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After a little over a week, it appears John Elway and the Denver Broncos have their new head coach.
According to Mike Klis with 9News, Elway will make an offer to the Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Wednesday morning.
I am expecting John Elway to make Vance Joseph an offer this morning. #9sports
— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) January 11, 2017
There was rampant speculation as to the status of Joseph after he stayed in Denver overnight after his interview at the Broncos’ facility on Tuesday. When Joseph was spotted at Elway’s steakhouse in Cherry Creek, the rumors started to swirl.
Was Joseph just there with his buddy and former University of Colorado teammate Matt Russell, current director of player personnel for the Broncos, or was it an extension of the interview? No one knew aside from the guys there.
When most awoke Wednesday, they saw various tweets saying Joseph was on his way to interview with the San Diego Chargers - from Adam Schefter, Jeff Legwold and Benjamin Allbright.
Then Klis dropped this bombshell. It’s now been confirmed by Troy Renck and Allbright.
#Broncos talking directly w Joseph with expectation offer will be made to prevent him from leaving acc to multiple sources. @DenverChannel
— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) January 11, 2017
Stay tuned, Broncos Country. But you can bet Klis got his information straight from the Broncos. And Elway wouldn’t make an offer unless Joseph would accept.
The task now is to get Joseph’s staff in place. There were reports that if Sean McDermott gets the head coach job with the Buffalo Bills he would target Mike McCoy as the offensive coordinator. There were reports on Monday that said Joseph talked to McCoy about being his offensive coordinator in Denver. It looks like there could be competition for McCoy’s services.
The other possibility for offensive coordinator is Bill Musgrave, who was a backup quarterback to Elway and was recently the offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders. Musgrave had his contract end in Oakland and didn’t get re-signed.
If #Bills hire of Sean McDermott is done by today, as it should be, expect his biggest target for OC to be former #Chargers coach Mike McCoy
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 11, 2017
The other huge question is what this means for Denver’s defense. Will Joseph keep Wade Phillips or promote current Broncos defensive backs coach Joe Woods to defensive coordinator? On its face it seems Phillips is getting pushed out, but he was a huge influence on Joseph so there’s a chance it could work. And there were reports that said Joseph would be open to keeping Phillips as defensive coordinator if Joseph got the job in Denver.
Those are questions that will get answered in the coming days. But the big question appears to have an answer: Joseph will become the 16th head coach in Broncos’ history. Here’s the profile we did on Joseph earlier this week.