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Jeff Legwold
Multiple authors
INDIANAPOLIS — Looking for more impact from the team’s offense, Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton has made one of the most significant moves of his coaching career.
Payton announced Tuesday that newly hired offensive coordinator Davis Webb will be the team’s point guard on game days.
That means the 2026 season will mark the first time in Payton’s tenure as an NFL head coach — since 2006 — that he has not been his team’s primary player on offense. Webb, who had been on the Broncos’ staff as quarterbacks coach since Payton was hired by the Broncos in 2023, was promoted to offensive coordinator when Joe Lombardi was fired two days after the Broncos’ 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.
“It was something I kind of figured out during the year,” Payton said Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine…. (Webb) is very talented… I think he’ll be really good at it. I know it’s like, “Dude, are you going to give up play calls?” But I will only do it if I feel it will help our team. “I will stay involved.”
With backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham in the lineup with an injured Bo Nix, the Broncos gained just 32 yards in the second half loss to the Patriots to miss out on a chance at the franchise’s ninth Super Bowl trip. The Broncos had just one touchdown after halftime and did not have a possession in the third or fourth quarter longer than 17 yards.
After the loss, Payton was asked what he criticized most in the aftermath of the loss, and he said it would start with himself. Payton said Tuesday that he first thought about the idea of handing over play-calling duties around “midseason” and that an end-of-season review also played a role, including the possibility of increasing the pace or “speed” of the play-calling process.
“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was going to help our team win,” Payton said. “…It’s about making your team better in any way you can.”
The Broncos, who finished the regular season 14-3 to earn the top seed in the AFC, had one of the league’s best defenses last season. They led the league in sacks and in red zone defense in the regular season, were second and third in scoring and were the best in yards surrendered per game overall (4.46).
But Payton expressed frustration with the offense at various times during the season as well as the day after the playoff loss. The Broncos finished 14th in the regular season in scoring — 23.6 points per game — and 10th in offensive EPA and 12th in QBR, but they finished 29th in three games (25% of drives).
Webb also interviewed for three head coaching jobs this season — with Buffalo, Baltimore and Las Vegas — and has attracted interest from several other teams as offensive coordinator, including the New York Giants. Payton had allowed Webb to call the plays in the Broncos’ preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals last August when the Broncos gained 562 yards in a 27-7 win.
“It’s easier to do when you get older and you look at it as, ‘How do we win more games?'” Payton said. “…I think he’s going to help our team and I’m going to do everything I can to support him. That’s something I wouldn’t do if I thought it was going to help us.”
When asked why he made this offseason decision, Payton added: “Because of Davis, I felt like he would do a good job with him. He’s very talented.”
And in a bizarre twist, it was Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Joe Brady who actually revealed that Payton had named Webb the Broncos’ play-caller earlier in the day at the combine. As of Tuesday, Payton had not publicly addressed Webb’s promotion to offensive coordinator.
But Webb is a former Bills player (2019-2021) and Bean interviewed Webb about the Bills job in recent weeks that went to Brady. Brady is a former assistant to Payton with the New Orleans Saints and is in regular contact with Payton.
But several hours before Payton spoke at the combine, Beane was asked about the Webb interview and said “I think he’ll get a chance to call the plays now, which I think will only help his resume.”
“To be a first-time player, you have to have Sean Payton as a resource,” Brady said minutes later. “I think Davis is an absolute stud.”
