By Jordan Long
The Denver Broncos season came to end on Sunday with a 27-24 loss. They finished the year at 5-11. Rumors were swirling after the game that Head Coach Vance Joseph was going to be fired after his first season on the job. Joseph, though, was hoping to stay. According to profootballtalk.com, Joseph said, “We’ll see but I want to be here. It’s a football team that’s close. We have to make some adjustments in some places, but our football team all year has not stopped working. That was fun to see, even tonight. It’s been a hard year, but everyone kept fighting. I want to be here to fix it.” Elway decided on Monday to keep Joseph.
This was a surprising move. Elway is always looking to win a Super Bowl and under Joseph they were not a competitive team. In the Denver losses, it looked like the team gave up on Joseph which is never a great sign to see in an NFL team. The Broncos know what they have in Joseph after one year and it wasn’t a watchable product.
The reason they kept Joseph is because they are hoping that next year is better. They will need to improve at the quarterback position. They could do that in the draft or sign a veteran quarterback. After that, it will be the offensive line that will need to be addressed.
Denver thought they made changes by firing assistant coaches. One coach who was safe was defensive coordinator Joe Woods. This move didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Woods defense was able to stop teams through the air and on the ground. They gave up 290 total yards per game, ranking 3rd in the NFL. Denver allowed 200.6 passing and 89.4 rushing yards per game.
The area Denver couldn’t stop teams from was scoring, giving up 23.9 points per game. It didn’t help that the offense turned the ball over and the defense was in a difficult position to halt the opposition from scoring. There were times where the opponents threw a ball, the receiver would be wide open, and there wouldn’t be a defender within ten yards for an easy score. Woods was in charge of this and never figured out a way to adjust.
The Broncos are hoping for a better year next season. If the Broncos fail to make the playoffs and win 5 or 6 games, more changes will be coming. Joseph and Woods are lucky not to be unemployed.
How do you feel about the Denver Broncos retaining Vance Joseph and Joe Woods?
I absolutely hate it!! The players gave up in games because in game changes that HAVE to be made in the NFL were not being made. As far as woods when you have a LB covering a #1 WR at the 5 yard line that is a TD Everytime, when the same thing happens at the 50 it might not even be a completed pass. EVERYBODY coaching that team except maybe (Musgrave) should have lost there job. I hope Elway knows what he is doing. Because if we get the same result next it will be his head that everybody is calling for!!!!