How Vance Joseph leads a league-leading, havoc-wreaking Broncos defense with calm: “The guy’s got tremendous poise”

Vance Joseph knew change was needed.

His 2023 return to Denver as defensive coordinator had some high moments but too many low ones, too.

The Broncos went on a turnover binge for the ages, racking up 16 over a five-game winning streak that put the team in the postseason conversation for the first time in years.

But they also got off to a horrific start that contributed to being behind the 8-ball in the first place. They struggled to find any consistency against the run. To put teams away in December. To get stops when the turnovers stopped flowing.

So Joseph set about making changes this offseason.

No more attempting to stitch together what the previous regime did with what he believed in.

No more read-and-react on the defensive line.

Head coach Sean Payton likes to say that each winter teams take their puzzles, dump them upside down and start over.

Joseph did that, retaining much of the verbiage and structure but tailoring an approach built around All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II.

Along the way, Joseph and the Broncos have made all kinds of tweaks. They’ve unleashed Zach Allen, capitalized on Riley Moss’ abilities and watched Nik Bonitto turn into a star. They’re playing a ton of man coverage — doing it better than anybody in the NFL. They’ve got pressure packages for days.

But ask around about the driving force behind Denver’s massive defensive turnaround and players and coaches all say it’s every bit as much about what Joseph didn’t change.

Himself.

“The guy’s got tremendous poise,” Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said this week. “Whether things are going great or you’re in a rough patch, man, he’s the same guy. It’s a tough business and when you’ve got someone that’s got that kind of demeanor, who’s the same guy every day, I think that’s a big plus.

“He’s just a good dude.”

Top of the class

Pick a defensive category, and the Broncos are probably near the top of the heap as they head into a potential postseason clincher Thursday night at the division-rival Los Angeles Chargers.

They’re tied — with the Chargers and Philadelphia — for the top spot in scoring defense at 17.6 points per game allowed.

They’re tied for second in both net yards per pass allowed (5.4) and yards per rush allowed (3.9).

They lead in sacks (49) and pressures (228). They’re into the top five in takeaways (23) after racking up 10 in the past three games.

They’re pretty good on third down (36.6%, No. 11) and really hard to score touchdowns against in the red zone (42.1%, No. 2).

They’re particularly tough to score against late in games. After surrendering two second-half touchdowns in a 26-20 loss Week 1 at Seattle, the only pair they’ve given up in a competitive game came Week 13 against Cleveland.

They’ve given up one or fewer touchdowns in seven games this season and they’ve scored 39 points all on their own (five touchdowns and two safeties).

The evolution has many contributing factors, but its architect points to two in particular: Revamping the defensive line this offseason and the emergence of Moss in his second pro season.

“Having a defensive line that can rush the passer, that can apply pressure on the offensive line all the time and stop the run, that’s a big difference,” Joseph said this week “When teams have to throw the ball on second-and-8, second-and-9, now you have more chances to rush with Nik and those guys. Last year we were so inconsistent on stopping the run and how we played the run defense last year kind of hurt our pass-rush a little bit.”

The Broncos also got away from playing “gap-and-a-half” technique on the defensive line — reading and reacting based on what the offensive linemen do — and put a premium on getting off the ball and getting up the field.

“It’s havoc up front, man,” Joseph said.

It’s been a cascading effect. John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach haven’t just played well. They’ve also helped Allen and D.J. Jones.

That group being improved leads to better results and also more one-on-ones on the perimeter for Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper.

So on and so forth.

A similar principle holds in the secondary, where Moss’ emergence unlocked the box holding Joseph’s most aggressive approach to coverage.

“Riley Moss opposite Pat having a hell of a year — he hasn’t played the past two games, but having a hell of a year — allows me to pressure at will,” Joseph said. “Because Pat can play man against anyone, but if his partner can’t, then you can’t do it. So Riley Moss and the front have played really good football for us.

“That’s the biggest jump.”

