A day after their season ended with a 10-7 loss to the Patriots in the AFC title game, the Broncos have fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports.
This closes out a three-year tenure in Denver for Lombardi and ends a long-running partnership with head coach Sean Payton. Lombardi previously coached under Payton in New Orleans from 2007-13 and 2016-20. He was the Saints’ quarterbacks coach for the majority of his 12 years with the team.
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Also a former NFL offensive coordinator with the Lions (2014-15) and Chargers (2021-22), Lombardi took on a non-play-calling role in Denver. Payton has continued to handle those duties. The Broncos did not rank among the league’s cream-of-the-crop offenses in any seasons with Lombardi on the staff, though, and Payton has decided to make a change heading into the third year of quarterback Bo Nix‘s career.
The Broncos are coming off a season in which they finished a respectable 10th in yards, but they were closer to middle of the pack in scoring (14th). Losing running back J.K. Dobbins to a season-ending Lisfranc injury in mid-November didn’t help matters.
Over 10 games and 153 carries, Dobbins hummed along on 5.0 yards per attempt. Second-round rookie RJ Harvey stepped in as the Broncos’ primary back after Dobbins’ injury, but despite notching seven rushing touchdowns, he averaged a meager 3.7 yards on 146 tries. Harvey’s production went backward in the postseason, a pair of games in which he ran for just 57 yards on 19 carries.
Thanks largely to a premier defense that led the league in sacks, the Broncos went 14-3, ended the Chiefs’ nine-year run atop the AFC West and earned the No. 1 seed in the conference. The Broncos then got past the Bills in a 33-30 overtime shootout in the divisional round, but Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury late in the game.
With Nix out of commission, the Broncos had to turn to backup Jarrett Stidham as their starter against the Patriots. Stidham looked good early and completed a 52-yard first-quarter pass to Marvin Mims that set up a touchdown, but the Broncos didn’t score again after that. On a day in which the weather dramatically swung during a snowy second half, Stidham went 17 of 31 for 133 yards, a TD, an interception and a costly fumble. The Broncos amassed just 181 total yards.
Had Nix been available Sunday, there’s a good chance the Broncos would be preparing to face the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. Instead, though, the Broncos are done for the year and shaking up their coaching staff. More changes could be in store, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, who mentions the possibility of the Broncos eventually promoting pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Davis Webb to replace Lombardi. For now, Webb is a candidate to become the Raiders’ next head coach. They interviewed Webb for the second time on Monday.