With the NFL regular season in the books, the Chicago Bears can fully turn their attention to the offseason. This head coaching search is the biggest in franchise history, and more rumors have been floating around in the last 24 hours.
It broke yesterday that former Seahawks Super Bowl-winning head coach Pete Carroll “badly” wants the Bears job. On Monday morning, another name joined the mix in this coaching search.
The Chicago Bears have expressed interest in Vance Joseph
A report from Michael Silver of The Athletic indicates that the Chicago Bears are interested in the current Denver Broncos defensive coordinator.
The Jets and Bears have expressed interest in Broncos DC Vance Joseph for their head coaching openings, according to sources familiar with the searches @TheAthletic @TheAthleticNFL
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) January 6, 2025
Joseph returned to Denver to run the defense a couple of years ago after he completed a two-year head coaching stint with the franchise. It is rare for a former head coach to return to an old organization after being let go, let alone in a smaller role. However, Joseph has done a fantastic job on Sean Payton’s staff and is fully deserving of recognition for a head coaching gig this offseason.
The Marrero, LA native served as the Broncos head coach for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Across 32 games, Joseph posted an 11-21 record. Denver went 5-11 in his first year and 6-10 in his second.
The one positive metric for Joseph to hold his head high on from his first run as a head coach in the NFL was how much his defense improved in between seasons. Denver’s DSRS (Defensive Simple Rating Score) in 2017 was -2.9 but was flipped massively in 2018 to a 3.1 mark. Despite seeing marginal improvement after year one, the 6-10 record in his second campaign was not enough to keep Joseph around any longer.
In between his stints in Denver as the head coach and defensive coordinator, Joseph landed the defensive coordinator job in Arizona from 2019-2022. He lasted the entire tenure of Kliff Kingsbury’s first NFL head coaching job before leaving town when Jonathan Gannon was brought in to replace the offensive guru.
The Chicago Bears have also shown interest in Kingsbury for their vacancy in this cycle. If the franchise hires one of him or Joseph, it is highly unlikely that a reunion would be in order.
Vance Joseph will have stiff competition if he interviews for the Chicago Bears job
With all of the mutual interest in the Chicago Bears head coaching gig, it will not be an easy job for Joseph to land if he scores an interview. The team could go a number of different directions with the vacancy, but the biggest argument of all is whether it will be an offensive or defensive hire.
Joseph joins the likes of Mike Vrabel, Brian Flores, Anthony Weaver and Aaron Glenn as defensive minds that the Chicago Bears could interview in the coming weeks. All of these individuals have had success at one point or another leading a defense in the NFL, but Joseph stands out in the fact that he has prior head coaching experience like Vrabel and Flores.
The 52-year-old will have to compete against offensive minds like Ben Johnson and Joe Brady as well in this process if he can get his foot in the door with the Chicago Bears brass. It will not be an easy feat for Joseph to land the Bears head coaching job, but he is yet another name tossed into the hat for consideration.
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