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DiVincenzo’s plan was to come out

No Marquez Valdes-Scantling Color Rush Jersey , Vance Joseph never felt as if he was drinking out of a firehose when the Denver Broncos stumbled through a 5-11 season in his first year as head coach last year.

That's how general manager John Elway has repeatedly described what it must have been like for a first-year head coach in the NFL.

"That's not my personality, so I didn't feel that way," Joseph told The Associated Press. "My focus was purely on trying to flip it and get us back on a winning path. I think being a young head coach and being a young coach is a different deal. I'm not a young coach. I've been a part of teams that have gone through adversity so I kind of knew what the issues were."

Turnovers.

A sieve of an offensive line.

Locker room rifts.

A lack of chemistry, the byproduct of another protracted quarterback competition.

Still, "I think overwhelmed, that's not the word," Joseph said.

Denver's dive, which included eight losses by double digits, was a shock to a city and a franchise that had a ticker-tape parade just two years earlier, and Elway acknowledged that he pondered firing Joseph at season's end.

"That's the direction I want to go, but it's my responsibility to think about other options to see what would be best for the football team," Elway said in January. "We thought about different options, but ultimately, my goal was to stick with Vance and give him that shot."

Elway, who had riled up his players by calling them soft during an eight-game skid, said he shared in the blame for Joseph's deficient debut and needed to surround him with better personnel.

Joseph replaced nearly half of his coaching staff while Elway embarked on a massive roster upgrade .

He signed quarterback Case Keenum in free agency and all 10 members of his ballyhooed 2018 draft class spent four years in college and most were captains. That's a far cry from the previous two classes that were loaded with raw athleticism, long-term projects and plenty of question marks.

Joseph seems much more comfortable in his second season.

"I don't see it as a do-over. It's hard in this league. You don't get do-overs, unfortunately. But it's a new year and obviously last year wasn't good enough," Joseph said.

The hands-off philosophy Joseph brought to Denver last year has vanished.

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