Denver Broncos 2023 Head Coaching Search

[Duffman]

Carolina owner has pretty much stated he will give Payton anything he wants and asks for.

If it comes to money Denver has the edge. If the Saints want picks as their main asking price then Carolina will get him.

 

[MileHigh64]

If it comes to money Denver has the edge. If the Saints want picks as their main asking price then Carolina will get him.

Even if the Saints offer up more draft capital than the Broncos, Payton himself will have a say. If he's not interested in going to the Panthers, then he won't. Also not sure the Saints want to do a deal with a division rival. We'll see.

 

[Orange Crush77]

I don’t think it’s just about money when it comes to where Payton ends up. Carolina”s owner is a multi-billionaire too. I’m wondering what kind of power hes going to offer Payton when it comes to personnel and administrative things, and what kind of autonomy he’s going to have

 

[Orange Crush77]

Even if the Saints offer up more draft capital than the Broncos, Payton himself will have a say. If he's not interested in going to the Panthers, then he won't. Also not sure the Saints want to do a deal with a division rival. We'll see.

That’s just it, Payton has the ultimate say wherever he goes

 

[Duffman]

That’s just it, Payton has the ultimate say wherever he goes

But it does depend on what compensation New Orleans gets though too, if Carolina is offering a crap ton more than we are, and we won’t budge even though Payton says he wants to come here, it’s going to end up as a stalemate.

 

[PumpFake]

 

[PumpFake]

Sean Payton impresses Broncos in interview Tuesday

Former Stanford coach David Shaw is a sleeper candidate. Following interviews with Ryans & Quinn, Broncos CEO Penner likely to bring in 1 to 3 finalists next week.

www.9news.com

 

[PumpFake]

David Shaw anyone?

 

[nflbronco]

Any Stanford guy has a shot. I honestly don't know how I feel about Shaw.

 

[PumpFake]

Broncos coach search: Dan Quinn’s second candidacy, Sean Payton’s comments, more​

By Nick Kosmider
2h ago
5

---

The first phase of the Broncos’ search for their fifth head coach since 2016 is nearing its end. By Friday, CEO Greg Penner and the team’s ownership group will have interviewed all eight of their candidates, setting the stage for a possible announcement about the role next week.
Before we get to that stage, here are eight thoughts on the search and where it goes from here.
1. When the Broncos searched for a head coach last year to replace Vic Fangio, the traveling search committee led by general manager George Paton interviewed 10 assistants across the league. Nine of those interviews took place in person as the traveling party visited seven cities in eight days. The pool of candidates featured young assistants with experience on both sides of the ball. Only one, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, had previous experience as a head coach.
What a difference a year makes. The Broncos began this search with a list of eight potential candidates. Six of those — Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Jim Caldwell, Raheem Morris, David Shaw and Quinn — have experience as a head coach at the NFL or major-college level. Even after Harbaugh, the only candidate who interviewed virtually for Denver’s job, decided to return to Michigan earlier this week, the Broncos were still staring at a candidate list full of former head coaches.
It’s clear Denver’s new ownership group wants someone who has done the job before. Someone who has experience in the “CEO-type” role Broncos co-owner Penner covets. But why is that qualification seemingly so important to this group?
Part of it is the recent track record of Denver’s first-time head coaches. Vance Joseph (2017-18), Vic Fangio (2019-21) and Nathaniel Hackett (2022) went 34-62 and never made the playoffs. Hiring a head coach with experience wouldn’t be the Broncos swinging the opposite way after one failed, first-time experiment. It would be cutting against multiple decisions that haven’t worked out as planned for the past six seasons.
There is another element at play, too. Since his family and their limited partners took hold of the franchise in August, Penner, the leader of this search, has been transparent in saying he is still learning about the pro sports business and the NFL in particular.
“We have business experience, and we’ll obviously draw on that, but this is new,” Penner said. “For us, it’s a process of listening and learning.”
Penner said the organization seeks to empower the people it hires, particularly in key roles. That will be true even when Penner and the others in his group become more experienced NFL owners, but it’s especially true now as they gain knowledge about the business of the sport. I believe that’s a big part of the reason Penner and his group compiled the list they did. At this stage in their ownership, they want to be able to lean on someone who isn’t facing a big learning curve of his own.
2. The ownership group largely knowing what it wants has made this a more focused search than the one that took place one year ago. The Broncos interviewed four candidates last week and will have interviewed another four this week by the time they finish meeting with Quinn on Friday, two days before the Cowboys defensive coordinator leads his team into the divisional round of the NFC playoffs against the 49ers.
Though the ownership group has given no timetable for the conclusion of its search, the formatting suggests the Broncos’ search committee will be ready to gather over the weekend and then proceed swiftly at the start of next week. That could include a second interview with one or two finalists for the position, but I expect Penner will move decisively and be prepared to have a coach in place by the end of next week.

