3:48pm: Add the Falcons to Joseph’s itinerary. Atlanta brass will discuss its recently vacated HC position with the Denver DC this week, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini tweets. This makes Joseph on the radar for five of the six available positions thus far. The Browns can make it a sweep.
Last year, Joseph met with only the Jets and Raiders. After the Broncos’ defense delivered a second straight strong season under Joseph, more teams have taken notice. While Joseph will shift his focus back to the Broncos’ divisional-round game next week, his bye period will be eventful.
12:03pm: Vance Joseph‘s second Broncos stint has boosted his stock, and after seven years back on the coordinator level, the former head coach is poised to become a strong candidate for a second-chance opportunity. Several teams will meet with the Denver DC about HC vacancies.
The Cardinals, Giants, Raiders and Titans will huddle up with Joseph, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Because the Broncos secured the AFC’s bye slot, Joseph can discuss HC jobs with teams beginning Wednesday of this week. The interviews must be virtual, but Joseph will conduct them all this week.
Joseph’s Cardinals interview is perhaps the most interesting, as he spent four years as their DC. The veteran staffer’s Denver return showed a willingness to return after being fired. While the Cardinals did not technically fire Joseph in 2023 — as they dismantled Kliff Kingsbury‘s staff upon dismissing the HC — they passed on Joseph as the Kingsbury successor.
Joseph interviewed for the Arizona job shortly after Kingsbury’s ouster but did not meet about the position a second time. The Cards gave the job to another defensive-minded coach, Jonathan Gannon, whom they fired Monday.
The Raiders met with Joseph about their HC vacancy last year, eventually giving the job to Pete Carroll. That will make for an interesting meeting this time around, as the team fired Carroll after a 3-14 season. The Giants and Titans came up as interested parties for Joseph ahead of this year’s carousel launch.
There are a host of defensive-minded HC candidates this year but few offense-oriented options for teams. This has allowed Joseph, 53, to move into stronger position to become a second-chance HC. Joseph went 11-21 as the Broncos’ HC from 2017-18, but his quarterback situation — headlined by Case Keenum and the Paxton Lynch draft miss — did plenty to hurt those teams’ chances. After helming a third-ranked defense last season, Joseph repeated that finish in 2025.
The Broncos enter the playoffs third in scoring defense and second in yardage, as Joseph’s defense has powered them to the No. 1 seed for the first time since 2015. While Denver is highly unlikely to lose OC Joe Lombardi, the prospect of losing Joseph and QBs coach Davis Webb is firmly in play.
Giants Rooney Rule HC candidate interview…..
The guy’s doing maybe the best job of any coordinator in football.
Denver’s seeding is much more due to Joseph’s coaching than the offensive production. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Payton is doing a fantastic job, but Joseph and the talent that Paton found on that defense is paying enormous dividends for the Broncos. Unfortunately, Nix is far too unpredictable and inconsistent to make wins as easy to come by as they should be, but if I’m Denver, I’m giving Joseph whatever he could possibly want to spurn those head coaching interviews for at least another year.
The Broncos may have a bit more leverage for at least a one-year with “offensive-minded” options Stefanski and Kingsbury in the HC mix.
True, but Nix is a gamer. Gets alot out of role players other than Sutton, Harvey, and if they get lucky, Dobbins again. Can Engram and Mims help him more in the playoffs?
Nix is a clutch backyard football guy frequently, but that same mindset is also what gets him into trouble. He frequently diverts from his called plays or reads, and usually ends up pulling a Wilson and flinging it downfield or getting happy feet and throwing an imprecise ball to the wrong spot.
He’s only in his second year, so there’s time, but right now he’s definitely a seesaw on the field. As a sidenote, I really, really don’t see the Brees comparisons with Nix in terms of playstyle. He’s much more freewheeling than Brees was with Payton, a lot of which probably comes from his athletic ability.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s made some great clutch plays in crunch time, and his burgeoning connection with his college teammate in Franklin is really promising. If Nix was a bit more of a game manager, it could behoove Denver’s offense; you don’t, however, want him to lose that freewheeling entirely-you just would like to see smarter decision making coming out of it.
As a Giants Fan..
This is a waste of time…
Harbaugh just became available..with McCarthy waiting ..
I want someone who has Won by crafting a team and a working staff of coaches..
Vance Joseph might be a good hire. Jim Leonhard would be a GREAT hire.