Denver Broncos |

Broncos DC Vance Joseph is back where his first HC job ended to try to earn a second: “He deserves a chance to be a head coach again”

Vance Joseph is standing on the edge of a practice field just below where his office used to be.

An orange long sleeve shirt with the Broncos logo emblazoned on the chest belies the scorching August temperature.

It could easily belie Joseph’s winding path from that former office to this training camp, too, had the first fork in the road not played out so publicly here.

When Joseph moments earlier talked about linebacker Josey Jewell and safety Justin Simmons, he did so as the re-familiarizing defensive coordinator rather than the longtime head coach.

Much of that duo’s development has happened since Joseph packed his belongings from the Broncos training facility at the end of the 2018 season and left town after getting fired from his first head coaching job.

A fair amount of Joseph’s has, too.

Joseph, of course, spent the past four seasons coordinating Arizona’s defense. He did solid work there overall, though the Cardinals had just one winning season and went 28-37 under head coach Kliff Kingsbury.

Now Joseph, 50, is back in Denver not to make amends for a failed first run as head coach, but to try to make his case for a second. Perhaps ironically, Joseph sees all of the ingredients right here, lined up to make that happen: a talented defense, a familiar environment and a head coach in Sean Payton who might just end up being something of a graduate school professor.

“I’ve enjoyed listening to him change the culture,” Joseph told The Post. “As a young coach, sometimes you’re not sure if you’re doing the right things until they work or until you see somebody else do it. Watching him is kind of confirmation on what I thought it should look like and also some things I missed. So I’m learning every day from Coach and I can humbly say I didn’t know it all as a young head coach.”

Joseph has talked a handful of times with reporters since Payton hired him in February, and virtually every time this comes up in some way. Joseph doesn’t run from his 11-21 mark with the Broncos. He said last December when the Cardinals came to Denver that he thinks he would have won more games had the Broncos had a quarterback like Russell Wilson when he was here, but he is also quick to say he doesn’t want that to be an excuse.

He learned from that experience. And now he’s trying to keep learning.

“God willing, my second chance happens and I can do it the right way and the whole way. Not just part of it,” Joseph said. “It’s a job; you don’t know until you do it. But watching (Payton), watching his experiences, how he talks to the team, how he teaches football, that’s huge for me moving forward as a candidate to be a head coach.”

Second chances are difficult enough to come by in the NFL. They’re even rarer for Black coaches. The NFL currently has only three Black head coaches: Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, Todd Bowles in Tampa and newcomer DeMeco Ryans in Houston.

Bowles is a second-time head coach and actually made it back relatively quickly on the strength of three years coordinating the Buccaneers’ defense. That was expedited by Bruce Arians’ decision to retire and put Bowles in charge.

Others have waited much longer. Raheem Morris, one of several who interviewed for the Broncos job last winter, was fired as a head coach in Tampa in 2011 and has been an assistant since.

“(Joseph) deserves a chance to be a head coach again,” Jacksonville defensive line coach Brentson Buckner told The Post earlier this year. “Not everybody comes out the gate and knocks it out the ballpark as a first-time head coach, you know? …  I think Vance’s professionalism and the way he handled it, he’s never blamed anybody. He just went out and he went to work. He deserves another chance. He understands that he probably wasn’t perfect his first time around, but he knows what to do.

“… There’s guys in this business that get second and third chances, so, hey, why not Vance?”

Joseph’s answer: Someday maybe it will be, but likely not unless the Broncos have a successful run first.

“It’s ultimately about being a winner,” Joseph said. “Obviously the numbers with minority head coaches have been really low and that’s not a new story. Why? I don’t know. Is it getting better? Absolutely, but I do think the owners want to hire winners. So obviously being with Sean, having a chance to win and do it right and to have a mentor like Sean, you can always interview and explain, ‘Here’s my progress as a head coach because I’ve been with this guy.’

“That’s why coaching trees to me are so important. That’s proof to me that you’ve been trained the right way to do the job. That’s your only chance, in my opinion, to be with a guy who’s done it the right way, who’s won and had success in this league and who’s won and can show you the right way to do it.”

Joseph not only has Payton as a resource but he should have a pretty darn good defense, too. Pat Surtain II is perhaps the finest cornerback in the game. Simmons is a stalwart, and the inside linebacker duo of Jewell and Alex Singleton was a productive one in 2022. Add in an edge group that has questions but, according to Joseph, enviable depth, and he should have perhaps the most talented group he’s ever been in charge of.

Joseph’s been lauded by players already for the way he’s given them ownership in terminology and in how the exact system comes together, even while he sticks to his core defensive principles.

“I feel like he’s a natural leader,” outside linebacker Jonathan Cooper said of Joseph. “People naturally just come to him and follow him. He’s an expert at this game. He knows defense like the back of his hand, obviously. The way he coaches us and teaches us to get us in the spots we need to is fantastic. He communicates with us extremely well. Everything he does, we follow his lead.”

Joseph has the perspective of someone who’s been in the big chair — and someone who wants to get back to it.

How Vance Joseph-coordinated defenses have fared

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.