Denver Broncos

The Broncos dipped into the college ranks to find a replacement for Jim Leonhard as their defensive pass game coordinator.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Broncos will hire University of Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston to fill that spot on Sean Payton’s coaching staff. Leonhard left the Broncos to become the Bills’ defensive coordinator.

Livingston has been on Deion Sanders’s staff in Boulder for the last two seasons. He was a member of the Bengals’ coaching staff as their safeties coach from 2016-2023. He was a scout and a quality control coach in Cincinnati for three years before taking on that role.

Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph was on the Bengals’ staff in 2014 and 2015, so this will not be the first time that he and Livingston have served on the same staff.

Broncos coach Sean Payton is back on the Competition Committee. And he’s not afraid to share his opinions about league rules.

During his Tuesday press conference at the Scouting Combine, Payton was asked about last year’s opposition to the tush push, which came within two votes of ending it.

“I don’t think the push sneak — I think if that ever goes away, it’s not a health and safety thing,” Payton told reporters. “We discussed that last year for two hours and we just adopted a thousand more kick returns. Which play do you think is more of a health risk? A thousand more kick returns. So I think if we choose to ever move on from that, it won’t be because of health and safety. It will just be like, ‘We don’t like it.’ Which is OK.”

Why was returning to the rule-recommending body OK with Payton?

“I like the pain,” Payton said with a laugh. “I like our league. I like talking about stuff like that. Like when I bring up that, we literally spent two hours on the health and safety of a quarterback sneak. . . . Literally a half an hour prior, we passed a rule that allowed for over a thousand more kick [returns]. So every once in a while your B.S. meter goes up. I’m passionate about the game and being involved in it.”

He’s referring to last year’s decision to move the touchback point for a kickoff from the 30 to the 35, which resulted in a significant increase in kickoff returns.

And he’s right about the tush push. The opposition came from, we believe, the reaction by someone in the league office to the scene that played out in the 2024 NFC Championship, when Washington jumped offside multiple times as the Eagles tried to use the formation to score a touchdown. It happened so many times that referee Shawn Hochuli eventually warned the Commanders that, if it happened again, the Eagles would be awarded a touchdown under the never-before-used “palpably unfair act” rule.

The Broncos fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi to keep Davis Webb. Not only is Webb now the Broncos’ offensive coordinator, he is also the team’s new play caller.

For the first time in Sean Payton’s head coaching career, he will not serve as the team’s full-time play caller.

“It was something that I kind of knew during the year,” Payton said Tuesday. “He and I visited on a handful of occasions. He’s extremely talented. With regards to play calling, it’s something that I think he’ll be really good at it. I know that’s like, ‘Man, are you going to give up play calling?’ I would only do that if I thought it would help our team. I’ll still be involved with what we do offensively, just like what we do defensively, but I do think he has a gift. I think he’s real sharp. I’m glad he’s on our staff. Typically, any decision we make like that is to benefit our team. I’m looking forward to it. . . . I think it’ll help us, and certainly I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was going to help our team win. You get to a point where you’re focused strictly on improving your team any way you can.”

Bills General Manager Brandon Beane actually broke the news about Webb earlier in the day at Beane’s media availability at the Scouting Combine. Webb spent four seasons as a backup quarterback in Buffalo and interviewed for the Bills’ head coaching job last month.

Webb, 31, called plays in a preseason game last summer, drawing praise from Payton after the game.

Quarterback Bo Nix was not consulted before Payton made his decision.

“A lot of it is, the minute the season ends, you have a number of coaches interviewing for other jobs. You have coaches you definitely want to retain,” Payton said. “And it’s never going to be quite on your timeline. It’s great to see Declan [Doyle] advancing. But it wasn’t on my timeline. In other words, it just happens faster.

“I remember there was a point during the year where he and I visited and it was relative to the position he has, but also more than just having the position, being someone who would have more input and would be able to call plays. It’s still going to be our offense, but I think it’s easier to do as you get older, and you look at, ‘How do we win more games?’”

Payton did not call plays for the first time as a head coach in 2012 with the Saints. Pete Carmichael called them while Payton was serving his suspension. Carmichael called them again at the beginning of the 2016 season, in a 2021 game against the Colts after Payton broke his leg and in a 2021 game against the Bucs when Payton had COVID.

