Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - CHANGE: Denver Broncos FIRE Offensive Coordinator Joe Lombardi

Starting point is 00:00:00 After the Denver Broncos fell one game shy of their quest for a Lombardi trophy, they're moving on from Joe Lombardi as the offensive quarter. Could Sean Payton cast a web in a search for the next OC? We'll break it down here on today's episode of the show. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, Broncos country, breaking news episode here of Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:34 the number one sports podcast network in the country. All thanks to you. Every dayers out there for tuning in, making us your first listen. However you choose to do so, I'm Cody Rourke, credential Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. Join, as always by Sarah Bedinger, site expert there, predominantly orange.com. Got some breaking news here is the Broncos and Sean Payton have fire offensive coordinator. Joe Lombardi will talk about maybe what led to this decision. Could the Broncos and Sean Payton be trying to convince Davis Webb to stay?

Starting point is 00:01:00 And if Davis Webb ends up taking the Las Vegas Raiders job, could Zach Street be another in-house option to be the OC by title. We'll break it all down here on today's episode of the show. Sare, obviously some breaking news here today, just hours after Sean Payton met with all of us for his end of the year press conference, no indication whatsoever of any potential staff changes. But after that, just six hours after the fact, Sean Payton has in fact made his first staff change.

Starting point is 00:01:27 He has fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, which in honest opinion is very interesting considering their buddies, but we all know, Joe Lombardi didn't call the place, didn't design the offense, he was just the O.C. by title. This was an interesting move here for the Broncos to make all that information considered. Very, very interesting. Obviously, Joe and Sean go back to their days in New Orleans together. I guess I'm not sure if they go back further than that, Cody, but obviously he's been a long time assistant and trusted, you know, sort of offensive mind for Sean Payton to kind of have in that brain trust. We know that Sean has a number of guys, whether it's Pete Carmichael as well.

Starting point is 00:02:07 They brought back Johnny Moe, Johnny Morton, the former past game coordinator who was the OC in Detroit. They brought him back as a consultant for the playoffs. So Sean has his circle, right, of guys that he likes. And certainly you figure, okay, Joe Lombardi, he's kind of just going to be around. He's been around since 2023. But now the Broncos are at a point where, like you mentioned, they're going to have to recruit like Davis Webb to stay.

Starting point is 00:02:31 want to keep him. They're going to have to recruit potentially Zach Streif to stay if they want to end up keeping him. I know Streif hasn't gotten the head coaching love that Davis Webb has, but he's extremely and very highly valued inside that Broncos organization. We know that he's the assistant head coach. I don't know how many listeners realize that Zach Streep has the title of assistant head coach. He is extremely valued by this team and protected by them in terms of teams trying to poach him

Starting point is 00:02:57 away. So the Broncos are well aware of that. Sean Payton is aware of that. The thing that we hopefully will get a chance to talk about on this emergency episode of the show is, what would the ramifications be, not to put the card ahead of the horse, but if Davis Webb was hired as the new OC in title, would that come with responsibilities that we've never seen Sean Peyton give to somebody else within his offensive structure? I think that's a great question here, right? Because for Davis Webb, who is garnering strong head coaching interest from the Las Vegas Raiders,

Starting point is 00:03:30 As we all know, no previous coordinator experience here in the NFL for him. So making the jump from being a position coach to being a head coach, that is kind of unprecedented in a sense of what we're seeing in today's NFL. Usually you see experience coordinators, guys who've had success, usually get those jobs. And for Davis, he's a young guy. So for me to just see that as a possibility would be interesting. But it is worth noting here at this point in time with Davis.

Starting point is 00:03:57 I think the initial impression was when the Broncos first hired him as the quarterback coach, they were going through the interview process. And they had the interview at the team facility. Davis Webb got in the taxi or the Uber. And then Sean Payne said, wait, why are we letting him leave the building? So they called him. They had the driver turn back around. He came on and signed a contract.

Starting point is 00:04:17 Davis, I will tell you this, talking to offensive players, talking to quarterbacks, and even hearing it from Sean himself, he's such a bright young mind in terms of offensive innovation, you know, his experiences. He's very detailed and prepared when it comes to scouting reports. That was one of the things that sold Sean on hiring him initially as a quarterback coach in the first place. And think about this. Davis Webb still had some offers to go be a quarterback or to sign on to a roster as a backup for several NFL teams at that point. It's not like he was out of the NFL. There was some serious interest, but he wanted to make the jump into coaching where he felt like he had more of a chance to make an impact here going forward.

