Broncos DC Vance Joseph Shares Wade Phillips' Inspirational Phone Call

Much to Broncos Country's chagrin, Vance Joseph is back in the building. After serving as the Denver Broncos' head coach from 2017-18 and winning 11 games over that span, Joseph was fired.

He landed on his feet as the defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals. But when that coaching staff unraveled last season, Joseph found himself once again looking for work.

While he had plenty of opportunities around the NFL, Joseph opted to follow Sean Payton to Denver, despite the recent wounds of how his head-coaching tenure ended. On Wednesday, Joseph spoke for the first time publicly since returning to Denver following a Broncos minicamp practice, explaining why he was inspired to come back and face the firing squad, so to speak.

"To have the chance to work with Sean Payton was a good thing, obviously," Joseph said. "I had some choices after leaving Arizona but Denver being home—this is a great place, a great fanbase. We have a home here still. So, for me, it was home. And outside of working with Sean, it was a perfect spot for me."

Joseph doesn't hold any animus in his heart over how things ended for him in Denver as head coach back in January of 2019. He understands the nature of the NFL business and didn't take his firing personally. 

“For me, it was never that. It was a fair process," Joseph said. "It’s a league of winning, so if you don’t win, there’s going to be change. So it was never personal for me. I came here, and I worked my butt off, and it didn’t work. I’m back now, and that’s my focus—to play good defense for Sean and to win games. So I’ve never had it in my heart, even leaving four years ago.” 

Joseph's name has been inexorably linked to former Broncos head coach and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. When Gary Kubiak was hired as head coach back in 2015, his first choice for defensive coordinator was Joseph, who, at the time, was serving as the secondary coach for the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Despite it being a clear-cut promotion, the Bengals' ownership blocked Joseph's ability to accept the defensive coordinator job in Denver, stifling the upward mobility he had earned through years of grinding in the NFL assistant coaching ranks. Kubiak, rebuffed by the Bengals, hired Phillips, and that decision ended up being a grand slam. 

Phillips coordinated the Broncos' defense all the way to triumph in Super Bowl 50, winning the first Super Bowl ring of his legendary coaching career. There were many noteworthy aspects to Phillips' success in Denver from 2015-16, not the least of which was the distinction of him winning a championship as a coordinator for a team who once employed him as head coach. 

When Kubiak stepped down as head coach following the 2016 season, Joseph was no longer hand-cuffed by the Bengals. Then-president of football operations John Elway hired Joseph to succeed Kubiak as head coach, while Phillips ended up departing for a high-paying job coordinating the Los Angeles Rams' defense. 

Joseph built his defense in Denver very much on the bones of what Phillips had established. And beyond the Broncos ties the two share, Joseph worked under Phillips as a secondary coach with the Houston Texans from 2011-13 as part of the Kubiak regime there. 

So, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Phillips called his former disciple after the news broke of Joseph's return to Denver, and offered a bit of inspiration by way of his own history with the Broncos. 

“I did [hear from Phillips] about a week after I signed back," Joseph said on Wednesday, "and he reminded me of that. He was a [head] coach [in Denver] and he got let go. He came back as a coordinator and won a championship. That was his message to me, so hopefully, I can follow his trail.” 

It would be poetic to see Joseph replicate Phillips' unique accomplishment in Denver. Upon returning to Denver back in 2015, Phillips made headlines by ruefully admitting that he "was a lousy head coach, but a pretty good defensive coordinator." 

Now, keep in mind, Phillips had many more bites at the head-coaching apple than Joseph does at this point in his career. Phillips currently serves as head coach of the XFL's Houston Roughnecks, so not counting that, or any interim positions he got over the years, he held three NFL head-coaching gigs all time, and while I wouldn't call him "lousy," he certainly failed to bring home the ultimate hardware. 

But in Denver, all the stars aligned that fateful 2015 season and Phillips finally won a Super Bowl ring. It's worth mentioning that Phillips had two future Hall-of-Famers in DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller, plus a vaunted 'No-Fly Zone' secondary replete with All-Pros and Pro Bowlers. 

Still, how wild would it be to see Joseph follow suit in the same NFL city?