But Payton has never relinquished them full-time until now, though he said he will “still call some plays during the game.”

“I think he’s sharp,” Payton said of Davis. “I think he’s been around it. He’s a coach’s kid. He played quarterback, and then in the preseason, he was really good.

“I want to do everything I can support to him, so we’re not going to sit and grade his play calling each week. At least, hopefully we’re not. It’s more about the team.”

Sean Payton and Mike Zimmer were colleagues on the Cowboys’ coaching staff more than 20 years ago and they could work together again in Denver.

Mike Klis of KUSA reports that the Broncos recently met with Zimmer about a senior coaching assistant position on Payton’s staff. There’s no imminent announcement of an agreement, but there is reportedly mutual interest in making something happen.

Zimmer was the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator when Payton was their assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach from 2003-2005. Payton moved on to become the Saints’ head coach in 2006 and Zimmer would become the Vikings’ head coach in 2014 after stints in Atlanta and Cincinnati.

Zimmer’s run in Minnesota went through the 2021 season and his last NFL job was a return to running the Dallas defense in 2024.

Competition Committee co-chairman Rich McKay does not expect there to be a lot of rules changes heading into the 2026 season, but his group is discussing many aspects of the game this week as they prepare for any proposed tweaks to the current rulebook.

One area that has come up in meetings are the rules that govern what is or isn’t a catch. That part of the game came back into focus during the divisional round of the playoffs when a long pass to Bills wide receiver Brandin Cooks was ruled an interception after the ball moved from Cooks’ hands to Broncos safety Ja’Quan McMillian as the wideout hit the ground. Officials ruled that Cooks did not fulfill the rules for possessing the ball before McMillian took it away, which was disputed by former Bills head coach Sean McDermott and others after the Broncos went on to win the game.

It also appeared to be a different ruling than officials came up with on similar plays at other points during the season and McKay said on Sunday that the committee “had a long discussion” related to the catch rules. He also said that the way plays look when subjected to replay has to be part of any conversation about how the rules are written moving forward.

“I think the issue on catch/no catch is that our technology today is just extraordinary,” McKay said, via longtime NFL reporter Mark Maske. “And so the ability to go frame by frame and slow things down is . . . a great solution for a lot of things, but it does present challenges for others. And you need to make sure that your rules as written don’t just match up [with] what’s on the field, but how it’s looked at in replay.”

The lack of a full replay review or full explanation of the ultimate ruling on the field during the Bills-Broncos game didn’t help create confidence that the ruling was the correct one. It’s unclear if a change to how the rules are written would have avoided the ensuing controversy, but the lack of other proposals could lead the committee to devote more time to devising language that would avoid the same kind of conjecture about future plays.

John Morton was a Broncos assistant before becoming the Lions’ offensive coordinator ahead of the 2025 season and he’s set to return to Denver after parting ways with the Lions.

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that Morton is expected to rejoin Sean Payton’s coaching staff as the team’s offensive pass game coordinator. Morton held the same role in 2023 and 2024, and he also consulted with the Broncos during the postseason after being dismissed by the Lions this January.

Morton was a Lions assistant under Dan Campbell in 2022 and replaced Ben Johnson as the offensive coordinator in Detroit last offseason. His run calling the team’s offensive plays ended in mid-November with Campbell taking over those responsibilities. The Lions hired Drew Petzing as their new offensive coordinator last month.

Morton also worked with Payton in New Orleans, spent the 2017 season as the Jets’ offensive coordinator and has had stints with the Raiders and 49ers over the course of his coaching career.

Running back Javonte Williams bet on himself last year, signing a one-year, $3 million deal. He delivered, with a career-high 1,200 rushing yards.

His reward was a three-year, $24 million deal to remain with the Cowboys.

Since the Williams deal was the first significant contract signed by a looming free agent, it’s important to remember a few things as we approach new-contract season. The initial reports routinely overstate the true value of the contract. For example, the reported $16 million in guarantees for Williams surely aren’t fully guaranteed at signing, and there’s little about the structure of the deal. There could be a little fudging at play to make the deal look better than it is, with the reporters who rush to Twitter with the early information rarely if ever insisting on full and accurate details. (If they do, someone else gets the scoop.)

