As the Denver Broncos embark on a much-needed rebuild, which likely should’ve begun eight years ago, the team’s desires in free agency, the draft, and throughout the season change from what they have been this past decade of filth.
No longer is the focus on patching gaping wounds with bandaids or finding the quickest path to a low-ceiling, win-now solution. Instead, the Broncos will set their sights on getting younger, cheaper, and
accumulating assets in the process.
While amassing young talent will be fun and is an important part of the process, equally important is being able to develop these players from intriguing prospects to building blocks of the next great Broncos team.
With that, the most important aspect of development is a strong coaching staff, and this is where Denver will separate themselves from the rest of the league and carve out a real advantage.
Head Coach Sean Payton
Coach Payton, a man who needs little introduction, will lead the Broncos into this new era under his vision and philosophy — for better or for worse.
Payton coached in New Orleans for 16 seasons before heading to Denver, and, in that time, amassed a 152-89 record, nine postseason trips, and a Super Bowl trophy. Additionally, Payton regularly had a top 5 offense in New Orleans and broke several long-standing NFL records with QB Drew Brees. Payton has long been regarded as one of the premier coaches in football, and he has the resume to back it up.
The franchise is very much headed into a transition period which can be scary and is likely to lead to losing before the team can start winning again, but fans should feel very confident with Payton leading the charge instead of somebody else.
Outside of his very impressive resume, Payton led the franchise to its best record since 2016 and had the team in playoff contention until Week 18, while helping veterans like Russell Wilson, Courtland Sutton, and Lloyd Cushenberry III to have their best seasons in years.
As the team allows Payton to continue to build the roster in his vision, the more the team will begin to head in the right direction. Besides the on-field impact, the coaching staff that Payton assembled should have fans very excited.
The Vets: Joe Lombardi, Offensive Coordinator, and Pete Carmichael, Senior Offensive Assistant
Once hired in Denver, many were eager to find out who Sean Payton would hire to be his offensive coordinator. We quickly came to learn that Payton was hiring his longtime quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi to be his OC in Denver.
Flash forward a year, and Payton made a similar move by hiring former Saints’ OC Pete Carmichael as a senior offensive assistant in Denver. Carmichael filled in the play-calling role in New Orleans for two seasons following Payton’s departure, before being fired, and Payton quickly swooped in to bring him to Denver. Carmichael had also previously filled in for Coach Payton during his Bountygate suspension, and led the Saints to a top-three offense that season.
Many fans have been upset by these moves, making jokes such as calling the team the “Denver Saints”, but both moves make complete sense were smart additions.
When a coach like Payton, with an offensive system that’s been established over a decade, is hired to another team, the goal is to implement that scheme as quickly as possible and to game plan in the most efficient way.
Both Lombardi and Carmichael have coached under Payton in New Orleans, with Carmichael serving as his offensive coordinator for over a decade, while Lombardi served a similar stint in the quarterbacks coach role. Both coaches know his system inside and out, and can help streamline the process for Payton.
There are valid concerns with both Lombardi and Carmichael in play-calling roles, as neither has the best track record there, but in Denver, Payton is the play-caller, and Lombardi and Carmichael are there just to
improve the short and long-term process.
Denver’s offensive coaching machine is like a car — you have the gasoline, tires, brakes and other bits of machinery (like Lombardi and Carmichael and the rest of the pieces on offense) that help the car go but the driver (in this case, Coach Payton) is ultimately the one in control.
Anytime you can add assistant coaches that you are comfortable with and you know can be useful assets, it is a good move. Payton certainly knows both coaches and knows that they can help him as Broncos. In their roles, both Lombardi and Carmichael are extremely valuable pieces for Denver, and their roles are further bolstered by the up-and-coming assistants the Denver Broncos also have on staff.
Davis Webb, Quarterbacks Coach
When Sean Payton was filling out his staff, he had several interviews lined up for the quarterbacks coach position in Denver, including New York Giants quarterback Davis Webb, who, just prior, had played in a Week 18 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Webb got the look on a recommendation from Brian Daboll, and was so impressive that Payton canceled his other interviews for the position on the spot to
hire Webb.
Ever since then, Webb has only continued to bolster his resume.
In January, Webb was picked to be the offensive coordinator for the West team at the 2024 Shrine Bowl. Webb coached the team through practices and called plays in the East-West Shrine Game. That’s not only a strong development opportunity for Webb, but an excellent scouting opportunity for the Denver Broncos, as well.
Additionally, at the 2024 Scouting Combine the Broncos met with, what most experts consider, the top-eight quarterbacks of the upcoming draft, for 15-20 minute interviews. There’s nothing unusual about this except for the fact that Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy, when talking about his meetings with the Broncos, said that Webb was the one running the meetings. Along with that, Washington QB Michael Penix stated that his meeting with the Broncos was “different,” and that they largely played film of his bad plays, for him to talk through.
While these accomplishments aren’t record-breaking achievements, the fact that Webb is being sought out by the Shrine Bowl, and is having a potential Hall of Fame coach in Payton let him run the meetings with the QBs, which could sway Payton’s decision regarding the handling of the most important position in all of sports, is quite the compliment to someone in their first-ever year of coaching.
