The Denver Broncos have entrusted Vance Joseph with a very specific mission

 

Throughout the entirety of the Denver Broncos coaching search, fans and media alike ooh’d and ahh’d at the numbers put up by quarterbacks and offenses under the guidance of Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. The touchdowns, the yards, the offensive rankings, the legacy, they thought Shanahan 2.0 would come in and fix all of the team’s problems on the offensive side of the ball.

It was all so perfect for the outside perspective. The problem with that, though, is that John Elway—you know, the man in charge—never once talked about fixing the offense with the head coach, and he wasn’t going to be impressed by numbers alone. No, Elway was quite clear in what he was looking for in his next coach.

“Motivate a football team.”

“Deal with the different personalities.”

“Be on the same page with a football team.”

“Manage people.”

Manage players.”

“Manage coaches.”

In fact, the only time Elway mentioned a side of the ball during the search is when he stated, “The one thing that I want to make sure is that we don’t take a step back on defense.” The hints were right there in front of everybody; Elway was extremely clear about what he was looking for and it was far from an offensive guru.

On Thursday, the Denver Broncos introduced the 16th coach in their history, a deep-voiced, wide-smiled man by the name of Vance Joseph. He doesn’t come with a wealth of experience, and you’d be hard pressed to find much on paper that pops out at you, but he certainly possesses that very specific trait the man in charge was looking for.

“He is a leader of men who gets the most out his players.” – Former Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak

“He was a natural leader.” – Joseph’s high school head coach Hank Tierney

“Obviously he’s a great people person, and he’s great at dealing with a lot of different personalities.” – Miami Dolphins DT Ndamukong Suh

“He’s a leader of men, and he understands that…  He knows how to talk to you.” – Miami Dolphins CB Byron Maxwell

“V.J. was one of the best coaches I’ve been coached by. He just has a knack of getting to the inner person.” – Miami Dolphins CB Adam Jones

Elway got what he was looking for.

“When we talk about going through this search, what was the most important thing?” He asked rhetorically at Joseph’s introductory press conference Thursday. “Obviously, we’ve had a lot of success here over the last five, six, seven years. It started with John Fox, and it went to Gary Kubiak who took it to the next level. When we talk about culture we talk about what that locker room means, how important are the players, the way the players are treated and the culture becomes something that is very, very important.

“This team is less than a year removed from a World Championship,” he added. “It’s not been a year since we won the Super Bowl, so it was very important to find somebody that could fit the culture that we had and had a philosophy of the culture that we have in this building. Vance checks that box; he has that… He’s the perfect fit for us.”

Ask someone their definition of leadership and you’ll likely get something different every time. Leadership is not cut and dry, and each leader forms his or her own way of inspiring others to follow them. For Joseph, the base of his leadership is trust.

“I just try to be honest as possible with players. That’s what they want,” he explained. “They want honesty and they want to know where they stand all the time. It doesn’t mean you don’t love them, you don’t care about them, but you can surely tell them the truth, and that’s where it starts.”

The Broncos new leader couldn’t even wait to begin delivering truths to his players. As he began his press conference, he took a break from his wide view of the media to address a small group of seven players sitting right in the front row. Suddenly his voice became a bit more stern as he stared directly into the eyes of his men, one by one on down the line.

“My philosophy is this—just come to work,” he told them simply. “Obviously, our standard is to win championships, but we can’t skip the work, and we can’t skip the season. No one is going to give you 10 wins, 12 wins and put you in the playoffs. It starts with work. We can’t forget that. That’s my goal, to come in and work, making every meeting, every practice and every rep a winning performance. If we do that, guys, it’s going to happen. If we don’t, it won’t happen. That’s our first order of business, to come to work.”

At his first day on the job, long before he’ll get the chance to address his team as a whole, Joseph couldn’t help but deliver his message. As soon as he finished his press duties, he gravitated directly to his men once again, continuing to preach to them as they stared back with wide eyes and open minds.

The Denver Broncos have a very specific culture; it’s been carefully curated by the team’s longtime owner Pat Bowlen since he took over the team in 1984. Distilled down to its purest form, the culture is about one thing—winning—but every franchise wants to win, it’s the intricate details of that culture that lead to those victories. One very important detail is unrivaled leadership, it started with Bowlen was passed down to Elway and now the storied franchise entrusts that oh-so-important quality in Vance Desmond Joseph.