While it’s true that, in 2018, passively bullying your subordinates in the media qualifies as a notable leadership strategy, it doesn’t mean that what John Elway is doing right now will help him or the Broncos in the immediate future.
It’s quite obvious that Elway, the gifted athlete turned hyper-competitive general manager, does not approve of the job head coach Vance Joseph is doing (as would most executives when the team has a 2–4 record). Earlier this week, he called the Denver defense “soft,” which, in NFL parlance, is typically a code word aimed directly at the person in charge of aligning and motivating those players, even if Elway added that the problem “starts with me.