In a move that surprised some a few weeks ago, Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak suddenly retired after the team finished 9-7. Now, the Broncos believe they have found a head coach that will return them back to being Super Bowl contenders.
On Wednesday, Vance Joseph was named the 16th coach in Broncos history. Denver interviewed Joseph on Tuesday, but no deal was officially done. Joseph was scheduled to interview with the San Diego Chargers on Wednesday, be he returned to the Broncos facility so that the two sides could get a contract done.
Reportedly, Joseph’s deal is for four-years. Last season, Joseph served as the defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins. Dolphins head coach Adam Gase said about Joseph during his final press conference with the media this season.
Photo Credit: Denver Broncos
“He’s done a great job with our players, I can speak for that first hand,” Gase said. “He took so much off my plate where I never had to worry about anything with the defense. He really did a great job with all those guys in that room. He did a great job at directing those guys and he made my life a lot easier then probably what it could have been. There was a big trust factor there with me. Once he was hired, I knew that side of the ball was good to go and I was able to focus on what I needed to do with some of those things that we wanted to change between (General Manager) Chris (Grier), (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and myself and being able to focus with the offense.”
Joseph has been one of the hottest names in coaching circles in recent weeks. Along with the Broncos and Chargers, the San Francisco 49ers also wanted to interview Joseph for their head coaching position as he had a scheduled interview there on Thursday.
While most people will only see that the Dolphins finished 29th in total defense as they gave up an average of 382.6 yards per game, the team did improve in a few key areas defensive from a season ago. Miami’s turnovers per game increased from 1.0 in 2015 to 1.56 in 2016. Also, the Dolphins third-down percentage on defense improved from 43.7 in 2015 to 36.2 this season, which was the fourth best in the NFL.
Miami has some injuries on their defense this season as starting strong safety Reshad Jones, starting free safety Isa Abdul-Quddas, linebackers Koa Misi and Jelani Jenkins, cornerbacks Byron Maxwell and Xavien Howard all missed significate time due to injury.
Joseph has a very blunt approach he uses with his players as he will let them know how they are performing directly. He also isn’t afraid to let the media know which one of his players needs to improve.
While Joseph’s defense in Miami didn’t also look great on the field, his leadership of players and schemes was attractive to the Broncos and other teams around the league.
Coaching in Denver will be a bit of a homecoming for Joseph as he played at the University of Colorado in the early-to-mid 90s. His first assistant job in the NFL was with the 49ers as an assistant defensive backs coach in 2005.
From there, Joseph coached the defensive backs of the 49ers from 2006-2010. Then he moved on to the Houston Texans from 2011-2013 where he would hold the same position. Before coming to the Dolphins this season, Joseph was the defensive backs coach with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2014-2015.
Twitter: @antwanstaley
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