Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph pulled back the curtain on why his group is bullying offenses every week â and it starts with the Kansas City Chiefs. In a wide-ranging sit-down on The Schrager Hour, Joseph said the entire defensive build in Denver has been about one thing: taking down the champions.
Josephâs unit has the résumé to match the talk. As Peter Schrager noted, the Broncos defense is fourth in points allowed, third in yards allowed and leads the league in sacks, with Schrager calling it the ânumber one unit in football.â For a 9-2 Broncos team trying to write its own chapter in franchise history, the defense is clearly the headliner.
âBuilt to Beat the Chiefsâ & the Rise of the âSmart Bulliesâ
Joseph made it plain: the Broncos didnât stumble into this identity.
He said that when Sean Payton and general manager George Paton came back to Denver, the vision on defense was directly tied to Kansas City. The staff wanted to rush and cover in a way that specifically matched up with Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid.
âOur plan was to build a team to take down the champion,â Joseph explained, noting thatâs why he isnât surprised by how well Denver has played the Chiefs the last two seasons.
The philosophy on the field? Joseph calls it being âsmart bullies.â
He described an attack style thatâs downhill and aggressive, but not reckless. The Broncos want to hit quarterbacks, create takeaways and dictate terms, without turning into an all-out blitz outfit that leaves holes everywhere. Some weeks that means blitzing 60-plus percent of the time, other weeks itâs closer to 10% in a half before cranking up the pressure late.
That flexible mindset has helped produce that league-leading sack total, with Joseph highlighting a front that mixes power and speed:
- Jonathon Cooper and John Franklin-Myers as the âbulliesâ who want to break protections with power.
- Nik Bonitto and Zach Allen as the technicians and speed rushers who can win with games and movement.
Joseph even revealed that Bonitto could easily chase a massive sack total if Denver let him rush wide every snap. Instead, the edge rusher has bought into âcage rushâ plans designed to keep mobile quarterbacks like Mahomes, Jalen Hurts and Justin Fields in the pocket, even if it costs him numbers.
Inside the Culture: âPlayers First, Scheme Secondâ & Belief in Bo Nix
The stats jump off the page, but Joseph kept circling back to people over Xs and Os.
He said his entire coaching style is âplayers first and scheme second,â a philosophy he credits to Wade Phillips. Joseph wants guys doing what they do best, with as little anxiety as possible, and tells them that mistakes are on the coaches while effort is on the players.
That approach has helped create what he called a rare, close-knit locker room across offense, defense and special teams. Joseph said his defenders âlove Bo Nixâ and âtrust heâs going to make a playâ late, pointing to all the tight games Denver has found a way to win.
The personnel choices match that theme. Joseph praised Payton and Paton for prioritizing âthe right kind of guysâ over pure talent, from young corners like Riley Moss and Baron Browning to veterans like Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga, who arrived with big-game experience and an expectation to win every week.
What It Means for the Broncosâ Playoff Push
Joseph admitted coming back to Denver as a coordinator after a short head-coaching stint took zero ego, calling the city âhomeâ and saying he never left bitter. Now, at 9-2 with a defense bullying everyone, the return feels like a full-circle moment.
He said Payton constantly talks to players about the Broncos as a âgold star franchiseâ with defined chapters â from the Orange Crush to John Elway to Peyton Manning â and tells this group itâs good enough to write the next one.
If Denverâs âsmart bulliesâ keep leading the league in sacks and locking down Mahomes, that next chapter might be authored by Vance Josephâs defense.
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