Broncos head coach Sean Payton’s staff for the 2025 season has been finalized.
There will be eight new coaches in Denver, including special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi. Rizzi’s addition was reported earlier in the offseason and the Broncos officially announced that they’ve also hired assistant offensive line coach Chris Morgan, director of game management/offensive line assistant Evan Rothstein, defensive quality control coach Todd Davis, defensive quality control coach Brian Niedermeyer, assistant special teams coach Marwan Maalouf, special teams quality control coach Zach Line, and assistant strength and conditioning coach Taylor Porter.
The Broncos also announced new titles for offensive run game coordinator/assistant head coach Zach Strief, offensive pass game coordinator/quarterbacks coach Davis Webb, tight ends coach Austin King, defensive pass game coordinator/assistant head coach Jim Leonhard, cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch, linebackers coach Isaac Shewmaker, and director of strength and conditioning Shaun Snee.
Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, running backs coach Lou Ayeni, senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael, wide receivers coach Keary Colbert, offenisve passing game specialist Zach Grossi, offensive quality control coach Logan Kilgore, offensive quality control coach Favian Upshaw, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, defensive line coach Jamar Cain, and senior defensive assistant Joe Vitt return from last year’s staff.
Wednesday’s flurry of news included the fact that receiver D.K. Metcalf wants to fly the coop in Seattle. So where will he land?
Currently, DraftKings has the Seahawks and the Chargers as +300 co-favorites for Metcalf.
The Patriots aren’t far behind, at +350. The Texans are fourth at +550, followed by the Raiders at +700 and the Steelers and Broncos at 12-1.
It’s surprising the Seahawks have such low odds. Given the way word surfaced — with the Metcalf news landing at a time when the Seahawks were trying to give receiver Tyler Lockett a proper sendoff — the Seahawks reportedly are salty. The current momentum points toward a divorce.
What’ll it take? As explained on Wednesday, while 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel isn’t looking for a new deal on his way through the door in Washington (the trade becomes official on Wednesday), Metcalf is. Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports that he’s looking for $30 million per year, and that the Seahawks want a first- and third-round pick.
That’s what the Eagles gave the Titans for receiver A.J. Brown (Metcalf’s Ole Miss teammate) three years ago. Metcalf’s next team will have to strike the right balance between paying the player and satisfying his current team. The more money they give Metcalf, the less capital they’ll want to sent to Seattle. And vice-versa. It becomes a thee-way negotiation, that requires two needles to be threaded by his next team.
Still, the overall circumstances (capped by the news of Metcalf wanting out becoming the turd in the punch bowl of what should have been Tyler Lockett Day) suggest that this thing could move, quickly. And that, come next Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET, Metcalf could indeed officially be on a new team.
The Broncos fired linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite on Wednesday, 10 days after his arrest on suspicion of second degree assault of a police officer.
“After thorough discussions as an organization, I met with Michael Wilhoite and informed him we have decided to part ways,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said in a statement to Mike Klis of 9News. “We recognize the serious nature of the allegations against him and believe this is the best course of action at this time.
“I appreciate Michael’s contributions to the Broncos and am confident he will move forward in a positive direction.”
Wilhoite, 38, faces three charges — second-degree assault on a police officer, obstruction of a peace officer and criminal mischief — from the incident at the Denver airport, per Klis.
Wilhoite left his car unattended in the arrivals area, and when he returned, a police officer told him he couldn’t leave his vehicle in that spot, according to court records obtained by Klis. Wilhoite told the officer to “shut the [expletive] up.” The officer repeated his command, and Wilhoite repeated his expletive before chest-bumping the officer.
The officer shoved Wilhoite, and Wilhoite then punched the officer, according to the statement obtained by Klis. The officer had injuries to both knees, pain in his jaw and may have damaged his left wrist.
The officer fired his Taser at Wilhoite, who is accused of driving off before his arrest a short time later.
Wilhoite joined the team’s staff as outside linebackers coach in 2023.
Former NFL defensive back Pacman Jones was one of our favorite PFT Live guests during Super Bowl week. So was Colorado coach Deion Sanders.
They recently got together for an episode of Deion’s Tubi show, We Got Time Today. And Jones made an eyebrow-raising claim regarding his efforts to beat the NFL’s drug-testing protocols.
“I cheated the program,” Jones said, via Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today. “Like, I was really good. People don’t know how smart I am, but like, I can say it now. I don’t play no more. But like, I’ve never used my [urine] for a [urine] test. Not one time. Not one time.” (Folks, it’s OK to use the word “piss,” if that’s the word he used. You won’t go to hell for it.)
Deion told Jones that “can’t happen today.” Jones, who spent 12 years in the NFL with the Titans, Cowboys, Bengals, and Broncos, disagreed.
“It can happen if you know what you’re doing,” Jones said. “Don’t say it can’t happen, Pop. Hey, Pop, don’t say it can’t happen.”
“The reason it can’t [is] because they go in there with you right now,” Sanders said, regarding the sample collectors. “No, no. They go in there and watch you pull out.”
“You still can get them,” Jones said.
