On Monday, even though the Broncos general manager John Elway told team coach Vance Joseph that he was safe for another year in Denver, some assistants were shown the door. The six assistants who were fired include Brock Olivo (special teams coordinator), Jeff Davidson (offensive line), Fred Pagac (outside linebackers), Johnnie Lynn (assistant defensive backs), Eric Studesville (assistant head coach/running backs) and Tyke Tolbert (wide receivers).
The general manager decided to retain the rookie head coach even after the Broncos fell to a 5-11 season on the year with 27-24 loss to the Chiefs in the Sunday’s game. On January 2017, Joseph was hired as the coach after Gary Kubiak retired due to health issues.
After Kubiak’s sudden announcement, Joseph was signed to a four-year contract on January 11. In the year 2016, Joseph was the Dolphins defensive coordinator, and on the other hand, he was also the secondary coach for Bengals for two preceding seasons. Despite Joseph receiving his first opportunity to be the head coach at Denver, the Broncos were never settled at quarterback and dealt with a lot of injuries.
Even though rumors floated around which stated that Joseph would be fired after one season, the Broncos team players came out to support Joseph after the Sunday’s game. Also, Elwy tweeted on Monday and said, “Vance and I had a great talk this morning about our plan to attack this offseason and get better as a team. We believe in Vance as our head coach. Together, we’ll put in the work to improve in all areas and win in 2018.”
Notably, Joseph is the 16th head coach in Broncos franchise history. Besides, he is the first African-American who has been hired for the job ever. After Josh McDaniels was fired, Eric Studesville, assistant head coach, was Denver’s interim head coach for four games in the year 2010. However, Studesville was one of the assistants who was fired on Monday.
