Vance Joseph has spent the past two seasons adding compelling material to his resume as a prospective NFL head coach. Every team that ends up in the market for a new coach — there are two already and a handful of others likely to follow in the coming weeks — will almost certainly at least look at Joseph, the Broncos’ defensive coordinator. As the season’s gone along, two characteristics of the 2026 coaching cycle continue to come into focus. First, there is not a knock-out, sure-fire offensive candidate like Ben Johnson a year ago. Second, Joseph’s name continues to pick up steam around the league. This week, for example, ESPN ranked nine potential head coaching candidates and put Joseph atop the list. Ask Broncos players, coaches, and executives, and the consensus is clear: Joseph has earned another chance to run his own team. Over the final four weeks of the regular season and for however long a Denver playoff run lasts, though, Joseph will punctuate his resume with either an exclamation point or a question mark. He’s already positioned himself to get long looks and may well get hired this winter regardless of how the Broncos finish. After all, Joseph has orchestrated back-to-back top-flight defenses in Denver in 2024 and ’25, is respected around the league and has previous head coaching experience from his time as the Broncos head coach in 2017-18. But as the stretch run arrives, the stakes are still high for both Denver and Joseph. Start with the reality that, as much as teams try to avoid too much recency bias, what you’ve done lately tends to matter most. A year ago, Detroit and Minnesota met in Week 18 for the NFC North title, and the Lions hammered the Vikings, 31-9. Shortly after, Denver head coach Sean Payton pointed to it and noted its importance to Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, a former player and assistant to Payton. A few weeks later, Glenn landed the New York Jets’ head coaching job. “You watch the game last night, the best interview that Aaron Glenn could ever give was for three hours last night,” Payton said as Denver prepared for a wild-card playoff game at Buffalo. “There’s not one thing he can say to a general manager or an owner that’s more impressive than that game.” A powerful closing stretch from the Broncos’ defense would be all the more impressive because they face four more-than-capable offenses to finish the regular season as they chase an AFC West title and the No. 1 overall seed in the conference. Jacksonville (9-4), Green Bay (9-3-1) and Kansas City (6-7) enter Week 15 Nos. 9-11, respectively, in scoring this season and the Los Angeles Chargers (9-4) are No. 18. The run of quarterbacks Denver faces the rest of the way goes, in order, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert. Love and Mahomes rank first and tied for fourth in estimated points added per play, respectively. Lawrence and Herbert are further down the list for 2025, but they are both high-end talents. Joseph and company also have the chance to reverse one of the Denver defense’s few ills from 2024: A rather substantial limp to the finish. The Broncos entered last December ranked near the top of the league across the board. They’d only given up 30-plus points once in their first 12 games. Then three of the final four teams they played in the regular season put 30 or more on the board — Kansas City’s back-up fest in Week 18 notwithstanding — and so did Buffalo in a 31-7 wild-card win. This year’s defense has been even better. It’s on pace to tie Chicago’s 1985 all-time sack record with 72. It’s No. 1 in the NFL on third down and in the red zone. It’s No. 1 in adjusted net yards allowed per pass attempt and yards allowed per rush. The Broncos are elite in just about every category except taking the ball away. Joseph said this week he thinks that’s in part because of the willingness to make adjustments quickly and with conviction. “You may want to be aggressive and you can’t be,” Joseph said. “The ball may be coming out fast, they’re blocking your pressure. So it’s time to kind of lay back and feel the game out. Every game is the same for me. I have a plan going in. If the plan’s working, I stay with it. If it’s not, I’ll adjust. You have to adjust pretty quickly in this league to win games.” More often than not, Joseph has been able to play to his plan or find solutions quickly. The Broncos have dictated to offense after offense, week after week. If they keep it up, as opposed to wilting against the Packers and through the next several weeks, not only will the team end up in a position to do something special, but Joseph will only further cement himself as one of the premier head coaching candidates on the market. ...read more read less