DENVER — After interviewing a handful or so candidates for his vacant defensive coordinator position, new Broncos head coach Sean Payton appears to be expanding his search.
One candidate is familar to Broncos Country: Vance Joseph.
A source told 9NEWS the Broncos have requested permission from the Arizona Cardinals to interview Joseph, who is currently their defensive coordinator and under contract. Ordinarily, a team cannot interview another's team coach if it's a lateral move but there may be extenuating circumstances in Joseph's case.
The Cardinals just hired former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon as their new head coach. As Gannon's background is steeped on the defensive side, he figures to oversee the Cardinals' defense.
Joseph was the Broncos' head coach from 2017-18. While the Broncos went 5-11 and 6-10 in those two seasons, time has shown it wasn't the head coach. Vic Fangio followed as head coach and posted three more losing seasons of 7-9, 5-11 and 7-10. This past season, Nathaniel Hackett was dismissed 15 games into his first season with a 4-11 mark.
A former University of Colorado quarterback for coach Bill McCartney, Joseph was converted to defensive back in his two seasons in the NFL before starting his coaching career on the defensive side.
It's unclear whether Arizona will grant Joseph permission to interview with the Broncos or other teams. The NFL Network reported Wednesday night Rex Ryan has emerged as a top candidate to become the Broncos' next defensive coordinator. Ryan, though, has not coached in six years, spending that time as an NFL analyst for ESPN. A source told 9NEWS that Ryan is in the mix but the team is still considering other candidates.
Former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai, currently on Seattle's staff, is the only defensive candidate confirmed by 9NEWS to have interviewed with Payton via Zoom last week.
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