Vance Joseph opens up on all things Broncos, from starting offensive line to new coaching moves

Football hasn’t even taken the field for the first time in the NFL’s 2018 new league year, but the Denver Broncos are already laying the foundation for what the team will look like.

After John Elway gave key insight on what to expect with the team’s roster on Sunday, head coach Vance Joseph followed that up on Tuesday morning by dropped more dimes of knowledge about the new-look Broncos in 2018.

At the NFL’s Annual League Meeting in Orlando, Joseph sat down with a small media contingent and opened up on many topics. Here’s what he said.

Starting offensive line

Outside of acquiring a quarterback, or two, continuing to rebuild the offensive line was a major priority for Denver this offseason.

After acquiring tackle Jared Veldheer from the Arizona Cardinals on Friday, Joseph gave a rundown of what the team’s starting offensive line would look like if OTAs started tomorrow:

Left tackle: Garett Bolles,

Left guard: Ron Leary

Center: Matt Paradis

Right guard: Connor McGovern

Right tackle: Jared Veldheer

Joseph also pointed to former-tackle Menelik Watson and former-starting guard Max Garcia as payers who would be in the mix at right guard.

The second-year head coach said to keep an eye on guard J.J. Dielman as the team is high on him. Dielman was signed by the team off the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad in December. He was a fifth-round pick in 2017.

Coming off his rookie season, which included the typical ups and downs of most rookies, there was speculation the Broncos would move Bolles to right tackle. That talk, however, never made it inside the team’s headquarters as both Elway and Joseph firmly said he’s their left tackle.

“He is going to be a very, very good player for us,” Joseph said confidently on Tuesday. “A talent that just needs time to grow into the position.”

Calling on young players

Last season, Bolles was the only rookie to have a significant contribution on the team. In order for a bounce-back year, Joseph believes it’s important for the team to receive a significant boost from the younger players, specifically pointing to Isaiah McKenzie returning punts.

“His issue is not catching the football. It’s not. It’s decision making. He has to make better decisions,” Joseph said, talking about the young speedster. “Every return he wanted to make a touchdown. You can’t do it. Teams started playing him differently.”

“We have to get him back to making good decisions. Catching the football will not be his issue. Once the ball is in his hand and it’s blocked up, he’s special. Catching the ball is your first job. Decision making is part of that.”

After leading the league in fumbles at various points last season, McKenzie was replaced by Jordan Taylor as the team’s punt returner. According to Joseph, Taylor will be the “first in line” at that job this year, but there will be a competition for that spot during the offseason.

“We have to get better at covering kicks and at catching the punt return. I was really proud of Jordan Taylor, how he came in and did a hell of a job for us. We had no more problems when Jordan took over,” Joseph said. “That’s a guy I love because he’s a guy that gets the job done. It doesn’t look pretty. It’s not going to be on ESPN. At the end of the day, his first game returning he averaged like 14 yards a return. That’s a Pro-Bowl average.”

Along with McKenzie and Taylor, Joseph pointed at second-year pros Carlos Henderson and Brendan Langley as players that will need to step up on special teams to fill the voids left by Cody Latimer and Bennie Fowler.

On the offensive side of the ball, Joseph said Henderson could line up inside or outside depending on the situation. When he lines up outside, the team would move Sanders into the slot.

Speaking of young players, don’t count Paxton Lynch out, Joseph warned.

“Paxton’s had 4-5 starts and to deem Paxton not capable, that’s not fair… It takes time to [be a] good quarterback in this league,” the head coach said, defending his quarterback. “I think once Paxton gets more time he’s going to get better as a quarterback.”

“By no means is Paxton Lynch done. By no means at all. He’s shown enough in practice—even in the games he’s played—that he can play the position. But he needs more time, and that’s simply it.”

The final young player the head coach touched on was last year’s second-round pick, DeMarcus Walker. After bouncing around his rookie season from outside linebacker to defensive end, Joseph said he wants Walker to be five pounds heavier than he was when they drafted him—about 275 pounds at the time—and they want him to focus on his main role moving forward: Interior pass rusher on sub-packages.

Draft update

Although Joseph admitted two weeks ago at Case Keenum’s introductory press conference that the draft was “John’s thing,” he gave interesting insight into a direction the team will go with one of their picks.

“That’s definitely an area we have to address in the draft,” Joseph said, talking about the inside linebacker position. “It’s going to be fun to finally draft a guy that [Linebackers Coach] Reggie [Herring] can develop and become a full-time player for us. We’ve drafted lower-round guys and [signed] free agents more often at inside backer, but we have a chance to draft a guy maybe higher.”

While the team did re-sign starting linebacker Todd Davis, they lost backup linebacker Corey Nelson to the Philadelphia Eagles in free agency.

Currently, the team has nine picks in the draft, all of which are in the first five rounds.

Coaching changeup

Potentially the most eye-opening news of the morning came in the form of a coaching shakeup, not with the personnel, but with the configuration.

One of the many coaching changes that occurred after the team’s 5-11 season was the firing of outside linebackers coach Fred Pagac. After that move, inside linebackers coach Reggie Herring was named linebackers coach, taking on the responsibility of both the inside and outside linebackers. At the time, it was expected the team was going to add a pass rush specialist coach.

Instead, what Joseph revealed Tuesday was defensive line coach Bill Kollar will coach the weakside outside linebackers along with the defensive lineman, while Herring will coach the Sam, Mike and Mo linebackers.

So, what does this mean exactly?

Von Miller will now be coached by defensive line coach Kollar, while Shane Ray, Shaq Barrett, and the inside linebackers will be coached by Herring. That’s right; Von won’t be coached in the same group as Ray and Barrett, although they all play the same position.

The reasoning for this move was simple, according to Joseph.

“To have Von Miller with coach Kollar is going to be a good thing because now we can get him more rushes. That’s the point behind it,” Joseph said, explaining why they decided to move Miller with the defensive lineman. “We want to get our best rusher more rushes. That’s pretty much it.”