Denver Broncos start a new year with another new Head Coach

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Vance Joseph standing next to John Elway after confirming Joseph’s position as the Bronco’s new head coach.

Lauren Kim, Ranger Review Reporter

After Gary Kubiak announced he was retiring his position as head coach of the Broncos due health issues, John Elway, general manager, had scheduled multiple interviews to find their new head coach. The Broncos planned on interviewing Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub and Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, but due to the 2017 playoffs it prevented them from being available for interviews.

As of January 11, 2017, Vance Joseph has been assigned as the Broncos’ 16th head coach. Joseph will be replacing Gary Kubiak who led the Broncos to the 2016 Super Bowl Championships. Joseph was on Kubiak’s staff with the Houston Texans as well as defensive coach for the Cincinnati Bengals for three seasons before he went to the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator this past season. Elway confirmed the news with a tweet. After being interviewed by the Broncos twice, Joseph managed to get the “dream job” as mentioned in an ESPN interview. Joseph also canceled an interview with the San Diego Chargers as he was happy with his position with the Broncos.


Elway was looking for a “young” and “bright” person for the position. Elway even mentioned on his twitter how “he has great leadership qualities and a strong vision of what it takes to win.”.

“Vance is very good football coach and teacher who is ready for this opportunity. His leadership qualities, his vision for building a championship team and his ability to get the most out of players are off the charts,” Elway said. “In talking with Vance, the culture that he believes in and the culture of our organization are closely aligned and focused on one thing: Winning. He understands the high expectations this franchise has always had under the owner, Pat Bowlen, and he embraces them.”

“Defensive side, I think he is very similar to Wade,”cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said in an ESPN interview, “He’s coached under Wade. Right there, I think he will fit right in.”


The Broncos team are also eager to see how he will do in this upcoming season. The whole team mentioned positive things about Joseph in multiple ESPN interviews.

“I don’t know too much about Vance Joseph. But from all the Texans players I have talked to, they said he was great coach and they still love him,” Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said “Also, when you talk to guys around the league, there is nothing negative about him.”

Aric Bearce 10 has been a Denver Broncos fan ever since he could remember. He and his whole family are supporters of the Broncos and have attended multiple games. His current thoughts on the new head coach are uncertain. Bearce is upset of the new changes. He is disappointed in giving away Wade Phillips, Broncos’ defensive coordinator, to the Los Angeles Rams. Bearce would’ve prefered having Phillips or Mike McCoy as coach would’ve made the team better off in future seasons.

Bearce is not surprised of the sudden change, as the NFL teams do this often when the season is over. He is hopeful for the new coach. Bearce is unsure if Joseph is capable to make it into the playoffs. He had the same feeling with the previous coaches, but they proved themselves by doing well in the seaso. He didn’t think previous coaches would have done so well as they did so Bearce is eager to see how the next season will play out.

“I’m pretty sure Joseph had one of the worst defenses in the NFL and the Broncos had one of the best. We just gave our defensive coordinator Wade Phillips to the Rams so that’s pretty sucky,” Bearce said. “When John Fox came into Denver from Carolina, he had one of the worst records but we made it to a couple playoffs, so you can’t be too quick to judge.”