For now, even the potentially inflated initial reporting reinforces an important point: The running back position continues to be undervalued.

The deal, if it’s truly worth $8 million per year, puts Williams at 16th among all current running backs. And while he took the offer before the annual tampering festival in Indianapolis, it’s believed that the offer the took was the best one he was going to get.

It’s also possible the Cowboys tried aggressively to get Williams signed before he could hit the market, perhaps by trotting out their CBA-violating practice of negotiating directly with the player. Or by making it clear that they’ll find another cheap veteran running back in the second or third wave of free agency, when players sign modest one-year deals.

Still, what would Williams have gotten on the open market? The absence of state income taxes in Texas are a factor. (Most players only care about APY, and that’s often a mistake.) Only the superstars at the position get market value. Eagles running back Saquon Barkley leads the way, at $20.6 million per year. 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey’s current deal has a new-money average of $19 million.

It happens for one very simple reason. The supply of capable running backs outweighs demand. Teams can resort to the draft for a younger, cheaper, and usually healthier player in lieu of paying a veteran who may not be able to duplicate his performance in a contract year.

Every year, college football generates plenty of running backs who can play at the NFL level, if they can be trusted to hold onto the ball and if they are able to pick up blitzers in pass protection. Most of them have their best years under slotted rookie contracts. When those expire, teams look for another young player to replace them.

The Williams contract gives other teams a data point that will become relevant to their negotiations with running backs. The other players who’ll be trying to get paid (Kenneth Walker III, Breece Hall, Travis Etienne, Rico Dowdle, Rachaad White, Isiah Pacheco, JK Dobbins) will have to deal with the argument that a guy who rushed for 1,200 yards in 2025 got only $8 million per year. (The counter would include that Williams isn’t much of a factor in the passing game, and that he lacks breakaway speed.)

Then there’s Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs. Currently eligible for a second deal, he has shown the kind of superstar ability that would justify a market-level contract.

And how about Falcons running back Bijan Robinson? Repeatedly called the best player in the entire league by his former head coach, Raheem Morris, Robinson will be in line for a superstar contract, too.

Will the Williams deal hold down what the Lions will offer Gibbs and what the Falcons will offer Robinson? It shouldn’t be a factor, at all. Gibbs and Robinson are far closer to Barkley and McCaffrey than the players who are hitting the market. Still, all running backs who are ready to become free agents will have to deal with the fact — as underscored by the Williams deal — that the running back market continues to be not what it could be, or perhaps what it should be.

The Broncos have re-signed a member of their receiving corps.

Wide receiver Michael Bandy became a free agent when his practice squad contract with the team expired, but he will not be heading elsewhere to continue his career. The Broncos announced that they have re-signed Bandy on Friday.

Bandy appeared in four games with the Broncos during the 2025 season. He had four catches for 50 yards and a touchdown.

Bandy also played in one game for Denver in 2023 and in 11 games for the Chargers in 2021 and 2022. He had 10 catches for 89 yards during his time with the Chargers.

The Broncos are hiring Ronald Curry as their wide receivers coach, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.

Curry was the quarterbacks coach for the Bills the past two years.

He worked with Sean Payton in New Orleans before that, spending six years with the Broncos’ head coach there. Curry was in New Orleans two additional years.

Curry was an offensive assistant (2016-17), the wide receivers coach (2018-20), the quarterbacks coach (2021) and the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator (2022-23).

Curry, 46, began his NFL coaching career as an offensive assistant with the 49ers from 2014-15.

Former Broncos general manager Neal Dahlen has died, the team announced. He was 85.

Dahlen has seven Super Bowl rings, which is tied with Tom Brady for the second-most in history behind only Bill Belichick. He held the record alone for the most Super Bowl titles for an individual until Belichick and the Patriots won Super Bowl LI in 2017.

Dahlen worked for the 49ers from 1979-96, winning five Super Bowls. He served as the Broncos’ director of player personnel during their first two Super Bowl titles.

He was with the Broncos from 1996-2003, holding the General Manager title from 1999-2001, and he finished his career as the Broncos’ director of football administration.

His teams were 7-0 in Super Bowls.

“I attribute my good fortune to three key elements: Joe Montana, Steve Young and John Elway,” Dahlen told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times in 2018.

Dahlen, a California native, was a collegiate quarterback and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Jose State.