Broncos need to fire defensive coordinator Vance Joseph

The Broncos defense was historically bad today. As we know, they gave up 70 points to the Miami Dolphins and were defeated by 50 points. This is usually a score you see when you are playing your little brother on Madden, not something you see in a professional football game, but unfortunately, that is exactly what we saw in this one.

We saw the Dolphins throw for five touchdown passes in this one while also scoring an additional five touchdowns on the ground. This is simply unheard of in the modern-day NFL and even historically. They gave up 726 total yards to the Dolphins which included 376 passing yards and 350 yards on the ground. They were historically bad today and this sort of performance and simply embarrassment should get someone fired. That is why I am calling on the Broncos to fire defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.

Does all the blame fall on his shoulders? No, it does not. A lot of it does, but a decent amount of it also falls on the players on the field. Joseph was not the players on the field who could not tackle, who blew assignments, and who left receivers wide open, they entered the game as the most penalized defense in the league and that undiscipline play continued, and some players simply gave up in the second half. However, Joseph is the mastermind behind this defense and he needs to be the one held accountable.

It was just an ugly, humiliating, and embarrassing performance from the Broncos and their defense and heads need to roll because of it

After the game, head coach Sean Payton was critical of the defense and said this performance was “not acceptable”.

Listen, we knew we were playing a really good offense. But we’ve got to look closely at what we were doing. When someone runs the ball up and down the field like those guys did, throw it up and down the field, it’s not acceptable. We can’t — well, we just got to get to the tape. Next question.

The writing was on the wall during the first two weeks. Sure, his defense held the Raiders to just 17 points in the opener, but they were routinely gashed by a bad Raiders team. Then in week two, we saw the Commanders put 35 points on the board while getting picked apart by quarterback Sam Howell. The Buffalo Bills played the Raiders and Commanders a week after the Broncos and held those teams to just 13 points combined. So, it’s not like the Broncos were facing great offenses before today’s game and they still struggled badly.

Keep in mind, the Dolphins were down Jaylen Waddle in this one as well. He’s their second-best playmaker on offense and they still put up 70 points without him. They allowed an undersized rookie running back who had one carry and one catch entering this game to rush for over 200 yards in this game while also scoring 4 total touchdowns. Just simply an unacceptable showing by Vance Joseph and the Broncos defense.

Let us be real here, Joseph was not a popular signing amongst the fans. We all saw his shortcomings as a head coach during his short stint with the team a few years back and his resume as a defensive coordinator is lackluster at best. Now, with this historically bad showing going down the record books, whatever defenders he had before this game are now gone.

Will firing Vance change much this season? Probably not, but a message has to be sent to the team. This sort of play is unacceptable and someone needs to be held accountable for it. Joseph should and needs to be the fall guy. His players gave up on him, did not fight for him, and it was just an awful showing.

The last time the Broncos were embarrassed like this was on Christmas Night last year when the Rams absolutely dominated them. A day later, Nathaniel Hackett was fired and held accountable for that loss. This loss is somehow worse than that one and they need to make a similar move here.

Vance Joseph needs to go.