Zach Strief, Offensive Line Coach
While Payton took weeks to hire the vast majority of his staff, Payton hired his former player and assistant coach Zach Strief before he even held his first press conference with the team. This was a clear sign of the belief that Payton had in Strief and his ability to coach at the NFL level.
Payton echoed the same sentiment at last year’s owners meeting, stating “He was a target. Wherever I went, if I was able to, I was going to hire him as the line coach.”
Strief, a former seventh-round pick, spent his entire 12-year career in New Orleans, with
Payton, and was then hired by Payton, with the Saints, to be his assistant offensive line coach.
Two years later, Strief followed Payton to Denver to be his offensive line coach.
Coaching success came immediately for Strief as he stepped up to the larger role. A year after being one of the worst offensive lines in football, the Broncos bounced back and were one of the best lines in football — finishing as PFF’s seventh-best overall unit.
Strief saw Lloyd Cushenberry III go from a replacement-level center to one of the highest-paid centers in the history of the sport in a single season, helped continue Quinn Meinerz’s trajectory to becoming one of the best offensive linemen in football, and helped Garett Bolles bounce back nicely from his season-ending injury the year prior. Free agent additions Mike McGlinchey and Ben Powers, while maybe slightly disappointing for their prices, were both solid pieces on a line that had no glaring weakness.
The fact Broncos Country presently reviles someone like Mike McGlinchey as much as they do is quite the compliment to the other four members of that line.
Because offensive line coaches rarely see promotions, Strief will likely be in Denver for a long time, which is good news for fans as well as any lineman who plays for the Denver Broncos over the next several years.
As we saw in Cleveland this season, as legendary offensive line coach Bill Callahan attempted to stave off a billion injuries to his unit, an elite offensive line coach can almost guarantee stability up front, no matter the pieces he has to work with.
Keary Colbert, Receivers Coach
Keary Colbert is another in a long line of promising young assistants learning under Payton, on his first Denver Broncos coaching staff.
Colbert, a former receiver in the NFL, played six seasons in the league, including four in Carolina, before spending the final two seasons with four teams, including Denver. Following his playing career, Colbert has spent the last decade coaching for numerous different high-level college programs including Georgia State, Alabama, USC, and, most recently, Florida.
When you dive into Colbert’s resume he becomes even more interesting.
Colbert has an extensive history of developing receivers at the college level who go on to become high-end pros
His best work is at USC, where he coached former No. 8 overall pick Drake London, Pro Bowl wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., and All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Most recently, Colbert coached Ricky Pearsall, who has developed nicely during his time at Florida and will be selected in the upcoming draft.
All of these receivers had very different profiles coming out of the draft. Among those already drafted, one was a top-10 pick, one was a Day 2 pick, and one was a Day 3 pick.
Pearsall looks like a likely Day 2 pick, but he definitely shouldn’t be dismissed, considering how Colbert’s USC receivers thrived at the next level, no matter their draft status.
At first glance, Colbert’s resume looks impressive, but as you look deeper, it’s hard to find many position coaches in the NFL right now who have had more success developing their respective positions as Colbert.
Still only 41, Colbert is another in a long list of ascending coaches on Payton’s staff.
Jim Leonhard, Defensive Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach
When the Broncos lost defensive backs coach Christian Parker to Vic Fangio and the Eagles, it was universally accepted that this was going to be a big loss and somebody the team could not easily replace.
Parker has been an invaluable piece to the staff, coaching under all of Fangio, Hackett, and Payton in Denver while regularly getting the most out of the secondary pieces on the roster.
Then, Payton went out and replaced Parker with one of the very few coaches who could be an
upgrade — Jim Leonhard.
Leonhard — similar to Webb, Strief, and Colbert — had an extensive playing career in the NFL before joining the coaching world. He played ten seasons in the league for five different teams, including a season with the Denver Broncos in 2012, as a safety.
After retiring from the NFL, Leonhard went on to have immediate success as a coach.
He was hired in 2016 as the defensive backs coach for Wisconsin, and the next season — his second in the coaching profession — was promoted to defensive coordinator. About a calendar year after Leonhard picked up the headset, he was anointed the defensive coordinator of one of the Big 10’s most powerful programs.
Then, in his first season as defensive coordinator, Leonhard was a finalist for the Broyles Award, which is an award for the top assistant coach in NCAA football.
Leonhard continued as Wisconsin’s DC until the end of the 2022 season when he left the school after serving as interim head coach for the majority of the season.
Payton said in a press conference when asked about Leonhard that he had been pursuing him for a
while and tried to hire him last off-season, but Leonhard had health issues that prevented him from coaching in a prominent role last season, so he wound up serving as an analyst for Illinois.
The idea of Leonhard coaching defensive backs in Denver should be very exciting for
Broncos Country.
Leonhard has excelled in every role he’s filled as a coach, has found that success quickly, and is still only continuing to grow.
Leonhard has been widely coveted among NFL teams for years now, and Payton landing him is a home-run hire. It would not be surprising if he is a coordinator for a team — either with the Denver Broncos or someone else, sooner rather than later.
