Since general manager John Elway joined the Denver Broncos just over six years ago, he’s had one goal each and every year: win a world championship. Now, on his third different coaching staff in that time, Elway, and new head coach Vance Joseph have built a coaching staff that is very different from the most recent regime.
At this time two years ago, when Kubiak was building his own coaching staff, there was an idea that he was “getting the gang back together” as he hired many former friends, coworkers and people he knew well to be apart of his staff. This time around, with Joseph, it seems as if differences are what define the new regime.
Although there are plenty of differences between Joseph’s new staff and Kubiak’s previous staff, the most drastic differences may lie entirely inside the new regime. From experienced to inexperienced and new to old, the new Broncos’ staff, which is nearly finalized, was not built on a single principle, and that’s just what Elway and company hope is needed to bring another championship back to the Mile High City.
The best example of this is found just by comparing the two sides of the ball. On the defensive side, the coaching staff is mostly intact from last year, bringing back all of the position coaches and hiring just one new coach—defensive backs coach Marcus Robertson—to take over the role that was vacant with the promotion of Joe Woods to defensive coordinator after Wade Phillips left.
However, on the offensive side of the ball there was a major overhaul among the top-level staff. Not only was there a change at coordinator—Mike McCoy in for Rick Dennison—three of the five position coaches were also changed.
Along with those changes, the makeup of the staff is very inconsistent. While Joseph and Woods have no experience at their respective new positions, head coach and defensive coordinator, their is a wealth of experience among other coaches.
In fact, of the four new coaches on the offensive side of the ball—McCoy, offensive line coach Jeff Davidson, offensive line assistant John Benton and quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave—the offensive leader, McCoy, has the fewest years of coaching experience with 17. The other three new offensive coaches experience ranges from 20 to 30 years.
These differences don’t stop with the offense and the defense, either. After special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis left the Broncos to join the Jacksonville Jaguars, Joseph and Elway hired first-time coordinator Brock Olivo. Olivo, 40, not only doesn’t have coordinating experience; he’s only been a coach in the NFL for three seasons as an assistant special teams coach in Kansas City since 2013.
Only time will tell whether these drastic differences, not only from last year but within this staff, will prove to be beneficial. One thing that is clear now is that only consistent aspect of the Broncos new coaching staff is a lack of consistency.
