Broncos Journal: Vance Joseph can punctuate HC resume with strong stretch run

Vance Joseph has spent the past two seasons adding compelling material to his resume as a prospective NFL head coach Every company that ends up in the domain for a new coach there are two already and a handful of others likely to follow in the coming weeks will almost certainly at least look at Joseph the Broncos defensive coordinator As the season s gone along two characteristics of the coaching cycle continue to come into focus First there is not a knock-out sure-fire offensive candidate like Ben Johnson a year ago Second Joseph s name continues to pick up steam around the league This week for example ESPN ranked nine promising head coaching candidates and put Joseph atop the list Ask Broncos players coaches and executives and the consensus is clear Joseph has earned another chance to run his own squad Over the final four weeks of the regular season and for however long a Denver playoff run lasts though Joseph will punctuate his resume with either an exclamation point or a question mark He s already positioned himself to get long looks and may well get hired this winter regardless of how the Broncos finish After all Joseph has orchestrated back-to-back top-flight defenses in Denver in and is respected around the league and has previous head coaching experience from his time as the Broncos head coach in - But as the stretch run arrives the stakes are still high for both Denver and Joseph Start with the reality that as much as teams try to avoid too much recency bias what you ve done lately tends to matter bulk A year ago Detroit and Minnesota met in Week for the NFC North title and the Lions hammered the Vikings - Shortly after Denver head coach Sean Payton pointed to it and noted its importance to Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn a former player and assistant to Payton A scant weeks later Glenn landed the New York Jets head coaching job You watch the event last night the best interview that Aaron Glenn could ever give was for three hours last night Payton announced as Denver prepared for a wild-card playoff contest at Buffalo There s not one thing he can say to a general manager or an owner that s more impressive than that championship A powerful closing stretch from the Broncos defense would be all the more impressive because they face four more-than-capable offenses to finish the regular season as they chase an AFC West title and the No overall seed in the conference Jacksonville - Green Bay - - and Kansas City - enter Week Nos - respectively in scoring this season and the Los Angeles Chargers - are No The run of quarterbacks Denver faces the rest of the way goes in order Jordan Love Trevor Lawrence Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert Love and Mahomes rank first and tied for fourth in estimated points added per play respectively Lawrence and Herbert are further down the list for but they are both high-end talents Joseph and company also have the chance to reverse one of the Denver defense s scant ills from A rather substantial limp to the finish The Broncos entered last December ranked near the top of the league across the board They d only given up -plus points once in their first games Then three of the final four teams they played in the regular season put or more on the board Kansas City s back-up fest in Week notwithstanding and so did Buffalo in a - wild-card win This year s defense has been even better It s on pace to tie Chicago s all-time sack record with It s No in the NFL on third down and in the red zone It s No in adjusted net yards allowed per pass attempt and yards allowed per rush The Broncos are elite in just about every category except taking the ball away Joseph commented this week he thinks that s in part because of the willingness to make adjustments speedily and with conviction You may want to be aggressive and you can t be Joseph announced The ball may be coming out fast they re blocking your pressure So it s time to kind of lay back and feel the battle out Every challenge is the same for me I have a plan going in If the plan s working I stay with it If it s not I ll adjust You have to adjust pretty fast in this league to win games More often than not Joseph has been able to play to his plan or find solutions briskly The Broncos have dictated to offense after offense week after week If they keep it up as opposed to wilting against the Packers and through the next several weeks not only will the club end up in a position to do something special but Joseph will only further cement himself as one of the premier head coaching candidates on the territory