There he is, you see him on the screen. Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph is once again having the time of his life!
It seems after getting a 70 burger dropped on him against Miami last year, something has awoken Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. This season, the Broncos are in the top 10, if not the top 5, in most passing defensive categories. They rank 5th in sacks with 11, 3rd in yards per attempt, and have allowed the fewest passing yards in the entire league so far with 451. To top it off, cornerback Riley Moss was the highest-graded cornerback in the NFL last week according to PFF with a grade of 91.1. So what exactly has sparked this remarkable turnaround?
A big reason for the turnaround is a simple case of “Out with the old, in with the new”. Longtime safety Justin Simmons was let go from the Broncos in the offseason and subsequently signed with the Atlanta Falcons, leaving room for PJ Locke to stake his claim as the number one safety. The departures of elder pass rushers like Randy Gregory and Frank Clark made way for Baron Browning, Jonathon Cooper, Nik Bonitto, and others to emerge as pass rushers. And against the Bucs this past weekend, we saw that tenfold. We saw six different pass rushers get a sack on QB Baker Mayfield, led by rookie Dondrea Tillman. When you have so many players getting pressure from so many directions, it really makes opposing QB’s lives nightmares. …