Vance Joseph to return as Broncos head coach for 2018 season

After roughly 12 hours in limbo, Vance Joseph is poised to return to the Denver Broncos for a second season at head coach.

In a tweet Monday morning, general manager John Elway said he and Joseph had a “great talk” about how to attack the upcoming offseason and improve as a team.

“We believe in Vance as our head coach,” Elway wrote. “Together, we’ll put in the work to improve in all areas and win in 2018.”

Vance and I had a great talk this morning about our plan to attack this offseason and get better as a team. We believe in Vance as our head coach. Together, we’ll put in the work to improve in all areas and win in 2018.

— John Elway (@johnelway) January 1, 2018

The announcement of Joseph’s return comes on the heels of a 5-11 season for the Broncos, capped off by a New Year’s Eve loss at home to the Kansas City Chiefs in the team’s season finale.

After the game, Joseph said he “absolutely” expected to be back for a second season as Denver’s head coach but would be meeting with Elway on Monday morning.

“I’ll say this, I’m going to obviously visit with John probably tonight or tomorrow. We’ll see, but I want to be here,” Joseph said Sunday night. “It’s a football team that’s close. We have to make some adjustments in some places, but our football team all year has not stopped working. That was fun to see, even tonight.

“It’s been a hard year, but everyone kept fighting. I want to be here to fix it.”

Joseph received a showing of support from a number of players after the game, and quarterback Trevor Siemian called the news of his return “great” while speaking to the media Monday morning.

“I think he’s got the locker room, got all the respect of the guys,” Siemian said. “I think at times like this it’s easy to point fingers. The one thing I’ll say is nobody in here’s done that, and that’s a credit to coach Joseph and how he steered this thing.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.