Starting point is 00:04:54 you hear Bo Nix, Jared Stiddam, Sam Ellinger, you hear these guys talk about Davis Webb. He has been so valuable to the offense's growth, I would say over time. Now, has Denver's offense been perfect? I think you and I can sit here and say, hey, they have their own issues that they must correct, including the run game, including better production from the

Starting point is 00:05:10 receivers in the drop department. We'll obviously talk about that, I think, on tomorrow's episode of the show. But Davis has been a very big proponent, I'd say, of Bo Nix's growth here, and I'd say Boe has probably been his biggest advocate. So, I'm with you, Sarah. That's the question we have to ask. With Joe Lombardi getting fired by Sean,

Starting point is 00:05:30 who we know is the play caller as the designer and the implementer of this offense here, if you do entice Davis Webb to stay on his offensive coordinator, is Sean Payton going to hand off the reins to him? I think from what we know, just what we've perceived about, Sean, does that seem very likely to you? I don't think it does, but maybe, maybe Sean Payton is getting to the point where he doesn't want to drive in the rain at night. I was going to bring that up from the quote that he had that you're referencing right there from January 15th where he was talking about that. And the situation, the fourth down play that's going to continually get brought up until the freshness of the AFC championship game has worn off, right? That fourth down situation, there's so much going on for a head coach and play caller at the time, right?

Starting point is 00:06:15 So you're the head coach of the team. You've got to decide, hey, do I need to take a time out here? Are we going to get a measurement here? what situation like what are the Patriots showing us defensively what personnel package do I want to have out there offensively how do I weigh our what we do all season long going forward in these fourth and short situations from this yard marker on into the end zone versus having a backup quarterback out there and having that scenario in the back of your mind there's so many different things that are going on in that one moment that a delegation of one particular thing Cody would have helped Sean Peyton be the head coach in that situation as opposed to the head coach and the offensive play caller, the chess match player going up against that New England Patriots defense in that moment. And the one thing that he could delegate in that moment is the play calling. And to say, Davis, I need you to come up with a play.

Starting point is 00:07:09 I got to figure out what we're doing here. Are we getting a measurement? Why are we not getting one? Like, do I need to call a time out? All those things that I just mentioned. And then weighing the analytics, the tendencies, the defensive look the Patriots are giving, all of that stuff to be able to delegate that one thing to somebody else and to say, hey, you call the play here.

Starting point is 00:07:29 And that allows Sean to do something that he's never done before as well, which is truly be the CEO of everything as opposed to the CEO of everything and the play caller, right? There comes a point where you can't do everything. I'm learning this in my own personal life, Cody, very much so. And so I think there comes a point where you have to realize I can't do everything. I can't be in charge of building the roster. I can't be in charge of being the head coach and building the roster and calling the plays and managing the coaches and determining, hey,

Starting point is 00:08:01 what music is being pumped in during the, you know, the pregame so that it's not distracting or whatever. What's the temperature of the training? You're like all these different things. I get that Sean Payton's passionate about that stuff and I love it. But this is the one thing to be able to keep a great coach who's instrumental to your young quarterback. I think this is the one thing. If he's, he's ever going to give it up, now's the time. You said everything that I wanted to say about the CEO approach. I think Sean in collaboration with George Payton, I think those guys will build this team the way that Sean wants it build, right?

Starting point is 00:08:33 But can you take this younger player who's got bright visions, bright minds like a Davis Webb and say, hey, I'm entrusting you this. Could you imagine if Sean is just able to just manage the game from essentially like a decision-making standpoint? Now, ultimately, right, if Davis Webb is the OC, let him call the plays. But ultimately, Sean has the final say on what they decide to do. Not necessarily, I mean, maybe from a play calling standpoint, but when it comes to big time

Starting point is 00:08:55 decisions like fourth and one, are we going for it? John has the ultimate say in those where now he can pay attention to the game. He's got his assistant up in the box that helps him with the analytical stuff, whatever it may be. But you're entrusting the young guy who's garnering a lot of interest and a lot of respect around the NFL to say, hey, I'm passing this off to you. I'm going to be in your ear, though, still, right? I imagine, but maybe you're going to hand him the keys and say, you know what?

Starting point is 00:09:19 she's all yours kid you know driven this vehicle for the last however many years but now it's time for someone else to take care of her maybe that is the approach here from sean peyton as the broncos now look to fill that OC job as we're reacting to the breaking news here on tuesday of denver firing joe lombardi and what this means next for the offense but we have to look at every other angle here too when we talk about davis web trying to get him to stay what if web gets the head coaching job with the las Vegas Raiders, who is next and where's some potential options on staff. We'll look at that more here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. Today's breaking news episode is brought to our friends over there at Price Picks.

