Vance Joseph must’ve looked taller during the interview than what we remembered.
“In our locker room, he’s on Peyton Manning’s level,” the Broncos’ new defensive coordinator once opined when asked about quarterback Trevor Siemian in September 2017.
“He’s going to have a good year for us. So that’s how the locker room feels about Trevor. (He’s) on the same level, if not above Peyton.”
Spoiler alert: He did not. And he was not.
Too soon.
Too soon, Sean Payton. Broncos Country only just started healing from the scars left by Nathaniel Hackett, and you bring VJ, who’d steered the Broncos to an 11-21 record as head coach from 2017-18, right back into the picture?
Too soon.
The old wounds, the memories, are too fresh. So are the quotes.
“He looked fine. He looked tall.” — VJ on Brock Osweiler. At least the latter was true.
“We had a great week of practice.” — VJ being VJ, only it rarely carried over to the games themselves.
“Our motto this week is, ‘No surviving.’” — VJ in December 2017. His Broncos were 3-9 at the time.
“I don’t think we did. Did we? Did we really? Yeah, yeah, I don’t recall that.” — VJ on a delay-of-game penalty incurred before trying an onside kick.
“We are playing to win, not to keep it close and not to lose.” — VJ on December 18, 2018. The Broncos then went out and lost to the Raiders, 27-14.
“I feel better about our football team this year. I think the culture is changing … We all understand where we are and how to correct it. It’s a matter of going out and doing it.” — VJ on Oct. 29, 2018. The Broncos were 3-5 at the time. They finished 6-10.
The jokes write themselves, don’t they? That’s part of the problem.
And even if you take OUT a two-year tenure at Dove Valley marked by brain cramps, turnovers, quarterback carousels and The Legend of Chad Kelly, Joseph is the classic “meh” hire.
I mean, fine. Buddy Ryan wasn’t walking through that door. Although Rex Ryan almost did.
And before you go dragging Wade Phillips into the argument, remember the context. Phillips had put nearly two decades of distance between his ill-fated, brief run as Broncos coach (posting a 16-16 record in ’93 and ‘94) and his triumphant return as defensive coordinator for the 2015 season.
Phillips also was responsible for five different defenses from 1995-2014 as a coordinator that finished among the NFL’s top 10 in fewest points allowed.
Joseph defenses in the top 10, before and after his first Broncos stint: Zero.
Too soon.
Sure, you could contend that VJ was the least-worst option of an uninspiring pool, one that probably wasn’t helped by the Broncos’ timetable, either confirmed or presumed.
And that short of luring Vic Fangio — different family signing the checks, but would you go back to work for the employer and general manager (George Paton) who fired you just 13 months ago? — back to UCHealth Training Center, every candidate came with a caveat and a question mark.
It’s just that VJ’s are bigger. On one hand, yes, Joseph was one of the brains behind a four-game turnaround from 2015 to ’16 in Miami under Adam Gase.
He inherited a Cardinals defense that gave up 26.6 points per game and won just three tilts in 2018 and would eventually morph that mess into two top-12 scoring defenses with Arizona in 2020 (22.9 points allowed per game, 8-8 overall), and ’21 (21.5 points allowed per game, 11-6 overall).
But every silver lining has a cloud chasing it. VJ’s defenses gave up almost 26 points per game to the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes — against whom he’s 0-5. They allowed 34 points in one playoff game (Dolphins, 2017) and 30 in the other (Arizona, 2018). In the one head-to-head meeting of a Payton offense and a Joseph defense, in the fall of ’19, New Orleans romped the Birds, 31-9.
When you have to tilt a resume and swirl it the way a wine snob does a glass of cabernet sauvignon, it’s not a home-run hire. It’s an acquired taste.
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