Schlereth: Vance Joseph hasn’t saved his job, but he’s on track
Nov 28, 2018, 9:49 AM | Updated: 9:57 am
With wins over two of the AFC’s top teams in consecutive weeks, a growing consensus around Broncos Country has been that Vance Joseph has saved himself from losing his job as Denver’s head coach.
But on Wednesday, “Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth said to pump the brakes on that subject for a moment.
“Have you saved your job? With these two wins against the Chargers and the Steelers, have you saved your job? And the answer is no, you haven’t,” Schlereth said. “But are you on track to save your job? You’re doggone right.”
Joseph, Schlereth said, controls his own destiny in the sense that if he can win the next handful of games he’ll likely remain employed as the Broncos head coach.
“We’re going to see exactly how it finishes up. You take care of these four games that are winnable games against teams that you’re better than,” Schlereth said. “You should win every one of those games.”
Over the next month, the Broncos play on the road at Cincinnati and San Francisco, then back home against Cleveland, and then back out on the road against Oakland.
All four teams sport losing records, with the 49ers and Raiders both at 2-9.
“You win these games, you go on a streak here and you win against Cincinnati and San Francisco and Cleveland and Oakland, then you save your job,” Schlereth said.
Winning all four games would give Denver a six-game winning streak and put them within striking distance of the postseason.
Joseph said on Monday that he’s “kind of ignored” the outside chatter about his job performance and he doesn’t care about it.
“My focus is the players and the coaches, honestly. That’s my attitude,” Joseph said. “I knew it was going to turn. We’ve played too much good football. We’ve worked too hard not to have some success. I knew it was going to turn eventually.”
Schlereth said he believes Joseph when he says he’s ignoring the outside noise, that he can’t listen to it and must “trust (his) process.”
“You know this business. You know that if you don’t perform, if you don’t win, if you don’t have a good record, you know you’re going to lose your job,” Schlereth said. “Vance Joseph knows that if they go out against Cincinnati or San Francisco or Cleveland or Oakland and they don’t win those games, then he’s in jeopardy. He knows where he stands.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
