Sean Payton Reveals True Reason Broncos Hired Vance Joseph as DC
In their exceedingly patient quest to find the right defensive coordinator, the Denver Broncos interviewed some big names, including Rex Ryan, Vance Joseph, Matt Patricia, and coaches like Sean Desai and Kris Richard.
Ultimately, head coach Sean Payton opted to hire Joseph, to the shock and chagrin of many Broncos fans. Denver's former head coach from 2016-17, Joseph understandably doesn't have a great image in Bronco-land after mustering just 11 total victories.
On Tuesday, as the NFL world descended on Indianapolis for the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, fans got to hear from Payton for the first time on the Broncos' slow, matriculating hiring process at defensive coordinator and why Joseph ultimately won the job.
"Regarding Vance, and Rex, and the other defensive coordinators that we interviewed, we went through the process," Payton said from the Combine podium. "We felt like we were going to be real patient with that hire and try to dig as much as we could relative to the fit and finding the right guy. Rex, Matt, Sean Desai—all those guys—were outstanding. But in the end, there were a few things that I felt that Vance was going to bring—and not necessarily because he had experience in Denver—but really, more what he was able to do, believe it or not, in Arizona. That was a tough job for a number of years. So we're excited to have him on our defensive staff."
Following Joseph's dismissal in Denver in early 2019, he was immediately hired by the Arizona Cardinals as defensive coordinator. It was just the second time in his career he'd ever held that title.
Joseph presided over a couple of really good Cardinals defenses early on, but the unit took a major step backward in 2022, finishing as the second-to-worst scoring defense. However, the Cardinals ranked 11th in scoring in 2021 and 12th in 2020 after opening Joseph's tenure in 2019 as the 28th-ranked scoring defense.
In his first-ever job as a DC back with the Miami Dolphins in 2016, Joseph's unit finished as the 18th-ranked scoring defense. So, with five years of coordinating experience on his resume, the average ranking of a Joseph defense is No. 20 when it comes to scoring.
Only Payton knows the true reasons Joseph was hired and, more specifically, what it was about his Arizona tenure that so impressed the Broncos. But from the outside looking in, even with all the injury misfortune the Cardinals dealt with in recent years, calling Joseph's stretch in the desert as anything but a mixed bag would be a stretch.
But one thing Broncos Country would be wise to remember is this: even though outside the league — fans, media — Joseph is perceived as an incompetent — the perception of him inside the NFL is quite different. Joseph has always interviewed well, but the bottom line is that he has a great reputation around the NFL.
There's a reason Joseph was Gary Kubiak's first choice for defensive coordinator in 2015 when he first the head-coaching gig. As the secondary coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, owner Mike Brown blocked Joseph from taking the job in Denver, so in a fateful rolling of the dice, Kubiak hired Wade Phillips to coordinate the defense. Hello, Super Bowl 50.
The Broncos were so intrigued by Joseph that he was hired to succeed Kubiak in 2016. When then-GM John Elway had to fire Joseph following the botched 2017 season, you could see it on his face and hear it in his voice how upset he was over cutting him loose.
Only time can tell how Joseph's tenure as DC in Denver will unfold, but it doesn't sound like Payton is losing any sleep over the hire. Quite the opposite. Payton seems cooly confident over Joseph assuming control over the Broncos defense.
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