Vance Joseph has been coordinating defenses and calling plays for more than a decade in the NFL.
Davis Webb is seven months into his first offensive coordinator gig and about to embark on his first season as a primary play-caller.
The Broncos’ pair of coordinators are clearly in different stages of their career. Joseph is a former head coach who has been patiently waiting for a second chance. Webb is a high-flying up-and-comer who nearly landed a head coach job at 31 years old this winter and, if Denver’s offense hums this fall, could be the belle of the ball come the next coaching cycle.
In Joseph’s first draft as the Broncos’ head coach in the spring of 2017, Denver drafted Carlos Henderson at No. 82 and Brendon Langley at No. 102 in the third round. Between them, at No. 87, went Webb, a third-round quarterback drafted by the New York Giants.
As Broncos’ Davis Webb preps to call plays, Vance Joseph provides daily camp tests
The pair has developed a deep respect for each other over the past three years in Denver and this summer they’ve also found that their daily chess matches are beneficial, too.
To be sure, there are only so many layers to the battle in training camp. Each unit is installing each day. Practices and reps are scripted. This is not an every-40-seconds cat-and-mouse game like it would be if the two were squaring off in an actual game.
Still, they each are quick to say that the counterparts keep each other -- and their respective groups — sharp in the long August work weeks.
"This training camp has been very competitive," Joseph said Saturday. "It's going back and forth. They've made some plays. Defense made some plays. That's a good sign for our team."
Joseph pointed to the shifts, motions and pre-snap “window dressing” that Webb’s presented so far in training camp as good tests for his defense from a communication standpoint even with all of the continuity and experience it boasts.
“It's hard every day to kind of -- not game plan, but kind of just get ready for the things he's given us,” Joseph said of Webb. “It's a lot, but it's so good for the offense to kind of show it all.”
Webb, meanwhile, has been observing -- and attempting to defeat — Joseph-led defenses for much longer than his Broncos coaching tenure.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Webb said Saturday when asked if he felt like there was friendly competition between him and Joseph. “And itap fun to go against a pristine defensive coordinator every day, as well. Vance is well, well respected across the league. Even before I got here, we played him in Arizona in 2020, the Hail Murray, that was always a tough battle. My rookie year we played him when he was the head coach here. He’s got great respect across the league and we get to see it every day.”
While Joseph’s system, and routines are deeply embedded here now, Webb is still in the midst of a Year 1 checklist.
He said Saturday he’d prefer to call games from the sideline -- thatap where Joseph operates during games — but that he and head coach Sean Payton are “still working through that.”
“I’d like to be on the field, is where I’m at today,” Webb said. “I didn’t play much in my NFL career. I saw the game a lot from that point of view, so I feel pretty good right now. We’ll talk about it more, but thatap where itap at right now.”
Then there’s just the simple matter of getting reps calling plays in non-practice situations. Without joint practices during training camp this summer, Webb’s got three preseason games to test drive before the Broncos head to Kansas City on Sept. 14.
The first arrives Friday at Atlanta.
“I’m looking forward to everyone getting in a rhythm,” Webb said Saturday. “Or staff, our players, in and out of the huddle. We’ll learn something every game and every drive. We’ll review it as the game goes and especially postgame and try to get three good opportunities before Kansas City on Monday Night (Football).
"That’ll be rocking and I know they’ll be a good team, so this will be a good opportunity for us to kind of feel that out.”
Webb told The Post he expects some ironing out along the way, but that the preseason games are a good environment for that.
"Not just me, but the whole staff," Webb said. "From the headsets to, just, things will come up. Things we like, things we don't like. ... We're lucky that, as a staff, we've been together for the last few years. We have a good staff, we're all friendly and we know each other very well."