Will the next chapter of Sean Payton’s coaching career be in Denver? (David Butler II / USA Today)
3. No one on the Broncos’ list of candidates has more experience as an NFL head coach than Payton, who was in that role with the Saints for 16 seasons from 2006 to 2021.
The Broncos met with Payton on Tuesday in Los Angeles for a lengthy interview that lasted “several hours,” the NFL Network reported. The length of an interview is certainly not an indicator of success to follow. The Broncos spent four hours with Hackett during an initial meeting in Green Bay last year and then met with him for more than eight hours during a finalist’s interview in Denver about a week later. His tenure as the Broncos coach lasted 15 games.
But in this case, the length of the interview suggests Payton spent ample time learning about Denver’s new ownership group, which has promised significant resources to the next head coach. This was as much a chance for Payton to interview the Broncos as it was for the ownership group to interview the veteran coach, and Payton said at the start of the week that those moments in his interviews would be critical.
“That’s the significance of this upcoming week or two,” Payton told Fox Sports radio host Colin Cowherd on Monday, hours before he interviewed with the Texans via Zoom and one day before he met with Penner. “Meeting some of these individuals, asking some questions — maybe some difficult questions — and trying to get answers so that we’re not having difficult questions when you’ve already taken the job.”
If the Broncos do extend an offer to Payton and he accepts — trade compensation with the Saints would have to be worked out first — it will be fair to conclude that Penner, still in his first year on the job, laid out a clear and concise path forward for the franchise and what a head coach’s role would be within that vision.

.@SeanPayton addresses head coach openings pic.twitter.com/LYWpWlcalC
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) January 16, 2023

4. When Payton was asked by Cowherd whether there was any appeal to the Texans’ opening, the veteran head coach mentioned the allotment of “really good” draft capital, a familiarity with owner Cal McNair and young talent on the roster.
He also noted the AFC South division, which the Jaguars won this season with a 9-8 record.
“You’re in a division where you can at least look at it and say, ‘OK, Indy, Tennessee, Jacksonville, you can at least (envision a path to a division title),’” Payton said. “So there’s growth potential immediately there from their three wins.”
Payton is also set to interview with Panthers owner David Tepper later this week, and he can make the same case about the opportunity that exists in the NFC South. The Buccaneers won the division with an 8-9 record in 2022 and could be without quarterback Tom Brady next season.
There is a much more difficult path ahead in the AFC West, where the Chiefshave won seven straight division titles and have beaten the Broncos 15 straight times. Patrick Mahomes, the favorite to take home the MVP award this season for the second time in his career, has never lost a division road game.
The Chargers, who just made their first playoff appearance since 2018, have one of the league’s most talented quarterbacks in Justin Herbert. The Raiders are coming off a disappointing 2022 season and will be looking for a new quarterback after moving on from Derek Carr, but there is significant talent on the roster, beginning with All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams, and Las Vegas owns a six-game winning streak over the Broncos.
The division component is unlikely to be a deal breaker for Payton if he believes the Broncos’ opening is otherwise the right fit. He has repeatedly said the relationship with ownership is the most important piece of the equation.
But it is interesting to ponder, if all other things are equal, whether a perceived quicker path to division dominance would ultimately make the Texans or Panthers openings more attractive to Payton.