A firm belief

Joseph’s group played well in a Week 2 loss to Pittsburgh and a Week 3 win at Tampa, but really hit their stride against the Jets.

It wasn’t so much the opponent — certainly hammering Aaron Rodgers and the New York offense looked more impressive that day than it does in retrospect — but the supreme confidence with which Joseph operated and his defense executed.

He bombarded Rodgers with seven rushers on the first play of the game for a sack. He dialed it up again on a critical late fourth down and P.J. Locke delivered the play of the season to that point.

In the post-game locker room, player after player said they took the aggression from their coordinator in those moments as proof he had total trust in them.

“That’s all V.J.,” Allen said that afternoon when Denver polished off its long, two-game road swing at 2-2 and came back full of belief they could put together a surprise season.

“He’s locking us in every week,” Bonitto said then. “Hats off to him.”

They’ve had hiccups since — a 20-point first half against the Chargers, a 41-10 loss at Baltimore and a 552-yard outing from Cleveland — but mostly they’ve continued the run. And when something goes wrong, Joseph’s group has corrected it quickly.

“It’s just his consistency with his players. How he talks to them, how he handles them, how he sells a game plan,” secondary coach Jim Leonhard told The Post recently. “And the belief that he gets from them in, hey, the system is great but they make the magic work. It’s a player-friendly scheme but it’s also player-driven. You’re only as good as the guys in between the white lines. So it helps get ownership. The players feel like it’s theirs and they get input. They’re going to kind of put the final touches on gamedays. Just seeing that, it’s fun to watch.”

Payton echoed that sentiment this week, lauding Joseph’s week-to-week work and his overall approach.

“There’s a lot of confidence and complete buy-in,” Payton said “And his communication skills are outstanding.”

Resume building

Joseph knows about ups and downs.

He experienced more of the latter here during his two-year tenure as head coach in 2017-18.

He saw adversity again early in his defensive coordinator tenure last year when the Broncos gave up 70 to Miami in Week 3 and surrendered an average of 36.2 over a 1-4 start.

Payton, after a wide-ranging coordinator search that winter could have opted to make a quick change.

Instead, Joseph stayed and flourished.

Now comes the other side of the equation.

With success in the NFL comes opportunity. Even though it’s often difficult for coaches to get second chances, if the Broncos defense continues as one of the league’s best, there figures to be interest when head coaching interviews ramp up in a few short weeks.

Joseph politely batted down such talk earlier this season — “Obviously, being mentioned, it’s cool,” he said in October, “but right now my mind isn’t on that” — and a stretch run toward playoff qualification only narrows the focus.

He told The Post before ever coordinating a regular-season game here last summer that he relished the chance to learn from Payton and to distill what it is he’d do differently if he got another shot in the big chair.

So, what has he learned amid the Broncos’ resurgence?

“When you’re making a jump like this, it’s about a winning culture,” Joseph said this week. “We changed some players out, but Coach was big into having the right players. To change the culture, it’s a daily conversation about what he wants. He was firm on what he wants from players, how we worked, how we practice, how we study, how we lift and run. It’s all a daily conversation and it’s firm. It’s never gray. He doesn’t waver on it. If guys don’t do it his way, they can’t stay here.

“But we have a great group of young guys who are bought into coach’s way and it’s working. It’s working. It’s a young group that believes in his message and that’s what is important.”

There are three head coaching jobs already open — including one in Joseph’s hometown (New Orleans) that nobody knows the ins and outs of better than Payton — and more likely on the horizon.

There’s also a bright future in Denver, where Surtain and Bonitto are 24 and 25 years old, respectively, and among the top betting favorites for NFL defensive player of the year. The only defensive regulars not currently under contract for 2025 are Jones, Strnad and inside linebacker Cody Barton.

Change is a constant in the NFL and there’s more ahead regardless of what happens the next month.

But Joseph is a constant, too. Unpredictable in where the pressure’s coming from, but predictable in how he responds to it.

“Some guys emotionally are up and down and left and right and he’s just very consistent,” Leonhard said.

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