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Starting point is 00:12:54 but it could be Zach Streif as well and maybe even an outside chance that it's somebody from the outside. Cody and I're going to talk about that on today's emergency episode, knocked on Broncos. Broncos country, you already know. When it comes to the off season, you've got to be on your toes with this team, right?

Starting point is 00:13:10 The Broncos always be having us do break. episode, breaking news episodes of the show. But this is very, very interesting. There's interesting ramifications and implications from this move, Cody, because obviously, and once again, want to quickly say, too, thank you to all of you every dayers out there that are tuning in, locked into Lockdown Broncos. I'm going to have a link in the show notes for you as well to join the Every Day or All Access Club, where you not only get, you know, emergency ad free episodes of the show,

Starting point is 00:13:38 but you'll get bonus episodes of the show throughout the offseason as well. So yeah, this, I mean, a shocking move, obviously, because Joe Lombardi goes way back with Sean Peyton. We think that Davis Webb is the low-hanging fruit to replace him, to get the promotion, to the Broncos to try to recruit him back to Denver as opposed to letting him go coach the Raiders, which I don't think they want to happen. I know Sean Peyton joked about, you know, it'll be a pain in your, you know what, if you go do that.

Starting point is 00:14:05 But I don't think they want that to happen. As happy as they would be for him to get a head coaching job, if he does. does leave for that Raiders job, Cody. I feel like the next obvious favorite has to be Zach Streif. Yeah, right. And I was going to say, you were about to go with the next step thing there. Sean Payton hates that term, the next step, right? Even though for us, it's like a media buzzword.

Starting point is 00:14:26 It's one of those things. But no, you are right there. And I'm glad you brought up the quote that, you know, was mentioned in Sean's end of your conference today about, you know, what would it be like if Davis is in your division, you can see him twice per year. And Sean, yeah, what Sean said was, you know, he said it joking. it would be a pain of the butt for him, not for Sean, for Davis Webb. So we'll see there. Sean has always talked about too. There is like when he talks to his coaches or getting these

Starting point is 00:14:48 head coaching interviews, you also have to understand that it's not a perfect utopia. These jobs aren't open because, hey, it's a great place to be. It's because there's been some issues. There's been some problems with the Raiders. Look, I, you know, they don't have a quarterback right now. I think they're all anticipated to get Fernando Mendoza obviously is probably the number one overall pick in this year's draft. That's probably on the table, but they don't have an offensive line. They have a war course in Ashton Genti, who's an absolute stud. And if they can get that offensive line short up, that Raiders team might be tough, but there is no perfect reality of just saying, hey, we're going to snap our fingers and bang,

Starting point is 00:15:22 you get a brand new offensive line and everything falls into place. The appealing option, I think right here, probably would be for Davis Webb to stay in Denver as the offensive coordinator. But let's go to your hypothetical there. What if he doesn't? Okay, Zach Streif being the other option, because of what you mentioned there, he has the assistant head coaching title. he's the run game coordinator as well for the Broncos, and he's the offensive line coach. And for Sean to say early on in his Tuesday conference that when the issues in the run game were brought up as a question to Sean,

Starting point is 00:15:50 he went out to say, you know, the first person I talked to was Zach Streep. I went up there to talk to him in his office. And so it was like, okay, is that maybe tipping your hand a little bit or is that just because he's the run game coordinator, which I mean, maybe it's the perfect kind of blend right here for Sean Payton to say, hey, no, like there's nothing there. But Streif would make sense as a title, though.

Starting point is 00:16:08 here. There's also some other coaches on staff. You talk about Pete Carmichael. You talk about Logan Kilgore who used to work with Arch Manning in high school. He's been a quality control coach, an offensive assistant coach here for the last couple of years since Sean came on on the coaching staff. I mean, they have options right here. It all goes back to what we talked about earlier, though. If it's not Davis Webb or even if it is, is this person that's going to be titled the OC going to be the one who calls the plays. That is the biggest. mystery right now and we don't have the answer to that. But what if it was named Streef as the O.C? Is this just another, so to speak, yes, man, for Sean Payton. Like, I have no idea.