 

[PumpFake]

5. During his second season as the head coach in Tampa Bay in 2010, Morris led the Buccaneers to a 10-6 record, narrowly missing the playoffs. It was a seven-win improvement over the previous season, the biggest turnaround in franchise history. Morris was just 33 years old at the time and compiled that record despite starting 10 rookies.
The following season didn’t go as planned. The Buccaneers lost their final 10 games, and Morris was fired after posting a record of 17-31 in three seasons as a head coach. At 46, Morris has been waiting for his second chance ever since. He’s been to two Super Bowls as an assistant since being pushed out of Tampa Bay, including a 2021 championship he helped the Rams win as their defensive coordinator. He’s coached both sides of the ball, served 11 games as an interim head coach for the Falcons in 2020 and only enhanced his reputation as one of the most respected coaches in the league.
“He’s one of the best coaches in the world, and the fact that he isn’t a head coach is a crime,” Rams coach Sean McVay said of Morris ahead of the 2022 season.
Morris appears ready for his second chance at running a team. His interview with the Colts last week “went really well,” The Athletic’s Zak Keefer reported, and he conducted his meeting with the Broncos on Tuesday evening in Los Angeles. Two Broncos assistants, defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and defensive line coach Marcus Dixon, were a part of Morris’ Super Bowl-winning defensive staff with the Rams in 2021.
Evero pointed out one of the most intriguing aspects of Morris’ candidacy when he spoke to The Athletic about his former boss back in September.
“The biggest takeaway from Raheem is that he had coached on offense and defense,” Evero said. “He’s been a head coach. He’s seen football from so many different vantage points. He had been in a 3-4 system and he had been in a 4-3 system, and he just knew so much football in general. So when he would coach our defensive guys, so much was not only just coaching our scheme but coaching how offenses were looking to attack you. I just thought he was really brilliant about talking about, ‘OK, this is the intent of these offensive plays and this is how they are going to attack us. This is how we can adjust.'”
That experience working with assistants on both sides of the ball should be beneficial for Morris if and when he begins building his own coaching staff.
6. While Denver’s coaching search dance card is largely filled with former head coaches, two on the list don’t possess that experience: Evero and 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans.
From ownership to coaches to players, the Broncos have made their affinity for Evero clear, but if they don’t hire him as the head coach, they might not be able to hold onto him. After the Cardinals and new general manager Monti Ossenfort put in a request to interview Evero on Tuesday, he became the only coach in this cycle known to have received requests from each of the five teams with an opening.

GO DEEPER
Why Broncos DC Ejiro Evero has emerged as a top NFL head-coach candidate
Almost equally in demand is Ryans, who is a legitimate candidate for multiple openings but is also trying to help the 49ers win a championship. Ryans has had a remarkable rise up the coaching ladder. At 38, he’s only seven years removed from his playing days as an NFL linebacker. Broncos safety Kareem Jackson was Ryans’ teammate in Houston when Jackson entered the league as a first-round pick of the Texans in 2010.
Though Denver is clearly valuing experience, ownership will give its full, open-minded attention to Ryans when he interviews Thursday. His results with San Francisco’s defense, which is top three in just about every statistical category, are impossible to ignore.
7. Quinn will be the last candidate to interview with the Broncos when he meets with the search committee Friday. That Paton met with Quinn one year ago, when Quinn was a finalist for the job that was ultimately offered to Hackett, creates an interesting dynamic this time around.
While Hackett lasted just 15 games with the Broncos and became the second coach since 1978 to be fired before the end of his first season as a head coach, Quinn decided to return to Dallas as the team’s defensive coordinator — and the Cowboys have become even better during Quinn’s second year in that role.
The Cowboys, who blistered Brady and the Buccaneers during a 31-14 victory in Monday night’s wild-card playoff game, ranked third in defensive EPA (expected points added), fifth in opponent scoring (20.1 points per game), first in takeaways (33) and ninth in defensive red zone efficiency during the regular season. Quinn is arguably an even more attractive candidate now than he was one year ago and would check numerous boxes for the Broncos.
8. Perhaps the most intriguing part of Friday’s interview, though, would be a discussion about Russell Wilson, the quarterback Quinn faced in practices as Seahawks defensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014. Brian Schottenheimer, who is colleagues with Quinn in Dallas this season as a coaching analyst, was Wilson’s offensive coordinator in Seattle from 2018 to 2020. Quinn and Schottenheimer could make for an intriguing head coach-offensive coordinator pairing given their respective experiences with Wilson, who has vowed to rebound from his poor 2022 season.
(Top photo of Dan Quinn: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)





