Vance Joseph's footprint on the Denver Broncos organization is growing

INDIANAPOLIS — Exactly one year ago, as Vance Joseph manned the hallways of the Indiana Convention Center during his first NFL Combine as a head coach, his shadow looked a bit different.

You see, at the time, the freshly anointed head coach was followed closely by then-assistant Phil Rauscher. Rauscher, a former offensive lineman at UCLA, brought a menacing, stone-faced presence to Joseph’s proverbial posse. To be honest, if you didn’t know any better, you may have thought the assistant to the head coach—a holdover from the previous staff—was part of his security detail.

On Tuesday morning, as the coach walked into his second NFL Combine press conference, the smile on his face was followed by another one behind him. With Rauscher off in Washington D.C. as an assistant OL coach for the Redskins, Joseph was trailed by his new assistant, Rob Grosso.

Much like Joseph, Grosso is a bright, outgoing, sociable fella. After serving as an operations intern last season, the young assistant may have been a bit of an upset winner of the job, but it seems to make sense.

You see, Grosso serves as a perfect microcosm of the new direction of the Denver Broncos.

In 2017, Vance Joseph tried to do things the Denver Broncos way. In 2018, Vance Joseph is doing things the Vance Joseph way.

This is the way it should be. The same way you have to adapt your offense to the quarterback you employ, you have to adapt your organization to the coach you hire.

When Joseph dropped the ax on household names in Broncos Country like Eric Studesville, Tyke Tolbert and Fred Pagac, he turned heads. These guys were Denver Broncos. They were the Broncos way. When he then attributed those firings to the need for a “culture change,” he raised eyebrows, to say the least—some even speculated that he simply got his cliches mixed up. After all, those coaches had just helped foster a culture that led to a Super Bowl victory.

On Tuesday, Joseph doubled down on the “culture change” comments. And maybe, odd as it sounds, that Super Bowl had something to do with it.

Remember that interestingly honest monologue from team President and CEO Joe Ellis at the end-of-season press conference?

“I would say there is one thing that I feel—a characteristic that kind of seeped into our building a little bit, both of our buildings, maybe,” he said. “I sent a letter out this morning to our fan base and to our season-ticket members—about 22,000 of the them—and I [said] expectations are fine. We should always have them, but we shouldn’t make assumptions. I feel like there are times where I just get a sense that as an organization maybe we’re looking at a slogan on the wall, three [Lombardi] trophies in the locker room or Super Bowl banners at the stadium facing our audience. We kind of assume that is the way it’s going to be… I’m not saying it’s widespread, but if it is in there—and my sense is that at times it became that way—that needs to stop.”

When Vance Joseph talks about his new assistants, “hunger” is often the operative word. That’s the Vance Joseph way; these are “Vance Joseph guys.”

As Von Miller once said, it’s human nature to take a breath of fresh air once you’ve reached the mountaintop. Save for quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, none of the Broncos’ new assistants have had a chance to take that breath yet, and maybe that can be a good thing.

Much like Joseph, these guys are starving for success, and a new hunger is just what the Broncos need.

“The culture of your football team comes from the coaches, and it bleeds through the locker room,” Joseph said. “To change that, you have to make some changes.”

The changes have come, and there are more changes coming. Changes to the locker room, changes to the schemes and changes to the way things operate at Denver Broncos headquarters.

If the S.S. Vance Joseph is going to sink, it’s going to do so with Vance Joseph’s hands firmly planted on the ship’s wheel.