Davis Webb is ready to be the next Sean. And by Sean, we don’t mean Payton. We mean McVay.
Denver’s quarterback coach and passing game coordinator is, according to several whispers from Broncos types to The Grading The Week (GTW) staffers, a star-in-the-making.
Look, if you can keep Payton and Bo Nix from strangling each other for two years, let alone help them to go 24-10 together in the regular season, you ought to be up for the Nobel Peace Prize — never mind the vacant head-coaching gigs with the Raiders or Ravens.
Multiple reports have indicated the 30-year-old Webb has interviewed for both the Baltimore and Las Vegas jobs, by the way. Which is, at face level, a heck of a jump for somebody who’s never even been an NFL coordinator before.
Then again, Webb isn’t just “somebody.” As a player, the dude ran with Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield as a college QB at Texas Tech and with Eli Manning and Josh Allen as a pro. By his own admission, he’s also a pack rat, an analytics nerd and a teaching wonk — three dubious traits for a husband but three excellent traits for an NFL head coach.
Webb’s play-calling during the preseason raised some eyebrows and made some Broncos fans pine for the young guy to take over the call sheet permanently.
Regardless, he’s a guy on the climb. Unfortunately for Broncos Country, so is Jim Leonhard.
Broncos staff being raided by NFL rivals — C.
The 43-year-old former Broncos safety and Wisconsin Badgers star was a coup when Payton and Denver snapped him up before the 2024 season. The ex-Badger was hired as defensive backs coach and defensive pass game coordinator before the 2024 season and was promoted to assistant head coach before this last one. The Broncos fielded one of the top secondaries in football last season, added Talanoa Hufanga as a free agent last spring and got even better in 2025 before injuries hit.
If Vance Joseph leaves Denver for a head-coaching job, a role he’s openly pined to get back to after a decent DC run with Arizona and a brilliant one in Dove Valley, it’s presumed that Leonhard would slide into VJ’s old slot here — assuming the former’s still here, of course. The Cowboys have asked permission to talk to Leonhard, who was highly regarded as a Big Ten play-caller, about being their DC, so the rumor mill over the next few weeks and months could be tricky. Potentially.
Payton’s built an incredible staff here in a short time. But one of the sad, eternal NFL truths is that incredible assistants almost always leave the nest to advance their own careers.
Fortunately, the Walton-Penner Group has shown a willingness to pay and retain good coaches, which is another reason why the Broncos are where they are. With Payton at the helm, Denver could probably afford to lose one of either Webb or Leonhard as the winter carousel looms. But boy, you’d hate to see the Broncos lose both.
Lorenzen’s Rockie Mountain High — C-plus.
Sometimes, desperation on the part of two sides can make for a questionable relationship, although with right-handed pitcher Michael Lorenzen and the Rockies, you wonder. Lorenzen, who’s now likely the Rockies’ No. 2 or No. 3 starter by default, has given up 73 homers since 2022. MLB’s Baseball Savant says he’d have given up only one more dinger (74) pitching most of his games at Coors Field. So that’s good. One of his best weapons has traditionally been a changeup, a decent “out” pitch on 20th and Bleak. More good. He’s also got a lifetime .710 OPS (On-Base-Plus-Slugging) mark, which, over a season, would’ve ranked him fifth among 2025 Rockies who played in at least 25 games. Give the dude a bat! Why not make Lorenzen Denver’s own Colorad-Ohtani and have some fun with another lost summer in LoDo?