Vance Joseph learned something from past interviews: ‘Prep’s overrated’

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Vance Joseph was a man in demand last week — from seven of the nine teams with head-coaching vacancies who reached out with interest in him.

You’d think that getting ready for so many teams in so compressed of a time frame would be daunting. But after having been a head coach once and going through the interview cycle in multiple years, Joseph has picked up a few things.

“What you learn in the process is the prep’s overrated and having a book (laying out your plan) is overrated,” the Broncos’ defensive coordinator said. “It’s more of a conversation. It’s the right fit.”

“But most of all you realize that winning helps, so, my focus was the Broncos the entire time and winning games and whatever happens, happens. But you have to win to gain respect for those jobs.”

Last Thanksgiving, Joseph talked at length about what he’d picked up in the last three seasons of working with Sean Payton and what he’d taken from the Broncos’ successful rebuilding project, taking a 5-12 team that had just completed its seventh-consecutive losing season to a team that earned the No. 1 seed — and did so despite having $89 million of dead money on its salary cap in 2024 and another $45 million this season.

The Broncos didn’t use that — with most if it coming from the contract of Russell Wilson — as an excuse. And Joseph knows that being a part of the team’s success despite that could be the best thing he has going for him.

“It’s flattering, but it speaks to the entire program,” he said, “and again, I think when teams want to hire a coach from a winning program, they want the recipe. So, it speaks to Coach (Sean) Payton, it speaks to the ownership, it speaks to George (Paton) our players.

“It’s everyone’s reward, so to speak.”

But if Joseph gets a second shot as a head coach, a significant reward would be his.

WHAT WOULD A SECOND JOSEPH STINT AS HEAD COACH LOOK LIKE

In November, he spelled out how he should have focused more on building the offensive and defensive lines first and less on quarterback — the position that bedeviled the Broncos during his two years as head coach.

He also discussed what he took from being around Payton for purposes of roster building and player evaluation — particularly the detail with which the Broncos evaluate players under the stewardship of Payton and Paton.

But Joseph has another feather in has cap: the No. 2 defense in football, the highest ranking any of his defenses have ever attained. His defense was also in the NFL’s top 10 last year, finishing at No. 7.

The resume is attractive, and the two years of experience with Denver means the first-time mistakes are behind him. His players understandably endorse him, too.

“He’s aggressive. And he’s smart. He’s super smart. He puts us in the best positions,” cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian said. “He makes sure we now our opponent very well. He calls a great game … We do a lot of different stuff.

“I think he’ll be a great head coach.”

When Joseph went through the cycle early in 2017 and got the Broncos’ head-coaching job, he had just one year of NFL coordinator experience — and his Dolphins ranked 29th in the league in total defense. His ledger was comparatively thin; the Broncos thus had to sell him as a “leader of men.”

If Joseph gets a head-coaching job this time around, there’ll be no need for such phrases to prop up a slim CV. This time, the track record is meaty. Just say “No. 2 defense in football,” pair that with the hard-earned experience gleaned from the first-time mistakes along with a Parcells-Payton road map of rebuilding process that is proven to work and you have an equation for a coach whose second chance in the big chair should turn out much better than his first.

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