By most publicly available data and analysis, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and his group play as much or more man coverage as anybody in the NFL.
By Joseph’s own measure? Well, suffice it to say he’s not so sure. Or at least he’s more than willing to muddy the water a bit.
“Sometimes when you’re watching us play, it may seem like man and sometimes it’s not,” Joseph said Thursday. “I’ve read all the articles and they talk about the man percentages and I’m shocked, sometimes, when the numbers are so high.
“But obviously, that’s what they see. So I just say ‘yes’ to it.”
That could be a little bit of gamesmanship from Joseph or semantics in the sense that his defense rarely just does one thing and nothing else.
The conversation comes at an interesting time considering Next Gen Stats had the Broncos’ defense in what it labeled zone coverage on nearly 75% of Jordan Love’s dropbacks in Sunday’s win against Green Bay, a season high.
Sumer Sports data had slightly different numbers but a similar final outcome: 72.2% zone against Green Bay compared to about 58% over the rest of the regular season.
Asked about that number postgame, Denver nickel Ja’Quan McMillian let out a skeptical laugh.
“We played a lot of zone?” McMillian retorted. “We probably played a little bit more than normal, but we’re a match defense.”
The match principles can unfold in all different sorts of ways. In some instances, sure, coverages are straight forward. Man across the board with no help on a zero-blitz, Cover 3, so on and so forth. Or, the Broncos might end up playing man on the outside with zone principles in the middle of the field. Man to front side and zone to the back. They might end up in the football equivalent of a box-and-1 basketball defense, with Pat Surtain II manned against a No. 1 receiver and everybody else handing off routes depending on how the play unfolds.
Joseph wants defenders to play aggressive, confident and to know where they do and don’t have help. He wants his guys, as he describes it, “close” to receivers. Sounds obvious. But the rules and principles that put players in those positions aren’t always as simple as what Joseph thinks of as man coverage.
“I think the beauty of playing defense in this new NFL, this pass-first NFL, is can you get (defenders) close without playing man?” Joseph said. “When you tell a defender he’s playing man, that means he has both sides of the route. If you’re playing, maybe, a fire zone, he has one side of the route.
“Confidence-wise he’s going to play more aggressive for you. If they say it’s all man, it’s all man.”
How Joseph decides to attack Jacksonville on Sunday will be interesting. The Jaguars are balanced in their receiving corps — especially since adding Jakobi Meyers at the trade deadline — and have a quarterback in Trevor Lawrence who’s thrown nine touchdowns and no interceptions over the past three games. Three times in the Jaguars’ current five-game winning streak, Lawrence has gone without being sacked.
Not only that, but Joseph said Thursday that the group is playing somewhat similar to Green Bay schematically. Packers coach Matt LaFleur and Jacksonville coach Liam Coen — by way of his work under Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay — are both disciples of the Shanahan system.
“After watching Love play for a week in our film study, then watching (Lawrence), it’s equal,” Joseph said. “They’re both super talented. They’re both really well coached. That’s what I instantly see with both offenses. …
“It’s really crazy. It looks almost like Green Bay. It’s the same family of coaches, obviously, and some of the concepts are very similar. They’re both playing at a high level and the last four weeks (Lawrence) has been really hot.”
Does that potentially mean another week of playing more zone than usual?
That probably depends on your definition.
“I’m just on a game plan weekly to win a game,” Joseph said. “I’m not sure how much it looks like man and how much man it is. I can’t tell you that, what people see, but I know what I’m calling and I’m calling it to win a game.”
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.