The Denver Broncos hired a new head coach, Sean Payton, but what will their defense look like in 2023? Let’s talk a little bit about the team’s new defensive coordinator, Vance Joseph, and what he brings to the table.

Aggressive Nature

This hire reminds me of the year Payton and the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl when Gregg Williams was the defensive coordinator. The Saints ranked 2oth in total defense, but they were second in takeaways and third in interceptions.

Their philosophy was basically, “Hey, we’re going to be aggressive, affect the offense, pressure the quarterback, get after the other team, and get these plays over in a hurry. We’re going to get the ball back, one way or another, to Payton and the offense.” That could have meant either giving up a big play or making one.

When Payton was assembling his staff in Denver, he wanted an aggressive guy for his defensive coordinator. I know he interviewed Rex Ryan. He interviewed a bunch of other guys who are known to be aggressive. So it made sense why Payton would hire a coach like Joseph, who already has an aggressive-defensive M.O.

It’s a unique situation because Joseph was the head coach of the Broncos in 2017-18. He’s been the Arizona Cardinals’ defensive coordinator for the past four seasons — and now he’s going back to Denver as the defensive coordinator. Obviously, he’s got a great reputation. He’s a good coach and person.

There’s a new ownership group in Denver, but a lot of people in that building know the kind of person he is, how he is as a coach and how he relates to people. He seems like a natural fit.

Defensive Specifics

Joseph wants to be aggressive, but there are a lot of other things we can expect from his defense. He’s a base 3-4 guy and a big single-high safety user on normal down and distances. There will be some form of 3D configuration, and he’s going to drop an extra defender or one of the safeties down into the box, into the run, and then play either Cover 1 or Cover 3 defense.

His two best years in Arizona were 2020 and 2021, when the Cardinals finished 12th and 11th in total defense, respectively. There was a little drop-off last year, which had more to do with everything going on with the team. But if you look at Joseph’s first two years, cornerback Patrick Peterson was on that roster, and Joseph used Peterson to match up with the opponent’s best receiver.

In a normal type of down situation, Joseph would have four corners on the outside, whether that was Cover 1 or Cover 3, whether the player was off or whether he was in press. Any vertical stem by that wide receiver, whether you want to call the defense man coverage or zone coverage, would be one-on-one. It was man-on-man on the outside. We’re going to see a lot of that in Denver. Joseph is going to want to bring what he knows.

The Broncos have one of the best young corners in the NFL in Patrick Surtain II, and he’ll be available to travel with the opponent’s best wide receiver. We’re going to get some great matchups in the AFC West when the Broncos play the Las Vegas Raiders. We’ll see a bunch of Davante Adams and Surtain going at each other one-on-one.

Joseph is aggressive, and he loves to put a bunch of players at the line of scrimmage. He loves this double mug, double-A gap blitz look where you have four down with both linebackers mugged up in A-gaps. He learned this during his time in Cincinnati.

You can play man coverage behind that, and you can play some fire zone coverage, some two-deep fire zone (two deep safeties and two cornerbacks with a couple of players dropping out based on whether you bring four strong or four weak based on protection calls from the offense).

Or you can play a three-under, three-deep fire zone concept: two cornerbacks and a free safety covering the three-deep parts of the field in the back-end where three guys underneath are responsible for No. 2 weak, No. 2 strong and the No. 3 receiver.

This talk about single-high and about matchups means the Broncos’ defense will look a lot different to fans this season. What they saw a year ago when Ejiro Evero was there were more two-deep safety looks and more of a quarter-quarter-half concept — things like that. That’s not to say Joseph won’t use those types of coverage concepts.

Meshing Scheme with Personnel

The Broncos have Baron Browning at outside linebacker. They have defensive end Randy Gregory, who didn’t have a great year in 2022 but could this year if he’s healthy. The team has some guys who can rush the passer —  Josey Jewell in the middle, Justin Simmons at safety, Kareem Jackson, the wily veteran they re-signed, at safety.

Joseph has used that two-high coverage in the past, and he’ll look at the tape, the defensive roster and the players who are back, especially in the secondary, and recognize those players have familiarity with that scheme.

Now it’ll just be a terminology type of thing — he might use the same zone concepts, the split-safety and two-high zone concepts from his time in Arizona or from even before that when he was coaching the Cincinnati Bengals’ defensive backs or when he was the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.

But when he looks at the Broncos’ roster, he’ll say, “These guys know this. They were really good and the No. 7 defense last year. What can I use from my package, my scheme to be player-friendly here?”

I equate it to when I went to the Chicago Bears in 2019. Vic Fangio preceded me as the defensive coordinator in 2018 when Chicago’s defense was No. 1 in nearly every category. So it wasn’t smart on my part to follow a guy like that. The Bears had all these great players — Khalil Mack, Leonard Floyd, Eddie Jackson, Roquan Smith, Danny Trevathan — so I wanted to bring in some of my stuff.

At the same time, I knew all these guys were good, so I wanted to figure out what I could use from Fangio’s defense. We had Jay Rodgers stay on board as the defensive line coach, and Shawn Desai moved to coach the safeties. So there was carryover. I tried to do my best to learn some of their concepts and coverages to put it more on myself.

That’ll happen in Denver, too. There are a lot of carryovers, so there’ll be some stuff the players recognize.

Joseph has a good staff. Joe Vitt was a long-time assistant with Payton in New Orleans and will be a defensive assistant for the Broncos. Greg Manusky, a tremendous football coach and human, is going to coach the inside linebackers. I had him with me in Indianapolis, so he’s worked for a head coach who wants to be aggressive and attack.

New Additons

There’s also plenty of talent in Denver. Browning had five sacks for them last year. Gregory had a rough 2022 because of injuries, but everyone knows he’s skilled. The Broncos drafted a couple of guys in the back end this year, including Boise State safety JL Skinner III in the sixth round.

They picked up free agent DL Zach Allen, who was with Joseph in Arizona. Allen will be a glue guy who can help the defensive line, the linebackers and the backfield from a terminology and communication standpoint because he’s been listening to Joseph for the past couple of years. He understands the defensive system and can almost anticipate, based on the situation, what Joseph will call.

Another key addition is edge Frank Clark, who is coming off a Super Bowl win in Kansas City. The Broncos are going to use him on a pitch count, but he adds to the pass rush, and he can teach the young guys. He brings all kinds of experience and veteran leadership to the defense. He knows how to practice, how to study and how to prepare.

When all these players walk into the room, they’re going to feel Joseph’s passion and energy.

The 2023 Bronco’s defense will try to dictate the tempo of the game and won’t sit back. They want to be the ones who will show pressure and get out of it to play coverage and vice versa.

It’s going to be exciting to watch Denver play defense this fall.

Chuck Pagano is a former NFL head coach and assistant. He is best known for his tenure with the Indianapolis Colts where he won two straight AFC South titles.