From the early days of training camp, the Denver Broncos knew Vance Joseph was a little different.
Different is good. One of the first thing they noticed out of their rookie head coach was how he ran training camp sessions. Many of his veterans already have recognized him as a player’s coach. He builds in veteran rest days on weekly basis. He has not failed to impress his players.
Of the things that Joseph did differently throughout training camp, one thing in particular seems to be paying dividends through the first two weeks of the season. His decision to do so much work throughout training camp in full pads seems to have vastly improved the Broncos’ ability to both run the football and stop the run.
“I think stopping the run and running the football better,” Joseph said on Friday. “That was our goal in training camp. That has to be done in football pads. I think it’s obviously paying off now that we’ve put the time into how we practice during training camp. If you don’t do it in pads, you won’t get good at it. So that was the purpose.”
The Broncos have been good at it through the first two weeks of the season. Of teams that have played two games in 2017, the Broncos top the list in rushing defense, having only allowed a combined total of 104 yards rushing to the Los Angeles Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys. It takes a tough team to hold Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and the 2016 rushing champion to eight yards on nine carries.
On the other side of the ball, the Broncos also top the list of teams in the NFL when it comes to rushing offense. Having gone well over the century mark on the ground in both games, the combination of C.J. Anderson, Jamaal Charles and even quarterback Trevor Siemian’s ability to scramble has the Broncos’ offense firing on all cylinders.
Change is unavoidable in the NFL. Whatever it boils down to wearing pads more often back in training camp, the new philosophies of a new head coach and three new coordinators or a combination of it all, the Broncos seem to have corrected two of the problems that pained them in 2016 and changed for the better.