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.
Broncos Clips
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.
The Competition Committee is getting a kick in the pants, in the form of a pair of members who will be returning.
The NFL has announced that Broncos coach Sean Payton and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will be returning to the league’s rule-recommending body.
Both have a full and complete understanding of the rules, along with strong opinions on how the rules need to change for the better of the game.
It’s a smart move by the NFL, even if Payton and Vrabel will potentially stir things up. Sometimes, things need to be stirred up.
They’ll presumably replace former Dolphins G.M. Chris Grier and former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
It’s still unclear whether former Falcons CEO Rich McKay will remain on the Competition Committee. He’s no longer associated with the Falcons, in any way, shape, or form. McKay presumably should be exiting, too.
For now, all we know is that Payton and Vrabel are entering. And there’s plenty of work to be done, on topics that they are more than willing to bring to the table.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton said this week that doctors found quarterback Bo Nix was “predisposed” to breaking his ankle while surgically repairing the injury he suffered against the Bills in the divisional round, but Nix said that wasn’t the case on Wednesday.
Nix met with reporters for the first time since having surgery and said there was “nothing predisposed” about his ankle and something “might’ve gotten confused” in how Payton recounted what the doctors said about the condition of his ankle. Nix also broke his ankle in high school and college, but said he didn’t think Payton should have discussed past surgeries that he’d had.
Nix does not feel he’s injury-prone and pointed to a long run without any injury problems as the reason why he has “absolutely” no concern about the injury impacting his playing future.
“With the durability, it’s been about, I’d say four years, probably over 60 games straight of me getting to play and not missing games,” Nix said, via Luca Evans of the Denver Post.
Nix also said that he doesn’t expect the injury to impact his offseason preparation at all. He said he expects to be ready to start workouts at the same point he would have without the injury and that he believes he’ll make a full return to health for the 2026 season.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi on Tuesday. Lombardi spent 15 years with Payton — 12 in New Orleans and the past three in Denver.
The move caught many by surprise, but not Lombardi.
“Sean decided to move on, and I guess that’s all there is to say,’’ Lombardi told Chris Tomasson of The Denver Gazette. “I don’t think it’s ever a surprise [in the NFL]. Not really. . . . I think you could tell he was in one of those moods where he felt like some changes needed to be made, and I guess he decided one of those was me. So I’ve been around him long enough to kind of read the tea leaves, I guess.”
The move was likely made to retain assistant Davis Webb, the team’s passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, from leaving. Webb is a popular offensive coordinator candidate for teams in the market, and the Broncos want to keep him.
Lombardi, 54, told Tomasson he did not feel like a scapegoat for the Broncos’ loss in the AFC Championship Game.
“Well, we made it to the AFC Championship,’’ Lombardi said. “I don’t know why there needs to be a scapegoat, so I’m not sure what I’m being scapegoated for. I thought it was a good season. So, no, I didn’t feel like that in any way. I just think he just wanted to go in another direction.”
Lombardi twice left as Payton’s quarterbacks coach for an offensive coordinator job elsewhere. This, though, is the first time Payton has fired him. Lombardi called it “part of the business.”
“I mean, he employed me for a long time. I’m appreciative of that,” he said.
Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner says quarterback Bo Nix will fully recover from the ankle injury that forced him to miss the AFC Championship Game and has a clean bill of health going forward.
“Zero concern,” Penner said. “His surgery was a straightforward surgery, went very well. Absolutely no issues there or concerns going forward.”
Penner sounds fully invested in Nix as the franchise quarterback for years to come.
“I thought he had a second year quarterback fantastic season,” Penner said. “He won 15 games for us. Showed his mettle in the fourth quarter a lot of times, bringing us back. He would say the same thing, it’s only his second year in the league and he’s got room to grow, and fortunately Bo has a terrific approach of studying, working, he loves the game. I look forward to watching his continued improvement over the coming years.”
Nix also broke his ankle in both high school and college, and head coach Sean Payton said Nix was predisposed to suffering the injury that he had this year. Despite all that, the Broncos are counting on a healthy Nix playing 17 — or more — games a year, for years to come.