Deion ended the conversation before Pacman could explain the workaround. In 2005, former NFL running back Onterrio Smith was caught at an airport with a “Whizzinator” — a fake penis that dispensed clean urine.
Nowadays, few care about marijuana use. As Jones said, it helps players manage pain.
“They’re giving guys opiates, pain pills, muscle relaxers,” Jones said. “You’re telling me that a guy that’s smoking THC, that it’s helping him perform more, or are you telling me is it helping his body? . . . I’m all for the weed.”
It’s currently legal for medical or recreational usage in 37 states. And while the NFL has largely decriminalized it under the substance-abuse policy, it would make more sense to tell the players, “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”
Especially since it helps them get through the grind of a 17-week football season.
Broncos defensive end Zach Allen is looking to turn a strong 2024 season into a new contract with the team.
Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette reports that Allen is looking for a contract extension as the offseason gets underway.
Allen has one year left in the three-year contract that he signed with the Broncos in 2023. He’s set to make $12.74 million with a cap hit of $19.795 million.
Per the report, Allen is looking for a raise that would put him in the neighborhood of $25 million per season.
Allen, who will turn 28 this summer, was a second-team All-Pro in 2024 after recording 61 tackles and 8.5 sacks during the regular season.
The Broncos will be holding onto all five of their exclusive rights free agents.
According to multiple reports, the Broncos have tendered contracts to cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, tight end Lucas Krull, linebacker Dondrea Tillman, defensive lineman Jordan Jackson, and safety Devon Key.
The players will have to sign the tenders before getting back on the field, but they will not be able to negotiate with other clubs so that is likely to happen without any issue.
McMillian had 81 tackles, two interceptions, a sack and a forced fumble in 17 regular season appearances while Krull caught 19 passes for 152 yards. Tillman had five sacks in a rotational role and Jackson and Key both played reserve and special teams roles over the course of the season.
Since the Jets were going to cut receiver Davante Adams before next Wednesday, they gave him a head start on the open market.
So he’s now a free agent for the first time in his career.
And the betting favorite to sign him is the team that drafted him in 2014. Via DraftKings, the Packers have +190 odds to be Adams’s next team.
The Chargers are next at +500, followed by the 49ers at +650, the Rams at +750, the Steelers at +950, and the Broncos and Patriots at 1000.
Another reunion, with the Raiders, is a 12-1 proposition.
Some think he’ll land wherever quarterback Aaron Rodgers goes. With the Giants at -150 to sign Rodgers, maybe Adams (like Rodgers) will be changing teams without changing addresses.
Running back Javonte Williams led the Broncos in rushing for the second straight year in 2024, but he saw Jaleel McLaughlin and Audric Estime take on a bigger share of the work in the backfield and that seemed to foreshadow an offseason departure.
Williams is set to become a free agent next month and paying him feels like a low priority given the other backs in Denver as well as the options available through the draft. General Manager George Paton didn’t rule it out during a press conference from the Scouting Combine on Tuesday.
“Well, I mean, there’s a chance we bring Javonte back, and I think Javonte is one of the best pass protectors in the league,” Paton said, via Andrew Mason of 104.3 The Fan. “And I think he’s still young and he’s still ascending, another year removed from the injury. But I think there’s so many different flavors in this draft of runner, and we have some backs that we like.”
Paton noted the severe knee injury that Williams suffered early in the 2022 season and there will be some thoughts of how things might have gone for Williams had he avoided that absence. That answer is impossible to know and it could lead to his next chapter being set in another town.
Broncos linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite was arrested on Sunday night and accused of assaulting a police officer.
Wilhoite was booked in the Denver downtown jail on suspicion of second degree assault of a police officer and is scheduled to appear in Denver County court Monday morning, according to Mike Klis of KUSA.
No details about what happened to lead to Wilhoite’s arrest have been released. The Broncos issued a brief statement acknowledging the arrest.
“We are aware of a situation involving Michael Wilhoite that occurred Sunday and are in the process of gathering more information,’' the Broncos’ statement said.
The 38-year-old Wilhoite was undrafted coming out of Division II Washburn in 2011 and had to begin his professional playing career with the United Football League, but he played well enough there to draw NFL attention and had a short career as a linebacker with the 49ers and Seahawks. He was then hired to work on Sean Payton’s coaching staff with the Saints in 2019 and 2020, spent two years as the Chargers’ linebackers coach in 2021 and 2022, and then was hired by Payton again on the Broncos in 2023.
The Broncos are hiring Marwan Maalouf as their assistant special teams coach, Mike Klis of 9News reports.
He reunites with Darren Rizzi, who recently was named the team’s new special teams coach. Maalouf and Rizzi worked together in Miami from 2013-18.
Phil Galiano had been Rizzi’s long-time assistant special teams coach, but the Saints promoted Galiano to special teams coordinator when Rizzi left.
Maalouf spent part of last season with Rizzi in New Orleans in 2024 after Rizzi became the interim head coach. Maalouf helped Galiano with the special teams the final eight games.
Maalouf was the Vikings’ special teams coordinator in 2019-20, which was the last time he coached in the NFL until Rizzi’s call in the middle of last season.