Subscribe to The Athletic. The Athletic

 

[PumpFake]

Some of the comments from the article above.



Stuart F.
· 3h 4m ago
7 of the 8 remaining coaches in the playoffs have offensive coaching backgrounds. That isn't a coincidence, as just watch Belichek, Ron Rivera and Tomlin struggle to stay relevant. (And don't give me "they don't have a QB excuse", see Shannahan, Kyle) So while it pains me for the Broncos to have to give up the first-round pick, I just can't see long-term success with Quinn. If you aren't still convinced, ask yourself this: Is Sean Payton worth Bradley Chubb? True no-brainer. Hope they land him.

7
2

B
Brian T.
· 2h 26m ago
I agree, for Quinn to be successful he has to have a good offensive coordinator , and if his offense has any success , teams will poach his offensive coordinator to be head coach like they did with Kyle Shanahan, so it’s difficult to have long term success doing that.

The good news is, although there’s this narrative that Mike McCarthy is this bumbling boob riding the coattails of Aaron Rodgers drooling the whole way, he’s been a very successful head coach for a long time (look at his record as head coach, he’s won with Favre, Rodgers and now Dak), and probably has some good quality offensive position coaches that none of us know that Quinn can possibly use.

2


M
Mike B.
· 1h 28m ago
@Stuart F. I agree with you that the Broncos and their fans need to consider the draft compensation cost to essentially be viewed in whatever the team must give up beyond the very late 1st round pick from the Dolphins (via SF).

Going into a hopeful season in 2022, the Broncos had no 1st or 2nd round picks. This was already going to be a difficult draft to find major impact players. It took the absolutely horrendous coaching of Hackett to force Paton to decide before the trade deadline to move Bradley Chubb, who the team wasn’t going to be able to extend anyway. The decision to move Chubb and gain that 1st rounder might ironically be the move to allow the Broncos to hire Payton (assuming he wants to be here) and force Paton into the background on personnel moves.

So look at it as we weren’t going to have a 1st round pick anyway. It is a late pick where at best the Broncos could draft the 5th-6th best offensive lineman. He would not positively impact the team nearly as much as hiring a coach who won a Super Bowl, coached his team to three NFC championship games, and helped a short immobile QB to excel and become a future HOF QB.

3

---

B
Ben P.
· 1h 46m ago
Whichever candidate has the best GM and HC qualities should be the front runner. Ownership has already signaled that they will marginalize Paton and have zero experience with football or running a professional team. In that regard, Peyton is the clear favorite.

4

---

D
David M.
· 3h 27m ago
As a Broncos fan since the days of Craig Morton, if they hire another retread like Quinn (whose losing record as a HC in Atlanta will follow hi forever), I will toss all of my Broncos clothing in the nearest dumpster.

I wouldn't be surprised if they new owners renamed the team to the Denver Wal-Marts.

3
3

B
Brian T.
· 2h 34m ago
Quinn actually was one game over .500 as a head coach of the Falcons by the time he was fired, and that was accounting for his 0-5 start in his final season.

I don’t know, if they don’t get Payton, who is the best coaching candidate by far out there right now and who a lot of teams are chasing, the next tier is Jim Caldwell and Dan Quinn, and while I was very lukewarm on these guys initially since they have both been fired, I don’t think either will embarrass our fan base like Hackett did with some of his clock management and his teams lack of preparation.

