The Denver Broncos feel like one of the most well-coached teams in football in 2024. Let's look at three coaches who deserve a ton of credit. The Broncos are 4-3 on the season and could very easily be 5-3 when Week 8 ends. They face the Carolina Panthers at home.
And in Weeks 9 and 10, they'll play two away games against the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs, so the team will definitely be put to the test then. There have been a handful of coaches who have done an excellent job with their units this year for the Broncos.
Let's look at three of them here.
3 Broncos' coaches who deserve a ton of credit thus far in 2024
Vance Joseph, Defensive Coordinator
This is an easy one, as Vance Joseph might just be the best defensive coordinator in football this year. The Broncos rank 3rd in scoring defense and have not allowed more than 26 points to any of their opponents in 2024.
The defense has allowed less than 20 points in a game on five separate occasions, and when you look at more specific parts of the unit like the pass rush and passing defense, it's just an elite, complete unit.
Denver has seven players with multiple sacks and eight players with multiple QB hits. They have nine players with multiple tackles for loss and as well and just do not allow much at all. After trying to mix schemes for parts of last season, Joseph started to do what we knew worked, and we've seen the Broncos' defense take a huge leap in 2024.
Zach Strief, Offensive Line Coach
A former player of Sean Payton's Zach Strief has helped the Denver Broncos' offensive line get to a very solid spot overall. The unit was good last year, but the sack-happy Russell Wilson made it look worse than it was. Well, rookie QB Bo Nix has been sacked just nine times this year, and when you see a QB who isn't making the OL's job harder, you can also look at just how talented the OL is.
At one point, the unit was down to their backup center and third-string right tackle, but that really hasn't mattered. It's nice that Denver finally has some stability with this unit, and it's largely due to Strief. He was with the New Orleans Saints on their coaching staff before being poached by Sean Payton when he was building his staff here in Denver.
The good thing here is that OL coaches are typically not ones who often get picked to make a jump into the offensive coordinator world, so I reckon that Zach Strief could have this OL job for years to come, which would be awesome.
Jim Leonhard, Defensive Backs Coach
Jim Leonhard had a 10-year NFL career and played for the Denver Broncos in 2012. Leonhard was a solid safety in the league for quite some time, but this is his first year coaching in the NFL after spending years in the college ranks. Well, it's gone quite well for Leonhard, and as the Defensive Backs coach, it's clear to see the job that he's done.
Riley Moss has developed overnight and is emerging as one of the better CBs in the NFL, period. Ja'Quan McMillian has ascended into being a top-10 slot CB in the NFL, and Patrick Surtain II is having the best year of his career thus far. The starting safety duo of PJ Locke III and Brandon Jones have also played well this year.
Overall, the secondary has been the best it's been in years, and many have thought that Jim Leonhard is going to be the one to takeover for Vance Joseph when VJ eventually earns another head coaching stint. Leonhard was an exceptional DC at the collegiate level and is probably going to be the DC of the Denver Broncos in the future.