The Denver Broncos hired Vance Joseph as their 16th Head
Coach in franchise history back in January.
The hiring came as a shock to me, not because I didn't think Joseph was
qualified, but because the Broncos previous two hires were coaches with
previous head coaching experience. The
Broncos missed the playoffs last season after making five consecutive
appearances. The defense is still playing
at a very high level, finishing 4th in the NFL in both yards per game allowed
and points per game allowed, with 316.1 and 18.6 respectively. This was the main reason I felt as though the
Broncos would go with a candidate that has had previous head coaching
experience. I also felt as though the
Broncos would go with an offensive minded coach, as the offense was much of
their issue last season.
2017 will be Joseph's 13th NFL season. According to the Broncos team website, Joseph
began his career with the 49ers in 2005 and spent much of his career as a
defensive backs coach with the 49ers, Texans and Bengals before getting the
opportunity as a defensive coordinator for the Dolphins last season. Joseph was the DB coach in Houston from
2011-2013 and the DC during that same period was Wade Phillips. In Cincinnati, he was an assistant under
Marvin Lewis, another coach with a history of having solid defenses. Vance Joseph has had the opportunity to learn
under coaches with great defensive minds.
While the Dolphins were a playoff team last year, their
defense did struggle, finishing 29th in yards per game and 18th in points per
game at 382.6 and 23.8 respectively.
This may be a concern for Broncos fans and may be why Dolphins fans were
surprised that he got a head coaching job after being the leader of a unit that
struggled. While he is likely to input
his system in Denver, he will not be solely responsible for that unit. A Head Coach needs to be the leader of the
franchise and the entire roster. He will
need to focus primarily on team discipline, accountability and having his team
prepared for Sunday's. One of the moves
that he has made that I really like is promoting Joe Woods from DB coach of the
Broncos the last two seasons to Defensive Coordinator. Woods is familiar with the personnel on the
defense and is a great resource on what the players can be successful in doing
and not so successful in doing. He also
brought in Mike McCoy as his offensive coordinator to help improve an offense
that struggled in 2016. I am very
interested to see how the Broncos will rebound from a disappointing 2016
season. Here is a list of previous
Broncos head coaches who have made their debut as an NFL head coach. This list only gives records of the coaches
first full season as head coach. Thank
you to pro-football-reference.com for the stats.
Red Miller and Dan Reeves are the only two that had a great
deal of success in their career with the Broncos. Miller made it to one super bowl and Reeves
got the Broncos to three.
As I mentioned earlier, the defense is still playing at a
high level and I believe that will continue on in 2017. This season will largely depend on the
offense and whether they can get production at Quarterback. While Trevor Siemian did not set the world on
fire, I thought he did a solid job in his first year as a starter. He will be competing for that spot with
Paxton Lynch and Chad Kelly, who if healthy, will be their starter at some
point in 2017. With the Raiders and
Chiefs still being strong in that division, I see the Broncos having a tough
time getting into the playoffs again this season. However, if they do get production out of the
QB position, I think it'll be neck and neck with the Broncos and Chiefs for one
of the wild card positions.
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