4


D
Don G.
· 1h 59m ago
@David M. Aren't all they retreads, except Evero and Ryans? Caldwell, Quinn, Morris, Payton and Shaw were all former coaches. I guess PAyton and Shaw left on their own terms from their head-coaching gigs.

3


B
Ben T.
· 15m ago
@David M. Did you think the new fresh first year coaches of Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio, & Nate Hackett did so well that we couldn't possibly give someone a second opportunity to learn from their initial mistakes?

1

---

J
John P.
· 25m ago
Guess I'm starting to come around to Payton. But if he's hired I believe the expectations have to be lowered for one and maybe two seasons as the Broncos do some rebuilding. The OL needs a fix. The new coaches and players and ownership have to sync. Losing a first-rounder is not easy, but maybe worth it - in the long run.

2

---

D
Don G.
· 2h 1m ago
Super interesting search. Despite their struggles with first timers, If they clearly feel like Evero or Ryans is the leader of men they seek, the shouldn't hesitate to go that route. First timers, can be successful. You just need the right one.

Ryans may know the recipe for that Shanahan secret sauce as well and Evero seems to be the guy on the rise. The question for each is, Is it too early?

Quinn is universally lauded for his leadership and probably learned a bunch from his Falcons experience. Payton would seem to be a great choice as well. I'm encouraged by the pool. Not really excited by Morris or Shaw.

1
3

M
Mike B.
· 1h 23m ago
@Don G. Evero or Ryans might wind up being great head coaches. Or they could wind up being the next Fangio or Joseph—great defensive minds who could never take the step up to being head coach and being responsible for all of the team.

As appealing as they are, the Broncos are the last team who should be giving another coordinator a chance to prove they can be a head coach. For the reasons Nick identified, it has to be an experienced head coach. And for those calling them “retreads” I wonder if they thought the same when the Chiefs decided to hire Andy Reid?

4


S
Steven S.
· 45m ago
Evero and Ryans could be great candidates for some teams, maybe ones about to draft a top 5 QB.

As long as Denver has Wilson and believes they are in “win now” mode there’s going to be a disconnect there, which I hope is what they’re hearing from the best candidates. They haven’t been competitive in their own division for several years, having lost 6 straight to the Raiders and 15 straight to the Chiefs.

Denver needs a reboot/rebuild but doesn’t seem to want to commit to the reality of doing one. Hopefully they get the CEO type they want and empower him to implement the needed changes over the next couple years instead of chasing another quick fix.

3


D
Dileep R.
· 24m ago
This is exactly right. The arrogance and sense of exceptionalism that Elway et. Al brought to the Broncos worked for the Manning era (because he’s PFM) but failed on every other era. The team needs top to bottom rebuilding and evaluation by someone with real expertise in the current game. Many of these candidates have that (Morris seems to slide under the radar but his experience and knowledge are the opposite of Hackett; he has earned his way up that ladder) Payton being at the top of the list. I’m not sure he’s a savior but he’s def the most capable of using Russ and evaluating what he’s got going.

2

 

[Draft Crazy]

I still like David Shaw!! I think you guys will like him once you learn more about him. #darkhorse

1. Payton
2. Ryans
3. Shaw

 

[nflbronco]

I'm on team Ryan's I just can't ship 2 #1's to NO.

 

[Mingo]

I still like David Shaw!! I think you guys will like him once you learn more about him. #darkhorse

1. Payton
2. Ryans
3. Shaw

David Shawshank Redemption

The last time the Broncos hired the football coach at Stanford - the players revolted - John Ralston was fired and Red Miller was hired for the 1977 season.

 

[Mingo]

I'll go with Ryans, but I think they are hell bent on getting Payton.

 

[PumpFake]

I'll go with Ryans, but I think they are hell bent on getting Payton.

Would’ve liked being the proverbial fly on the wall when conversation turned to Payton-Paton.

 

[CEH]

Exciting news if you want Payton.

 

[Draft Crazy]

Can Payton fix @SpringStein though?

 

[SpringStein]

Exciting news if you want Payton.

If that’s what Cow Herd thinks, it’s guaranteed to be wrong.