Vance Joseph knows what it’s like to play as a defensive back in the NFL.
He started six games at cornerback for the New York Jets in 1995 and then played for the Indianapolis Colts in 1996 before transitioning to coaching.
Joseph broke into the NFL’s coaching family as an assistant defensive backs coach with the San Franciso 49ers in 2005. He now serves as the Denver Broncos’ defensive coordinator and while he oversees the entire defense, Joseph’s experience makes him especially qualified to coach up the DBs.
Denver has star cornerback Pat Surtain as the CB1 on the depth chart, but it remains to be seen who will start across from PS2 this fall. The candidates include Riley Moss, Damarri Mathis and Levi Wallace.
“It’s been [a] competition,” Joseph said on June 12, “… obviously, Pat is one of the best corners in football, so if you’re playing opposite of Pat, you’re going to get most of the targets. That’s part of it. So having a guy who is resilient, and who can work through adversity during games and kind of invite being attacked.
“It’s kind of a good thing for a corner also because you can make a lot of plays that way also. It’s my job schematically to kind of push the ball back to Pat. That’s tough sometimes, but we can do it.”
Mathis and Moss struggled to make an impact last fall and the team turned to Fabian Moreau. The Broncos did not re-sign Moreau this spring, but the team did bring in Wallace to provide veteran insurance at the position.
In an ideal world, one of Moss or Mathis will step up this summer and prove to be worthy of a starting role across from Surtain. With training camp set to begin this week, it’s up to Joseph to coach up the team’s secondary and get the most out of Denver’s cornerbacks in 2024.
