Change is afoot on Sean Payton’s coaching staff.
Payton paid no mind to the Broncos putting together a 14-3 regular season and playing for the AFC Championship at home when he fired three coaches to start the offseason, including offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi
Then he lost Pete Carmichael Jr. to Buffalo and could well lose secondary coach Jim Leonhard to the Bills. Or perhaps Baltimore.
All eyes have been on Denver quarterbacks coach Davis Webb, who looks to be in line for promotion to offensive coordinator and perhaps even to be the first assistant coach to work for Payton and also call plays for him.
All the while, nobody’s talking about Vance Joseph.
The Broncos defensive coordinator two months ago looked like as sure a bet as any to get a head coaching job this cycle. If Payton or virtually anybody else in the Broncos’ building had been told at the start of December that 10 head coaching jobs would come open, Joseph would have seemed like an automatic.
Indeed, nearly a third of the league’s head coaching jobs became available when what began as a potentially mild coaching carousel turned nutty.
Now eight are filled and only Arizona and Las Vegas — two jobs Joseph was tied to early in the process — remain open, though the Broncos defensive coordinator doesn’t look to be in contention for either.
Itap a shame.
Joseph orchestrated back-to-back top-flight defenses and is regarded widely as a terrific leader. He says — and certainly he’s communicated to teams in the interview process — he’s learned from the things he failed at when he was Denver’s head coach from 2017-18. He’s got glowing public endorsement from Payton, particularly this year.
“Itap not a matter of if, itap when and who,” Payton said Jan. 9. “I think itap going to happen and I know when that time comes, there’ll be 110 people on the other side of those doors super excited for him.”
The coaching hires this time around featured an interesting mix. There are bounce-backs with extensive track records in John Harbaugh (New York Giants) and Kevin Stefanski (Atlanta), defensive first-timers like Jeff Hafley (Miami) and Jesse Minter (Baltimore). A homecoming in Pittsburgh with Mike McCarthy and offensive minds young and old — Joe Brady in Buffalo, the former, Todd Monken in Cleveland, the latter. Despite that mix of professional backgrounds, there’s been a striking lack of diversity. Tennessee’s Robert Saleh, a Lebanese American who became the first Muslim head coach in NFL history when he got the New York Jets job in 2021, is the lone minority hire so far.
Reporting from around the league suggests the final two openings could go to young offensive minds with Seattle OC Klint Kubiak tied to the Raiders job — Broncos assistant Davis Webb withdrew from consideration Thursday — and Los Angeles Rams OC Mike LaFleur tied to Arizona.
Joseph’s chances may have been impacted by the Broncos playing as long as they can. Payton lamented the hiring cycle timeline on Tuesday while saying he thought his coaches did a good job navigating interest from around the league.
“It’s still difficult because preparing for one of those interviews requires time — like, quite a bit of time,” Payton said. “Then, preparing for an opponent in the playoffs requires every waking minute. I don’t know that I have the solution, but I think it’s a challenge that we battle as a league.”
There is at least one silver lining for Joseph and for the Broncos.
For Joseph, a couple of these jobs look like dead ends anyway. Payton talks often about not just landing a head coaching job but finding the right one. Joseph, 53, in all likelihood, has a maximum of one more chance to be a head coach. Inheriting the roster and quarterback situations in, say, Cleveland or Arizona sounds like bad business.
For the Broncos, of course, it will be disappointing to see the league pass Joseph over and terrific to have him back for a fourth year. His players will be thrilled. Payton should be, too.
Denver will see some turnover on defense but has the core of the group returning and now steeped in his system.
“We were the best defense in the league this year,” said inside linebacker Alex Singleton, an impending free agent who has made it clear he ideally wants to play for Joseph, wherever the coach lands, going forward. “We held a team under 200 yards in the AFC Championship Game. Thatap what we expect every week. I think we can do that every game next year.”
Other teams’ decision-making is shaping up to benefit the Broncos. The NFL’s a cold world and the word “deserve” means about as much as “almost.” It counts for essentially nothing.
This one’s a head-scratcher all the same.
