New Bills coach Joe Brady has made arguably his most important hire.
With Brady being an offensive specialist, he needs someone to whom the defense can be entrusted. Per multiple reports, the someone is Broncos assistant head coach and defensive pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard.
Leonhard began his playing career in Buffalo 21 years ago, as an undrafted free agent. After three years with the Bills, he joined the Ravens. Leonhard then followed Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan to the Jets.
After three years with the Jets, Leonhard played for the Broncos in 2012, the Bills in 2013, and the Browns in 2014.
He finished his career with 142 regular-season appearances and 73 starts. He played in seven postseason games.
Leonhard began his coaching career at his alma mater, Wisconsin. He rose to defensive backs coach in 2016 to defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach from 2017 through 2022 to interim head coach in 2022.
After serving as a senior defensive analyst at Illinois in 2023, he joined Sean Payton’s Broncos in 2024.
Broncos Clips
The Broncos are getting closer to finding a new offensive coordinator.
Via reporter Jordan Schultz, Denver has interviewed Commanders assistant head coach/passing game coordinator Brian Johnson for the vacancy.
Johnson, 38, served as Philadelphia’s offensive coordinator in 2023 but was fired after one season. He had previously been the team’s quarterbacks coach from 2021-2022 with Shane Steichen serving as offensive coordinator.
He has been with Washington under head coach Dan Quinn since the 2024 season, helping Jayden Daniels become AP offensive rookie of the year.
The Broncos fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi earlier this week. The team’s offensive pass game coordinator/QBs coach Davis Webb is regarded as one of the favorites to land the job.
Joe Brady mentioned multiple times in his introductory press conference as Bills head coach that he’s from the Sean Payton tree.
Now he’s brought in one of Payton’s longtime offensive lieutenants.
Pete Carmichael Jr. is joining Buffalo as the club’s offensive coordinator, according to a report from NFL Media.
Carmichael, 54, was with the Saints from 2006-2023, spending the vast majority of that time as the club’s offensive coordinator under Payton. Carmichael did not call plays full-time until Payton departed the franchise after the 2021 season. But he was fired after two seasons under head coach Dennis Allen.
Carmichael reunited with Payton with the Broncos, becoming the team’s senior offensive assistant in 2024 and serving in that role over the last two seasons.
Brady noted he will still call the Bills’ offensive plays as head coach. But Carmichael joining the team will be a key factor in implementing Buffalo’s offensive game plans throughout the week.
Davis Webb apparently took his current boss’s opinion to heart.
Days after Broncos coach Sean Payton said regarding the prospect of his pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach staying in the division as coach of the Raiders, “It’d be a pain in the ass for him,” Webb has withdrawn from consideration for the job, via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
Webb shifted to coaching in 2023, taking a job on Payton’s initial staff as quarterbacks coach. Webb added the pass game coordinator title in 2025.
The 31-year-old also interviewed with the Ravens and Bills.
The move could mean that Webb is in line to become the successor to Joe Lombardi as offensive coordinator of the Broncos. For the Raiders, it could mean that they’ll wait another 11 days and hire Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
Former NFL tight end Vernon Davis, who has pivoted to acting in the years after his playing career ended, faces criminal charges.
Via TMZ.com, a woman has accused Davis of attacking her with “magazines and books” during a May 2025 argument over her pregnancy. Davis allegedly offered the woman $10,000 to get an abortion.
She also contends that, in a later incident, Davis slapped her.
A warrant for Davis’s arrest was issued on January 8, accusing him of assault and battery. A court date is set for February.
The sixth overall pick in 2006, Davis spent nine years with the 49ers. During the 2015 season, he was traded to the Broncos. He signed with Washington in 2016, spending his final four years there. He last played in 2019.
The Broncos conducted their first offensive coordinator interview.
Ronald Curry completed an interview with the team, Gabriel Parker of The Denver Post reports.
Curry, 46, spent four seasons with Broncos head coach Sean Payton in New Orleans. He was the wide receivers coach with the Saints from 2018-20 and the quarterbacks coach during Payton’s last season with the team in 2021.
Curry stayed two more seasons in New Orleans before leaving for Buffalo to become the quarterbacks coach for the Bills. Josh Allen won the MVP award in 2024.
Curry interviewed for the Broncos’ offensive coordinator job when Payton was hired in Denver in 2023. Joe Lombardi held the job for the past three seasons before his firing this week.
Broncos quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Davis Webb is the favorite to replace Lombardi if Webb doesn’t get the head coaching job in Las Vegas.
Some NFL owners have complained about the NFL Players Association’s annual team report card, but other owners think it provides them with useful information. Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner says it spurred his team to improve its locker room.
The Broncos are moving into a new facility this offseason, and Penner said the F grade the Broncos got for their locker room on last year’s NFLPA report card is one of the reasons they prioritized having a much better locker room in the new facility.
“I think everybody always wants to get A’s on their test,” Penner said. “I think you get some good inputs from that and we try to be responsive to that. I look forward to seeing what’s in there. The last couple surveys, players have said our locker room is not great, it’s too small. We might have gotten an F on that, and that’s why we’re building a new facility. Not the only reason, but one of them.”
Rather than fight the NFLPA over the report card, owners who want to win listen to what the players have to say, and do what they can to make sure the players are provided with they need to be at their best on game days.
Two Broncos offensive linemen have been named finalists for the NFL’s inaugural Protector of the Year Award.
Left tackle Garett Bolles and right guard Quinn Meinerz are among the six candidates for the award. The prize is designed to honor the league’s top offensive lineman for a given season.
Bolles and Meinerz are joined as finalists by Dolphins center Aaron Brewer, Chiefs center Creed Humphrey, Lions right tackle Penei Sewell, and Bears left guard Joe Thuney.
The winner will be announced at next week’s NFL Honors show and will be chosen by a panel of former NFL offensive linemen. LeCharles Bentley, Jason Kelce, Shaun O’Hara, Orlando Pace, Will Shields, and Andrew Whitworth make up that panel.
Jim Leonard continues to be a popular name on the defensive coordinator interview circuit.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Ravens have requested an interview with the Broncos’ assistant head coach and defensive pass game coordinator. The Bills and Chargers have also had Leonhard on their radar, although the Chargers opted to move in a different direction by hiring Chris O’Leary on Wednesday night.
Leonhard has spent the last two seasons with the Broncos and he served as the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin from 2017-2022. He had a brief stint as his alma mater’s interim head coach in his final season in Madison.
Leonhard played for both the Bills and the Ravens during his time as an NFL safety, so he would be repeating part of that Wisconsin experience if he lands the coordinator job with either team.
The Broncos are planning to build a new stadium with a retractable roof, to open in 2031. If they already had that roof, the AFC Championship Game would have looked a lot different.
Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner said that with cold weather and snow in the forecast for Sunday’s game against the Patriots, the Broncos probably would have had the roof closed all day.
“We’re evaluating retractable roof options,” Penner said. “In this case, you all saw the weather this year, it was fantastic until the last game. The NFL does have guidelines or rules around the home teams selecting or choosing what they’re going to do with their roof, and when they can open or close it, so, we’d obviously comply with that. In this case, we would’ve likely closed it ahead of time, given both the temperature and the potential precipitation. That being said, who knows if that would’ve had any outcome on the game. Either way, this would have been more around just what was going to be good for the fans, because it was pretty rough.”
A closed roof might not have changed the winner of the game, but it certainly would have changed the game, as the snow impacted both teams in the second half. A roof would fundamentally change what January football in Denver looks like.
