Las Vegas Raiders

New Broncos coach Vance Joseph's first move is a big one

Published Jan. 14, 2017 12:33 a.m. ET

Andre Vergara

The Denver Broncos didn't get to defend their Super Bowl title in the playoffs this season, but they still have a championship-caliber defense, and they played to that strength in hiring their new head coach Vance Joseph this week.
The big challenge facing Joseph is to upgrade an offense that failed to match the big-play potential of the defense, and it looks like he's about to do that in a big way, hiring former Chargers head coach Mike McCoy as his offensive coordinator and adding former Raiders OC Bill Musgrave as his quarterbacks coach.

"Mike is an experienced play-caller who can build a system around our players," Joseph told reporters Friday. "It was our goal to find an offensive coordinator who has flexibility with his scheme and Mike has done that as both a head coach and coordinator. He's had a lot of success in this league with many different styles of offense, including here with the Broncos."

McCoy was fired by the Chargers this month after going 27-37 in four seasons and winning just one playoff game. However the team was top-10 in points or total yards in three of his four seasons. McCoy previously served as the Broncos' OC from 2010 to 2012, and Denver's offense ranked as high as No. 2 under him. McCoy molded an offense around Tim Tebow in 2011 that led to an improbable victory over Pittsburgh in the playoffs. The following season McCoy helped Peyton Manning earn Comeback Player of the Year, an award he then helped Philip Rivers win in 2013. Now he'll get the chance to mold young quarterbacks Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch.

Musgrave can help with that, having had a top-10 offense in Oakland this year and helped Derek Carr develop into one of the top QBs in the NFL. But the Raiders didn't offer Musgrave a new contract. He will replace QB coach Greg Knapp, who has been let go, following OC Rick Dennison out the door, along with special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, O-line coach Clancy Barone and tight ends coach Brian Pariani.

With his offensive staff in place, now Joseph likely will name a new defensive coordinator, with Wade Phillips headed to join the staff of new Rams coach Sean McVay.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.