Sean Payton loves undrafted grinders. He also loves players who’ve been loyal to him.
Naturally, the Broncos have brought a new face into the building who fits both criteria — hiring former Saints receiver Willie Snead IV as an offensive quality-control coach for 2026. It’s Snead’s first official coaching role at any level, after a nine-year NFL career as an undrafted receiver out of Ball State whom Payton and the Saints signed in 2015. He’ll work primarily with the Broncos’ wide receivers under new WRs coach Ronald Curry, who coached Snead himself in New Orleans in 2016 and 2017.
In his first season in New Orleans, Snead became a star, catching 69 passes for 984 yards and three touchdowns in 15 games. He followed that up with 72 catches in 2016, before a lost 2017 season and subsequent three-year stint in Baltimore.
While with the Ravens, too, Snead overlapped in 2020 with J.K. Dobbins’ rookie season in Baltimore.
“As long as he stays healthy, man, I think – JK, he still hasn’t tapped into his prime yet, so to speak,” Snead told The Denver Post during the 2025 offseason. “So, I’m excited for JK.”
Denver announced the Snead hire on Thursday morning as part of a public finalization of their 2026 coaching staff, coming with a couple more new faces and a few key title changes. The Broncos also officially named former Iowa State quarterback Kyle Kempt and Michigan staffer J.D. Johnson — a — as offensive quality-control assistants.
Johnson, actually, was already in Denver’s building, serving as a scouting assistant for the Broncos last season.
Notably, game-management director Evan Rothstein, who was also an assistant in the offensive-line room last season, will pivot to working with the quarterbacks alongside newly elevated QBs coach Logan Kilgore.
Chris Morgan also earned a notable promotion to offensive line coach. His previous title was assistant offensive line coach. Morgan’s been in the league a long time and is widely respected. He arrived in Denver and several offensive linemen credited him for his work in run-game technique. Zach Strief is keeping his same 2025 title as offensive run-game coordinator and assistant head coach and the pair will run the offensive line room together.
Morgan, interestingly, is steeped in the outside zone run game. The Broncos never fully leaned into that as part of their run game plan in 2025 — they used it some along with Payton’s preferred mix of several different run schemes — but Morgan’s expertise in that phase of the run game will continue on in Denver.
“I’ve gained some things back that I was taught early in my career,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey told The Post early in the regular season when talking about Morgan. “He was a disciple of the Shanahan tree, and my old o-line coach, Chris Foerster in San Francisco, Chris was his assistant in Washington. There’s a lot of carryover in certain things, and he’s reminded me of some things that, after three years of being gone, I’ve had to knock the rust off of a little bit.”
Denver also officially finalized the appointment of former Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston as its new defensive passing-game coordinator, replacing Jim Leonhard, who left for the Bills’ defensive coordinator job. Livingston will work with new defensive-backs coach Doug Belk, who comes from two years as the secondary coach at USC.
