With the remarkable turn around the defense has shown over the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of talk around defensive schemes, what has worked recently, and what wasn’t working early on. There’s been a lot of confusion and I’ve seen misguided statements like “VJ was trying to run his scheme which was too complex/not suited for the players and he’s since simplified” and “VJ likes to run a lot of soft zone”.

What appears to be the case is that, early on, the Broncos were trying to retain as much of the previous scheme as they could. Why? I’d imagine it’s a combination of it being what we’ve ran since 2019 and a scheme the players have had a lot of success with, and the fact that it’s the trend of the NFL. This is all detailed in an article from The Athletic early in August.

“Guys who were here last year, they did some good stuff on tape,” Joseph said. “I don’t want to dismiss that.”

With Joseph willingly altering his play calls this offseason to adapt to what Denver’s veterans have used in the past, it was [former Cardinal who played under VJ] Allen who was learning a new language.

What is Fangio’s scheme, anyways? The first thing that comes to mind for most people is probably “two high safeties”. But beyond that, what really characterizes the Fangio scheme is the usage of cover 4/6 zone. This is in contrast with VJ, who throughout his previous stint in Denver and Arizona, has liked to run a lot of cover 3 (which is often called “the man defense of zone”) and cover 0/1, with little cover 4/6.

I don’t have the exact numbers from the previous weeks, but it seems like we’ve become a predominantly cover 3 team with a heavier use of cover 1, though I imagine we’ve still been showing some 2 high looks since that’s the current landscape of the NFL. This, along with players like Browning, Simmons, Jewell returning and the emergence of players like McMillian and Bonitto has been a boon for the defense.

TL;DR : when the players pretty much unanimously took on the blame early this season and constantly defended VJ they may have been telling the truth. I think Joseph deserved heat for the frankenstein defense he put together the first 3.5 weeks, but just as much he deserves credit for getting the unit turned around mid-season, particularly since we haven’t hard our bye.