ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — No player better understands the type of process-based coaching that Broncos defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero wants to bring to Denver than future Hall of Fame Von Miller.
Denver traded Miller to the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 1. Evero was in the midst of his fifth season as a Rams assistant, and in his first press conference as a Broncos coordinator, vowed to bring a process-based approach to his role — one that was based more on long-term consistency rather than short-term reaction to the inevitable ebb and flow of an NFL season.
What Miller saw in Los Angeles from a staff that included Evero could not have been more different than his recent experience with the Broncos.
“We (the Rams) have been so even-keeled and so consistent with things that we do, how we prepare,” Miller said prior to Week 18.
“When I was with the Denver Broncos, when we lose, it’s time to double down on something. It’s time to go harder, it’s time to do something differently. It’s time to watch more film, practice a little bit harder, lift a little bit harder. And these guys, they just got a formula. We come in, we do our stuff, we go home. And we trust our guys. We trust the stars on the team.
“We trust the foundational players. We trust the coaches. And honestly, we just come in and we do the exact same thing. When we we’re losing, we were doing the exact same thing.”
Von Miller, earlier this week, says that a difference between the current Rams and the current Broncos is in how the team reacts to losing when it prepares for the following game. pic.twitter.com/i1Zse4v9Lp
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 7, 2022
That’s exactly what Evero and his fellow assistant coaches intended for the Rams in recent years — and what he wants to see in Denver.
“The process has got to be consistent,” Evero said Feb. 22. “I think when the players feel that the coaches are consistent, their teaching methods are the same, our flow as we go through the week as the same, our approach, whether it’s a high or a low, a win or loss is the same.
“We’re about correcting, we’re about demanding and we’re about teaching. Once they feel that and see that on a consistent basis, then we’re going to know how we’re going to operate. I think the process is the biggest thing. You’ve got to develop the process. Then as the players witness it, they’ve got to trust that you’re going to stay consistent with it. When they trust you, then you got it.”
But it’s easy to trust the process when you’re doing well — or when there is a track record of past success to support it. The latter was the case in Los Angeles; because the Rams have never had a losing season since Sean McVay became their head coach, a three-game November losing streak wasn’t going to result in a dramatic pivot or any kind of panic.
So, how can the Broncos’ new coaches avoid falling into the same trap as the old regime?
“You’ve got to put the blinders on,” Evero said. “You’ve got to have belief in what you’re doing, and you’ve got to stay the course.
“If your process is right — which I believe it’s going to be here — the people are right, and you stay the course, you’re going to have the results you want.”
And that will be the test of the strength of the Broncos’ process. It’s not whether it can withstand the good times. It’s whether it — and their coaches — can maintain that consistency during rough stretches.
If they can, they will succeed where the last regime failed.
