he was a head coach," Simmons said on Thursday. "Back then, there wasn’t as much dialogue. Obviously, he was with the defense, but he couldn’t be too hands-on as much as you’d want to be, just because there’s so many more things you have to take care of."
Simmons has appreciated how Joseph has been much more involved in the day-to-day grind. Joseph is more present, and as a result, Simmons has been able to get more time with the veteran coach, learning the nuances of his craft.
"I feel like I’ve talked to him now more in the past few weeks than I really had the opportunity to when he was a head coach just because now he’s in the meeting rooms more, he’s able to coach the little things up, and we’re talking formations, this, that, and the other," Simmons said of Joseph. "So that’s pretty much the main difference. He seems the same guy I that remember him to be. I loved him when he was here as a head coach, so I’m really thankful that we got him again.”
Last month, Simmons went on record about Joseph for the first time since he returned, expressing his "love" and respect for the coach. And also his regret about how Joseph's tenure as head coach ended.
Joseph succeeded the Super Bowl-winning Kubiak, but despite his 'leader of men' reputation, he wasn't able to sustain his predecessor's winning culture. Joseph won just 11 games in two seasons at the helm in Denver.
John Elway fired Joseph and replaced him with the veteran defensive czar Vic Fangio, whom the Broncos' then-GM described as a "death by inches," no-nonsense type of coach. While Fangio managed to stick around one season longer than Joseph did, it wasn't because he was able to win more ball games.
Elway was just sick of firing coaches, so at the end of Fangio's second season, he relinquished his role as general manager, and as the Broncos' president of football operations, hired George Paton to succeed him. Paton played nice with Fangio, giving him one more year to make it work, but in the end, he was also shown the door.
Fangio's exit precipitated the arrival of the golly-gee-wiz Nathaniel Hackett as head coach, and that experiment didn't even last a full season. Hackett became one of two NFL head coaches in the Super Bowl era to be fired before his first season had concluded.
Hackett's defensive coordinator, Ejiro Evero, built his scheme on the existing Fangio foundation. The results were mostly very positive. But despite Denver's push to retain Evero, he didn't take kindly to Hackett's dismissal (they're best friends), and ultimately took a job in Carolina.
Denver's new Walton/Penner ownership group quickly set to work, searching for a head coach that could return competence and a winning culture to the Broncos. Enter Payton, who opted to bring Joseph with him.
Joseph's core philosophy is an attacking style 3-4 defense, which was the scheme he implemented as defensive coordinator in Arizona, too. Fangio's defense was 3-4-based, as was Evero's, but Joseph's scheme varies in its coverage principles and in how it manufactures pressure.
When asked about the differences between the Joseph and Fangio schemes, Simmons groped for an answer but ultimately begged off because the Broncos seem to still be deciding exactly what the defense is going to be.
“I think a lot of that is still being ironed out," Simmons said. "It’s hard. You’ve got a lot of guys that have been in a certain system one year, and then VJ is obviously really good at what he does. So I think all of that is still being ironed out, and we’ll kind of keep being ironed out as we head into camp as well.”
While it's true that many of the Broncos' defensive vets are used to a certain scheme, Joseph was hired for a reason. Perhaps there will be some Fangio/Joseph hybrid concepts, but at the end of the day, Denver's 2023 defense will look a lot like it did under Wade Phillips from 2015-16, and Joseph from 2017-18.
And that's not a bad thing. In the seven dark seasons since Super Bowl 50, defense has never been the Broncos' problem, including Joseph's 2017-18 scheme, as coordinated by Joe Woods.
Follow Mile High Huddle on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to Mile High Huddle on YouTube for daily Broncos live-stream podcasts!
