Over the course of 24 years, I’ve ripped a lot of Colorado sports people. I’m not proud of it – it’s part of the job – and some have been called out more than others.
Dinger (not a person), of course, stands alone, but plenty of others have taken arrows. Kyle Orton, Dick Monfort, Will Barton, John Fox, Jeff Bridich, Brian Shaw, Vic Fangio, Michael Malone, Sean Payton and, well, more of Dick Monfort have all been punching bags more than once.
But aside from Dinger, there’s one individual who likely got an unfair share of my criticism.
Vance Joseph.
Now, before a full-blown apology, tail tucked between my legs, consider some context. And sometimes, my gripes weren’t about Joseph specifically, but rather with the circumstances in which he was hired.
When Vance Joseph was hired as the Broncos head coach in 2017, the organization passed on Kyle Shanahan.
That wasn’t Joseph’s fault. But bringing in the man running a Dolphins defense that gave up the fourth-most total yards and ranked essentially in the middle when it came to points allowed didn’t sit as well as the idea that John Elway could have brought back the Shanahan name by hiring Kyle, who was one of the game’s young and innovative offensive minds.
Whether Joseph was to blame or not is up for debate, but accumulating five, then six wins wasn’t exactly inspiring.
To my satisfaction, Joseph was canned following the 2018 season. With his release, came the last chance to blast the coach.
Or so I thought.
The excitement that accompanied the hiring of Sean Payton in 2023 was curbed by his head-scratching decision to bring back Joseph, who had been the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator for four seasons. When he was hired, Joseph was coming off a season in which he “led” one of the NFL’s worst defenses.
I wrote: “On the surface, it seems like a lateral move, a no-no in the NFL. And it would have been, if Joseph hadn’t been ‘let go’ in Arizona. Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury was fired after his team went 4-13 this season; Joseph interviewed for the head coaching vacancy, didn’t get the job, and was instead released from the final year of his defensive coordinator contract once Jonathan Gannon was hired. In other words, the coordinator of one of the worst defenses in the league, for a team with one less win than the Broncos, is now your new defensive coordinator. Pretty… um… exciting, isn’t it?”
Even in 2023, Joseph’s defense wasn’t that great. In Week 3 against Denver, the Dolphins scored 70 points (being the first team to do so in a game since 1966, and the fourth team to ever accomplish the feat), as well as racking up 726 yards of total offense (the second-most yards in an NFL game and the most since 1951 in a single game).
Speculation that Joseph would get pinkslipped the following Monday was rampant, but he survived. On the season, the Broncos ranked 27th in points allowed, a statistic that did not help a sputtering Russell Wilson-Sean Payton offense.
His defense improved as the season progressed, but once again, Joseph looked like a mysterious hire at best.
And then 2024 happened. Leading the NFL in defensive ranking for most of the season, ultimately finishing third, Joseph looked to be a genius. Most importantly, it was his unit that provided the softest of landings for rookie quarterback Bo Nix.
Heading into this season, pundits far and wide agree that Joseph will once again boast one of – if not the – best defenses in all of football.
I’ve ripped him in the past, but now, credit is given where credit is due. The “V” stands for vindicated, as Vance Joseph has become one of the best defensive coordinators in football.
