Denver Broncos

Vance Joseph leaves Denver Broncos without a deal

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:06 a.m. ET

Fansided, Sayre Bedinger/FanSided via Predominantly Orange

The Denver Broncos continued their head coaching search on Tuesday with Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who left town without a deal…

The Denver Broncos’ head coaching search continues on after Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Vance Joseph reportedly left town without a deal in place…

And now, Vance Joseph heads to the #Chargers for his interview. Interesting. https://t.co/4vQG4UDlH0

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 10, 2017

This is a pretty significant development in the Broncos’ head coaching search.

It had been assumed that Joseph was the front-runner for the job, and that could still be the case. The Broncos know that Joseph is a hot coaching candidate with multiple interviews lined up, interviews that he hadn’t scheduled — at least as far as any of us knew — until today.

Some thought that if Joseph left Denver without a contract, that it meant there was a different candidate in the lead for this head coaching vacancy, presumably Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Shanahan’s Falcons play this weekend against the Seattle Seahawks, and now Broncos fans are in the tough position of wanting the Falcons to lose and wanting to see Shanahan succeed.

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Maybe the Seahawks will upset the Falcons 41-40 and Shanahan can be the Broncos’ head coach by this time next week…

At any rate, this is perhaps the most significant development since Joseph was considered the leading candidate. In my opinion, it pushes Kyle Shanahan to the top of the list in terms of favorite to get the job. I don’t think the Broncos would have let Joseph get to his other interviews if that was the candidate they had their heart set on.

It could be that Joseph is just taking his time, and it could be that the Broncos are doing the same, but I think we all know that’s a bit of a stretch. It’ll be exciting to see how Denver proceeds from here. When the Atlanta Falcons hired Dan Quinn as their head coach, he was almost inarguably the top coordinator candidate on the market and he was coaching a Seattle team (ironically) that came one-yard short of winning the Super Bowl.

The Falcons signed Quinn to a five-year contract on February 2nd that year, so it’s possible Broncos fans will have to wait a considerable amount of time if the Falcons go on a run.