It’s hard to believe that over his 12-year NFL career Broncos nose tackle Domata Peko has played for just two head coaches. His second, Vance Joseph, came in year 12 of his career and his first in Denver. Prior to this season Peko played all 11 seasons under Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
Lewis guided Peko and the Bengals to the playoffs in six of those 11 seasons, including five in a row. And although those teams never won a game, Peko knows what it takes to make it to the second season. As the most experienced veteran in the Broncos locker room these days, Peko is trying to help instill confidence in first-year head coach Vance Joseph.
“I believe in Coach,” Peko told Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro from the Broncos locker room on Tuesday, two days removed from a disappointing shutout loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Although the defense held the Chargers to fewer yards than the Broncos, a special teams touchdown and three offensive turnovers proved to be Denver’s downfall in the game.
“I know that Coach has the best interests [in mind] for us,” Peko told Goodman and Shapiro when asked how Coach Joseph is planning to change up the team’s routine after a pair of losses to last-place teams (Los Angeles and the New York Giants one week prior).
“Sometimes when you lose two like this, you’ve got to switch something up. Something has to change. Whether it be something in the schedule or personnel changes, or something like that. So, we’ll see what happens, man, but we’re just going to come in with an open mind on Wednesday ready to work, ready to get back to business. Sometimes after a loss, you just have to get back to the basics – make sure your technique is right, make sure you’re doing the little things right. Because if you ain’t doing those little things right, it shows up on Sunday.”
Peko knows Joseph from the coach’s time as defensive backs coach in Cincinnati in 2014 and 2015. He should know better than anyone on the team whether or not Joseph can affect those little changes the team needs to get back to their winning ways.
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