Denver Broncos

Joe Woods officially hired as Broncos defensive coordinator

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:14 a.m. ET

Fansided, Sayre Bedinger/FanSided via Predominantly Orange

The Denver Broncos officially announced the hiring of Joe Woods as the team’s defensive coordinator. Vance Joseph had high praise for him…

The Denver Broncos officially announced the hiring of Joe Woods as the team’s defensive coordinator, the position that was vacated by Wade Phillips. Woods was long-rumored to be Vance Joseph’s top choice as the team’s defensive coordinator, and now the team has officially signed him for that role:

OFFICIAL: We’ve promoted Joe Woods to defensive coordinator

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— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) January 17, 2017

“Joe Woods is ready for this opportunity … No one will outwork Joe. It’s his time.” – Coach Joseph

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— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) January 17, 2017

Coach Joseph announced the promotion for Woods, citing that no one will out-work him and saying he’s ready for this new role:

“Joe Woods is ready for this opportunity,” Joseph said in an official Denver Broncos press release. “He’s been a long-time NFL assistant coach and has done great work at the secondary position. No one will outwork Joe. He’s got tremendous attention to detail as well as a lot of familiarity with our players.

“It’s his time, and he’s ready for it. I’m very excited to watch Joe grow as a coordinator.”

We wrote about the fact that Woods’ next order of business as an NFL coach is to extract the very best out of the best defensive unit in the NFL. He’s obviously been the position coach of the best secondary in the NFL over the last couple of seasons, and his film study and preparation are allegedly in rare air when it comes to his dedication to the craft.

There’s no question he was ready to be a defensive coordinator in the NFL, but there was a question at one point whether the Broncos would be the team to afford him the opportunity. Woods was reportedly being pursued by other NFL teams and the Broncos decided it was the perfect time to promote him with Wade Phillips’ contract expiring.

That decision certainly wasn’t one resulting in feelings of endearment toward Vance Joseph, but it was a move made with the belief that Woods is, like Joseph said — ready for the opportunity.