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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — If Vance Joseph can walk the same path as one of his coaching mentors did in Denver, he figures everything will work out just fine.
Joseph, who was fired as head coach of the Broncos after the 2018 season, has returned to the team as Sean Payton’s defensive coordinator. And as the team nears the end of its offseason program — the final day of minicamp is scheduled for Thursday — Joseph said he simply believed a return was the right move at the right time.
“For me … it’s a league of winning; if you don’t win, there’s going to be change,” Joseph said in his first public comments since he was hired earlier this year. “It was never personal for me. I came here [as the head coach] and I worked my butt off and it didn’t work. I’m back now and that’s my focus, [to] play great defense for Sean and win some games.
“I’ve never had [anger] in my heart, even four years ago,” Joseph added.
Joseph was the Broncos’ head coach for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, hired to replace Gary Kubiak, who had led the team to the Super Bowl 50 win to close out the 2015 season. That title game win is also the Broncos’ most recent appearance in a postseason game.
Joseph, Vic Fangio and Nathaniel Hackett were all fired as that playoff drought has continued — Hackett after just 15 games last season. Payton was hired in February, and he hired Joseph as the top defensive assistant shortly after.
Joseph had been the Arizona Cardinals‘ defensive coordinator for the last four seasons.
“There’s calmness to him, a professionalism to him that I appreciate,” Payton said. “… I just think there’s a poise and credibility when he presents, and that’s impressive. I think he’s an extremely good communicator.”
The Broncos were 11-21 in Joseph’s two seasons as head coach as they struggled to find consistent play at quarterback, and the Broncos missed on more prospects than they hit in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 drafts. Safety Justin Simmons is all that remains from the 2016 draft class, and the Broncos have just four players of the 26 they selected in those three drafts combined on their current roster.
But as Wade Phillips did before him, Joseph has returned to be the defensive coordinator for the team that fired him as the head coach. Phillips was fired by then-Broncos owner Pat Bowlen after the 1994 season — he went 15-15 in his two years — when Mike Shanahan was hired as the team’s coach.
Phillips, who had gone on to be head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills, returned to Denver in 2015 to be Kubiak’s defensive coordinator, as the Broncos’ defense powered the team’s Super Bowl run and Von Miller was named Super Bowl MVP.
Joseph was a Houston Texans assistant when Phillips was the defensive coordinator there.
“About a week after I signed back, [Phillips] reminded me of that,” Joseph said. “… He came back and won a championship, and that was his message to me. That I can follow his trail.”
