Are you sure you can still trust Sean Payton after he hired Vance Joseph?

The Nothing To See Here Crowd (NTSHC) had a field day over the past 24 hours, and now that Sean Payton has picked a sensible defensive coordinator with a rocky past; will some in Broncos Country change their tune or force Vance Joseph into their narrative?

NTSHC celebrated a bizarre clap back by Denver Broncos head coach Payton towards muggle Eric Goodman. Goodman had suggested things were a mess in the assistant coaching search spotlighted by the twisty turny Joseph, no Rex Ryan, no—four days later—Matt Patricia defensive coordinator interview process.

Payton rubbed Goodman’s face in the, “we are better than you think and we will tell you what we want when we are ready.”

Yeah! Get ’em coach! This isn’t an unhinged thing for a guy making $18 million a year to do.

Folks that questioned this strangely ubiquitous search were told to, in no particular order, “chill,” “calm down,” “shut up,” “multiple curse word variations of jump in a lake,” “things that are unimaginable to do one’s mother.”

And now, the decision has been made.

Welcome back to the family Vance Joseph!

VJ was once the Broncos head coach, who according to commentator Sergio Dipp of ESPN was “having the time of his life,” as he coached his first NFL game. Ironically, that Monday Night Football game was broadcast on ESPN where Ryan, who didn’t get the Broncos defensive coordinator job, was the expert analyst. Ahhh, it seems we have found a moment of full-circle karma.

Joseph was destroyed by the local media for failing epically. After a disastrous first year, Broncos Football President John Elway, famously said he would have to “sleep on it” before deciding to bring VJ back for a second year.

It was a weird comment that led to a weird moment as the two men sat side by side a few days later at a press conference obliviating positively about the future.

The future stunk. The second year for Joseph was worst than the first year and there was nothing left to sleep on as Elway canned VJ.

Time should treat Joseph well.

Elway’s next hire was worse and new Broncos general manager George Paton’s first hire was crazily a bigger disaster.

As it turns out, Joseph doesn’t look so bad! Heck, if Elway did what he should’ve done in 2018 and drafted Josh Allen, Joseph may have never been fired! I wonder how often the newly hired Broncos defensive coordinator thinks of that.

Hiring Joseph makes the most sense compared to all other candidates.

First, he’s the most qualified as he was the one who most recently had a dc gig. He is young and filled with fire. He has a ton to prove and plenty of motivation to do so.

Second, not only should teams be hiring coordinators who you could project to be a head coaches because they are simply the best, but the NFL through the Rooney rule has given serious incentives to hire minorities and women in coordinator positions because after two years as a coordinator, upon their ascension to head coach, the team that loses that talented person gets two third-round draft picks. This is without a doubt a great stipulation in the Rooney rule since it is practically impossible to raise up to a head coaching position without being a coordinator first.

There was no logical reason once Joseph became a viable candidate that Ryan or Patricia was even considered. I truly wonder how those guys even came to light. I’m especially curious about the mystery candidate, Patricia, to the degree that I wonder if his interview was just a cover to have him hired on the Broncos staff at another position. Ryan can happily go back to his cushy TV gig where he makes millions.

But, now comes the interesting part when so many out there in Bronco Land were voicing their opinion that Payton had everything under control. He has now hired one of the most notorious “villains” of the Broncos past. Will NTSHC scream from the highest mountaintop “SEAN GOT IT RIGHT!!!! HE GOT THE RIGHT GUY!!!!” or will they silently slither away from that because Joseph doesn’t fit their narrative?

I guess, in the immortal words of ex-Broncos head coach and the biggest supporter of hiring Joseph as head coach for the Broncos over Kyle Shanahan, Gary Kubiak said, “we are fixin to find out.”
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