Vance Joseph: Broncos face ‘very different’ Chargers in opener

For the Denver Broncos, the key to preparing for their Sept. 11 season-opener against the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football is to not study the opposing players.

Instead, first-year coach Vance Joseph and his staff are going to focus on their counterparts who are guiding the Chargers: first-year coach Anthony Lynn, defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.

‘Defensively, it’s a totally different look’

“That’s very different when you have a new defensive coordinator, you have a new head coach there,” Joseph told Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan on Movin’ The Chains. “The OC, he stayed intact there, but it’s a new head coach, so it’s going to be some different things that’s being put into the offensive system. And, defensively, it’s a totally different look going from a 3-4 to a 4-3, so what you have to do as a staff is go back and track the coordinators’ years as far as how he calls the defenses vs. your scheme and what pressures to accept.

“It really goes back to studying the coordinator and not the actual personnel on the Chargers this year, but going back to Jacksonville and watching Gus there and going back to Buffalo and watching some of Coach Lynn’s run-game stuff to add to Coach Whisenhunt’s package he had in place last year. So you go back to history to kind of help you get ready for Week One. And then, as the game goes along, you kind of make adjustments and you play the football game, but that’s the way you do it when you have new information, basically.”