Vance Joseph is plenty familiar with Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The Broncos defensive coordinator was the club’s head coach in 2018 when the staff coached the Senior Bowl.
That group of quarterbacks in the NFL draft included Mayfield along with Buffalo’s Josh Allen. Mayfield ended up going No. 1 overall to Cleveland, playing there from 2018-21 and struggling before splitting 2022 between Carolina and the Los Angeles Rams. He found his stride on a cheap one-year deal in 2023 with the Buccaneers and parlayed it into a three-year, $100 million deal this spring.
“Baker is a great story,” Joseph said. “Obviously he came in as a young guy, had some success early but kind of had a downfall and he’s back. It speaks to his character, it speaks to the coaching and it speaks to his will to keep improving and not listen to the outsiders.
“The first week we played (Seattle QB Geno Smith) and it’s the same kind of career,” Joseph said. “It’s been good to watch (Mayfield) come back. He’s always been a confident guy and he’s always been a playmaker, so that stuff wasn’t going to shake him personally. Just being in the right system and having good players around him, maturing and it’s been good for him.”
Mayfield’s off to a great start this year, having thrown for 474 yards on 74.5% completions, five touchdowns and one interception during Tampa Bay’s 2-0 start.
“He’s playing at a high level,” Joseph said. “He’s playing the best I’ve ever seen him play throwing the football, putting the guys in great plays. He’s escaping the pocket a lot right now. He’s making guys miss. He scored on a quarterback draw last week. He’s extending plays and he can make every throw.”
Keep it simple. There’s beauty in simplicity. But only if simplicity suffices.
That’s one part of the Broncos’ offensive challenge going forward. Head coach Sean Payton said after the team’s Week 2 loss he was considering streamlining the offensive operation.
He cited the number of personnel groupings on and off the field and said he thought perhaps paring down and doing a little less might help against Tampa Bay this weekend and beyond.
Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said the conversation is also about volume. Not on the headset dial, but on Payton’s play sheet.
Denver ran a whopping 40 first-half plays against Seattle in Week 1 before finishing with a relatively normal 69 total offensive snaps. Then in Week 2 the Broncos got just 20 first-half snaps and finished with 56, which is on the low end.
“In my mind, you’re only going to get 60-80 plays a game and so just paying attention to how many plays on the call sheet you can actually call,” Lombardi said Thursday. “Certainly we want to pay attention to what we’re giving the players on each individual play, but I think as much as anything it’s just the volume. Making sure we’re not overwhelming them with more plays than we could possibly run.
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“When we talk about simplifying, for me anyway, it’s more about how many plays are we practicing vs. all the other stuff.”
Franklin-Myers progressing. Broncos defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers (concussion) took another step toward returning to the field Thursday when he participated in practice in a limited capacity.
Franklin-Myers’ participation in practice after being limited to conditioning work Wednesday shows he’s progressing through the league’s five-step concussion protocol. Denver will have to give him a game designation Friday afternoon but can update it Saturday after the team has a likely walkthrough in Tampa.
Injury updates. Elsewhere on the injury report, OLB Baron Browning (foot) and JL Skinner (ankle) didn’t participate for the second straight day, while S Brandon Jones (foot) bumped up to limited participation. The rest of Denver’s players who were limited Wednesday participated fully in Thursday’s practice.
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