Starting point is 00:16:50 That's going to be really interesting to find out too, because like we talked about here in this episode, I don't know where Sean is at with this. And nobody was really asking him about that, right? And I don't think you would want to at a press conference where he's in a good mood. nobody wants to ask him, hey, what's up with the play calling going forward, right? And turn his mood sour. So it's a conversation for another day, but it'll be an appropriate question probably the next time that he does take a microphone, Cody. And there's a reason why he did not make this move public before he took the microphone today because he's probably not fixing to ask any questions or answer any questions rather about that until he hired somebody. Yeah, there would have been many. So I think it's a. smart move on his part to kind of delay those questions until he's had time. Like, Sean deserves time to, this is something that like, if he was going to give it up, I'm not saying he would.

Starting point is 00:17:46 And I know that on our squad show that we have on Wednesday, he's definitely, it's definitely going to come up like there's no way Sean Payton is going to give up play calling. But to me, Cody, I feel like that quote that you've referenced multiple times about him saying, you know, driving in the rain and, you know, talking about all this stuff about play calling. and personnel groupings and getting all these things sorted out in big moments. You know, I think that there's something to that. I really do. Yeah, no, there is.

Starting point is 00:18:14 You know, if he's thinking about it and is bringing that up in press conferences, the thought has to cross his mind. And look, John reads what we in the media write, you know, I don't think he necessarily cares too much about the criticism. Like it doesn't impact him as a coach. You have to be able to tune that noise out. But I think the question has been raised. I think it's a fair question to ask.

Starting point is 00:18:33 certainly as you talk about, okay, hey, the Broncos offense has improved, but here's the biggest thing. When Sean talks with Bo Nix, who is the leader now of this franchise going forward, he's got the it factor here, and the relationship that Davis and Boe certainly do have, do you think that comes from Bowler? Would Sean say, you know, Sean asked Bo, what do you think? I wonder what Bo's response would be, because there's been times Boe's been frustrated with how play isn't coming in quick enough, so to speak.

Starting point is 00:19:01 That has been a process, you know, that's certain. has been tough. And whereas it's Davis and Bo sitting, you know, on the bench with the iPad going over the play or the previous series, I just feel like everything makes sense to transition that off to Davis Webb here at this point. And not only that, it'll also increase Davis's opportunities of getting a head coaching job. But the Broncos' offense continues to thrive if he does call plays and can showcase that. So it is kind of a win-win here for the Broncos. It is. And it's a win for Davis Webb potentially as well because he's had multiple interviews with the Raiders.

Starting point is 00:19:34 And if they end up making him an offer, he can bring that back to the Broncos and say, hey, this is what they're offering. Like, if you really want me back, you're going to have to pay me head coach money. I mean,

Starting point is 00:19:43 he has that sort of leverage right now. And I think that's great for him to be able to have that, because there is no salary cap in the coaching realm. And I think that we've had certain things go under the radar in the past about, hey, this guy might, you might not know about it, but he might actually be one of the highest paid,

Starting point is 00:20:01 you know, whatever position coach or whatever assistant. coach, like to keep these guys around, make no mistake about it. When these guys are getting their roles upgraded, like to assistant head coach or quarterbacks coach and pass game coordinator, that's coming with some extra money in the bank. That's not just, hey, I want to have the coolest title that I possibly can have. No, no, no.

Starting point is 00:20:22 There's some money involved in that stuff. So I would love to have the curtain peeled back at some point on that. But for some reason, that's not a thing in the NFL. But for Davis Webb, it is a big time win situation. here for him to be able to leverage those head coach interviews into potentially getting this offensive coordinator title with Denver and for him to be able to say, I want to call plays. If that's on the table, I will come back. If it's not, I guess we'll see what happens.

Starting point is 00:20:50 Yeah, I wonder if, you know, Davis, when he had the second interview with the Raiders, Sean calls him up like he did Chase Daniel. Davis, get out of the building. While I call play, Sean. Okay, it's yours. We'll do it. Maybe that's the process here. But obviously, we're reacting to the news here of Joe Lombardi.

Starting point is 00:21:03 being fired what it means for the Broncos here going forward. And obviously, when a decision is made, when we find out who the new OC is, or if we find out Davis Webb or Vance Joseph, any of the coaches end up going elsewhere, you know you're going to get more coverage of it here on Lockdown Broncos. But that'll wrap up our breaking news episode here today. Broncos country, we still have a lot in store for you. Make sure you check out tomorrow's episode show where Sarah and I, we break down George and Sean Payton's end-of-year press conference.

Starting point is 00:21:27 And why we know that the Broncos, their approach going to this off season, it's going to involve being aggressive and why we like. like that. Make sure you tune in to tomorrow's episode of the show.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - CHANGE: Denver Broncos FIRE Offensive Coordinator Joe Lombardi

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