BRONCOS COACH TRIES TO SPIN LATEST DEFEAT
Broncos not making coaching, personnel changes at this time
Broncos coach Vance Joseph can’t ignore his team’s eight-game losing streak and accepts all criticism that comes with it. But, in the wake of the New York Giants’ house-cleaning, with the firing of coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese, Joseph’s status with the Broncos was called into question even more Monday.
The Broncos, however, have no plans to make any coaching or personnel changes at this time, according to a league source. And Joseph said his focus is not on his future, but his team’s.
“I’m not concerned about that,” Joseph said. “I’m concerned about one thing, and that’s the Jets on Sunday. I’ve been in the league a long time. I’m not concerned about that.”
Last Sunday’s drubbing by the Miami Dolphins was the latest in a string of embarrassing performances by the Broncos, which has included a home loss to a then winless Giants team, Denver’s first shutout loss in nearly 25 years and a defeat by the Bengals, owners of the league’s worst offense in total yards (274.3 per game).
The Broncos fired offensive coordinator Mike McCoy after the loss to Cincinnati and have rotated starting quarterbacks three times this season, only to get the same results: turnovers, poor play and losses.
“We have a good staff. I trust our staff,” Joseph said. “Our staff is full of guys who won a lot of games in this league, so that’s the proof that we have a good staff. We’ve lost eight games in a row. It hasn’t been good enough, so I can’t defend those comments. But I know what we’re teaching each week and I watch the guys work each week and I watch the meetings and I watch the detail the coaches coach with. So I would disagree with that. But obviously it’s a bottom-line business. It’s a win-or-loss business. We’ve lost, so I’ll take it. I’ll take it all.”
The Broncos are on the brink of being officially eliminated from playoff contention for the secondconsecutive season, and it appears inevitable that multiple changes will be made in the offseason, on the roster and possibly the coaching staff.
“At the end of the day, this is our livelihood. This is our job,” defensive end Zach Kerr said. “When you’re not successful at your job, they usually make changes, but you never know what’s going to happen in a situation like this. Every organization is different, and you never know. That’s not my job. My job is to go out there Sunday and try to win us a game.”
During Pat Bowlen’s ownership, since 1984, the Broncos have never fired a coach after a single season.
When John Elway joined the front office in 2011, one of his moves was to hire John Fox after the Josh McDaniels experiment of 2009-10.
McDaniels was fired in December of the 2010 season after the team lost nine of 12 games, violat- ed league rules by videotaping the 49ers during a practice in London and had the then-lowest paid attendance for a game in Denver since the new stadium at Mile High was constructed. Eric Studesville finished out the year as the interim head coach.
The Broncos moved on from Fox after four seasons, four consecutive AFC West titles and a Super Bowl appearance. Gary Kubiak coached the following two years, helping the team to another AFC West title and its third Super Bowl victory, before stepping down and paving the way for Joseph’s hire last January.