President of football operations/general manager John Elway and head coach Vance Joseph met with the media at Dove Valley on Tuesday for a comprehensive, season-ending conference that touched upon all aspects of the organization, and laid out the Broncos’ plans for the offseason after finishing 5-11 and missing the playoffs for a second-straight year.

On Monday, the day after the Broncos finished their 2017 campaign with a 27-24 loss to the Chiefs at Mile High Stadium, Elway and the Broncos shocked observers by parting ways with six assistant coaches, including first-year special teams coordinator Brock Olivo and longtime running backs coach Eric Studesville, who served as the team’s interim head coach in 2010 following the dismissal of then-head coach Josh McDaniels. Wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert, offensive line coach Jeff Davidson, assistant defensive backs coach Johnnie Lynn and outside linebackers coach Fred Pagac rounded out the half-dozen departed, with star linebacker Von Miller calling Pagac “one of the best coaches I’ve ever had… I feel like he’s a part of me.”

All of the moves were made, Elway explained, in order to better serve Joseph in his second season.

“We thought about different options, but ultimately, my goal was to stick with Vance and give him that shot. I would say I also want to give him the best opportunity to be successful. I don’t feel like we gave him that chance,” Elway said. “We had some positions that didn’t play very well; that I thought would play better than they played. That part is on me. We will get that part fixed this coming year. Hopefully we solve those issues and give Vance and his [new] staff the best opportunity to be successful.”

Joseph followed up to detail the decision-making process behind removing his assistants.  ”In my opinion, it was time to move on to change the culture in certain rooms. Obviously, Eric and Tyke and Jeff Davidson are all good people and football coaches. They’ve been here through a lot of winning years,” Joseph said; praising his colleagues, right before asserting that they were somehow contributing to the team’s problems. “In my opinion, it was time to change the culture so we could get back to pushing our players to be the best that they can be and getting our best players to play at their best all the time… I’m looking forward to bringing in guys who can change the culture and get our offense back to playing good football. It’s as simple as that.”

Joseph went on to insinuate that he had empowered his assistants… too much. “Early on in the season, I didn’t do a good job of pushing our coaches to make the proper changes that I thought could have helped us. I allowed guys to coach — that was my goal — but I wasn’t very good at coaching the coaches. I’ll get better at that. That was one of my shortcomings… We’re going to make the proper changes on the staff to get better.”

On Monday, C.J. Anderson, who became the Broncos’ first 1,000-yard rusher in four seasons in Sunday’s loss, was succinct regarding Studesville’s dismissal, writing, “That’s bull****” in all capital letters on Twitter, before following up with a missive that read, in part: “So thankful to be [coached] by an amazing man… I think it’s wrong.”

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Click here to listen to the full press conference with John Elway and Vance Joseph, or watch the full press conference below.

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