Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton said at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Feb. 24 that he was handing over play-calling duties to newly promoted OC Davis Webb.
Payton, widely regarded as an offensive mastermind, has called his own for more than 20 years, dating back to his time with the Dallas Cowboys in the early 2000s. He said he had made the decision he thought was best for the team.
“First off, I think it was something that I kind of knew,” Payton said. “During the year, 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.”
Payton said he would still be involved with the offense, just as he has oversight of defense and special teams as head coach.
“Mine will be the bad ones, his will be all the good ones,” Payton joked. “But I want to support him in that.
He said that as assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach of the Dallas Cowboys under head coach Bill Parcells, he shared play-calling duties, leaving others unsure about who was calling plays.
Payton praised Webb’s talent and said giving him the job was the best thing for the offense.
“Typically, any decision we make like that is to benefit our team,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. I challenged him in the offseason prior to that preseason game. He did a good job. But I think it’ll help us, and certainly I wouldn’t do it I didn’t think it was was going to help our team win.”
Webb called the offense in the Broncos’ final preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals. Backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham passed for 240 yards and 2 touchdowns, and third-stinger Sam Ehlinger added another 162; the Broncos’ stable of running backs rushed for a combined 167 yards; altogether, the offense put up 562 yards of offense and scored 24 of their 27 total points in the first half.
While it was only a preseason game, the offensive onslaught represents a potential next step.
The Broncos ranked 10th in the NFL in total offense at 342.6 yards per game; and 11th in passing at 223.9 yards per game; but they ranked dead average in rushing yardage at 118.7 yards per game; and 14th in scoring at 23.6 points per game.
“There’s certainly things that we want to be better at,” Payton said of the decision. “But it’s also being quicker … And I’m sure there’s going to be times where I say, ‘This is what I want to run.’ But there’s trust there. There’s trust with his ability and and trust in in our relationship.
The New York Giants drafted Webb in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
He spent his rookie season as a backup quarterback to Eli Manning, then bounced around with the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, and had a second stint with the Giants in his six-year career.
Immediately after retiring from the game, he was scooped up by Payton to become the quarterbacks coach. He was promoted to pass game coordinator in 2025. Webb’s role in the development of 2024 first-round pick Bo Nix made him a name to watch in this year’s head coaching cycle.
“I think he was wanting to stay. He interviewed at a few spots, and I think that that opportunity is going to come for him to be a head coach,” Payton said.
“I don’t know that this was, ‘well I’m staying if I get to do this.’ I don’t think that was the case. I don’t want to speak for him, but I think he really likes what he’s begun to do here with us, and the start of working with a young quarterback. It’s hard to leave that. It was something I was already moving towards before anyone had even discussed it.”
Friends Read Free
Copy
Facebook
Tweet
