Report: Miami met with Cardinals’ Vance Joseph over head coaching job
Jan 21, 2022, 12:47 PM | Updated: Jan 24, 2022, 9:03 am
The Dolphins reportedly met with Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph for Miami’s vacant head coaching job on Friday, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Dolphins were also reportedly looking into San Francisco OC Mike McDaniel and Dallas Cowboys coordinators Dan Quinn and Kellen Moore this week for the vacancy, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
The news comes after the Dolphins reportedly put in a request to interview the defensive coordinator ahead of Arizona’s Wild Card matchup against the Los Angeles Rams.
“It’s pretty cool, it comes with obviously winning and having a good year and being the playoffs,” Joseph told reporters on Friday when asked about the Dolphins’ interest in him.
“Obviously I worked there before, so I’m familiar with the building, the GM and the owner and those things are always good.”
The Dolphins fired head coach Brian Flores after the season concluded. Flores posted a 24-25 record in his three seasons coaching Miami.
Joseph, 49, is expected to be a busy man with interviews. The Cardinals’ defensive coordinator joined Arizona in 2019 after getting his first crack at being at head coach with the Denver Broncos from 2017-18. He went 12-21 as Denver’s head coach.
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Arizona’s defense has seen major improvement under Joseph, finishing 11th and ninth in opposing points per game the last two seasons after being 28th in Joseph’s first year and not cracking the top-half of those rankings since 2016.
Joseph has had the Cardinals top-10 in opposing passing yards per game in each of the previous two years, including a seventh-best 235 yards allowed per game for 2021.
A return to Miami would reunite Joseph with the team’s lone Pro Bowler this season in cornerback Xavien Howard.
Howard played under Joseph his rookie season when the coach was Miami’s defensive coordinator in 2016.
Joseph first started coaching in the NFL in 2005 as an assistant defensive backs coach with the San Francisco 49ers. He was promoted to the lead defensive backs coach the next year, holding that position for five seasons.
He went on to coach defensive backs with the Houston Texans from 2011-13 before joining the Cincinnati Bengals for two seasons in the same capacity. Joseph then took his talents to Miami, Denver and Arizona.
