Being the head coach of the Denver Broncos is far from a walk in the park. Neither of the last two men to work the job have made it to the end of their contract, and both faced serious health issues during their stint at the helm. Simply put, it’s a pressure cooker, you are expected to succeed, and you have the ultimate competitor in John Elway making sure you deliver.
While up at the lectern during his introductory press conference, new Broncos’ head coach Vance Joseph was asked point blank about that challenge ahead. Will you be able to thrive under the pressure of being the coach of such a prestigious franchise? The answer was short, sweet, and said exactly what everybody wanted to hear.
“Absolutely.”
Joseph, who is entering his first head coaching job in 2017, inherited a 9-7 team that—one year removed from a Super Bowl victory—from Gary Kubiak. With the smell of victory still strong in the mile-high air, the Colorado alum has work to do and cannot let the pressure bog him down.
“We have to embrace the culture here. Who wants to lose? I’d rather be in a job where [we’re] expected to win,” Joseph stated. “I prefer a job that you can win four or five games isn’t OK. I’m embracing it. I want the players to embrace it. That’s what’s expected, and that’s the fun part about this business.”
It cannot all be on the coach, however, players must also embrace the culture and be on the same page as one another—which is exactly why Joseph was hired.
“Players loved him. He was a really good teacher. He was firm but yet fair. They really liked him and related to him. He was a guy that players could certainly relate to,” former Buffs head coach Gary Barnett said about his time as a CU defensive backs coach. “He did a good job with them. From there he’s just had great experiences in the NFL.”
“I see him as an ultimate competitor. He’s smart, intelligent, confident, and aggressive. He really made football simple for me,” Dolphins linebacker Jelani Jenkins said about his former defensive coordinator. “There are a lot of things an offense can do, and he was able to really simplify it for all of us and slowed the game down and made us play faster because of the way he taught it.”
While he does have the praise from former coaches and players throughout his career, ‘VJ’ starts with a clean slate in 2017 with a franchise that has more Super Bowl appearances than losing seasons since 1984. Vance clearly has plans for a team that he thinks so highly of in the upcoming years and is ready to work on what he called “a reboot, not a rebuild” for a talented team that struggled over the course of last season.
“I’ll say this when you don’t make the playoffs it’s probably a team issue. I’ve watched the offense, and I’ve watched the quarterbacks, and the problem was moving the ball. You win at all three phases, and you lose the same way,” Joseph added during his press conference. “Offensively you can start with—we have players. We have two receivers that are All-Pro players and good offensive lineman. We have two young quarterbacks that are both competitive. It first starts there. Putting the system together that scores more points, that’s important.”
With all the changes coming at a rapid pace, it’s safe to say that the Denver Broncos are going to look quite a bit different in 2017 and that could very well be a good thing under the right guidance. Joseph helped a stagnant Miami Dolphins team from a 6-10 record in 2015 to the playoffs in 2016, a place Miami had not seen since 2008, all this even after a 1-4 start to the season.
All indications point towards Joseph being ready for his first head coaching gig, but any coach will tell you that you’re never truly ready. The new lead man for Denver’s storied franchise will soon have more on his plate than he could have ever imagined and likely feel pressure he’s never felt, but it’s clear now that he is approaching the job with the right mindset.
