When Jake Spavital took the offensive coordinator job at the University of California in 2016, he needed a quarterback. So Spavital called his mentor, Kliff Kingsbury, the head coach at Texas Tech, whom he’d previously worked with at Texas A&M.
“Take a look at Davis Webb,” Kingsbury told Spavital.
Webb was Kingsbury’s backup quarterback the year before and had announced his commitment to the University of Colorado in January. Spavital called Webb and convinced him to visit Berkeley, potentially for a brief conversation and a tour of the California campus.
Instead, he got the full Webb experience.
Webb walked into the offensive coordinator’s office with notes: California’s entire offense, Spavital’s play-calling style, what he liked and disliked about the offense and more.
“I felt like he was a (expletive) GM of an NFL team,” Spavital told The Denver Post. “He’s analyzing every position. Itap the most business-like official visit I’ve ever had with a kid. He was so analytical.
“I was like, this guy’s crazy.”
Kingsbury told The Post it’s Webb’s “maniacal” work ethic that’s his defining character trait. Jakeem Grant said Webb told him his history as a quarterback prepared him to be an offensive coordinator. Former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer said Webb needs to take ownership of an offense that has coach Sean Payton lurking over it.
“That learning curve is not necessarily linear. It’s not all paved highway,” Broncos’ radio broadcaster Dave Logan told The Post. “There’s some bumpy, dirty country roads that you find your team on, and if you’re a young, inexperienced, first-time play-caller, well then everybody looks to you.”
Webb is one of seven first-time play-callers in the NFL this season. The Post spoke with more than a dozen people, including Webb’s former teammates, multiple NFL and college offensive coordinators, and current and former Broncos players, to assess his readiness for the role.
Several people told The Post that the 31-year-old offensive coordinator will certainly experience significant growing pains. Among those concerns: stepping out from under Payton’s thumb, finding a flow as a play-caller and matching plays to his personnel. They also anticipate a quicker on-ramp than other rookie play-callers because of his work ethic and background.
There have been indications of Webb’s prowess through three games. After the Broncos’ offense was outclassed in Week 1 against the Chiefs, there were no seeds of doubt within Denver’s building about Webb’s ability to call plays despite public pressure. He followed with a comeback win over the Jaguars in Week 2. Then, after being shut out in the first half against the Rams, Webb and the Denver offense engineered a 23-point second half.
“He seems to me to have a slow heartbeat, which I think is vital when you’re standing down there and there’s 77,000 people and a huge television audience, and you’re trying to make decisions in a very short period of time on the headset,” Logan said.
Webb has grown from the child who used to tail his father, Matt Webb, at high school football games, into a young man who carried around a booklet of potential plays to run as a freshman at Texas Tech, to an NFL player who would instruct Evan Engram and Brandon Marshall where to be on routes as a first-year player and finally into an offensive coordinator at 31. It’s been a meteoric rise for “JD Webb”, as his former teammates at Texas Tech would call the Texas native, one that plenty of people said they saw coming.
“I have never been around a young man that was that consumed by it,” Kingsbury told The Denver Post.
‘Destined for greatness’
Webb’s work habits were apparent almost immediately after enrolling early at Texas Tech in 2013. Kingsbury said coaches would have to kick him out of the facility after it closed. Webb was one of the team’s heaviest lifters despite being a quarterback, former Red Raiders wide receiver Bradley Marquez told The Post. His teammates noticed, Kingsbury said, which earned him some “street cred.”
That reputation soon turned into a nickname. Grant started calling him ‘JD Webb’ a playful reworking of his name.
In Webb’s first season, he alternated between backing up Baker Mayfield and starting. Despite being a freshman, Webb would walk into Kingsbury’s office and tell him what plays he liked for that week. He’d tell wide receivers when he thought their splits were wrong or how to set a protection.
Former Texas Tech graduate assistant Zach Kittley, now the head coach at Florida Atlantic, said Webb was an extension of the Red Raiders’ coaching staff.
“He could be tough on you as well because he was a demanding type of teammate,” Kittley told The Post.
Throughout their time together in Lubbock, Webb, Marquez and Grant played for a young staff under Kingsbury. The team admired the coaches, Marquez said. They would watch them lift weights together, play in pickup basketball games and other activities.
Webb shared a house with Marquez and running back Kenny Williams. The trio would sit in their living room and talk about becoming a future staff in the same mold as Kingsbury’s. They never debated who the head coach would be. That title was reserved for Webb.
“Davis, you’re gonna go get the job, and you’re gonna hire all of us,” Marquez would say. “You’re gonna be the one to do it and bring us all back together.”
And while that hasn’t panned out yet — Marquez joked he’s waiting on an offer if Webb gets a head coaching job — everybody who worked with Webb seemed to see coaching in his future.
“He’s going to be a head coach,” Grant told The Post. “You could tell from the start he was destined for greatness.”
Kingsbury agreed.
“We all knew.”
A quick rise
It wasn’t all roses for Webb in Lubbock. He was benched in 2014 for freshman Patrick Mahomes and sat behind the two-time NFL MVP his entire junior year. Webb transferred to California in 2016, with the sole intention of getting to the NFL. He had “no interest” in the college lifestyle, Spavital said.
Webb played well in his only season at Berkeley, setting the school’s single-season records for passing attempts and completions. The quarterback got so comfortable in Spavital’s system that he’d start correcting play-calls mid-huddle, Spavital said. Quarterbacks typically wear a wristband with a list of play calls. Webb’s had specific notes on them about various plays.
“The attention to detail is just so over the top,” Spavital said.
The New York Giants drafted Webb with the 87th pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. He never became a starter, playing in just two games over his six-year NFL career. He sat on the bench and wore the headset on Sundays, assisting quarterbacks like Josh Allen, Eli Manning, Sam Darnold and others throughout the week. Plummer said that experience paid dividends as he transitioned to the sidelines.
Tony Racioppi, Webb’s private quarterback coach for most of his career, said he could tell from the start of working with Webb that he was interested in coaching. When Racioppi would bring college quarterbacks to his training facility in New Jersey, Webb would voluntarily jump in and offer pointers to the younger players. During Spavital’s time as head coach at Texas State, he invited Webb to come speak to Spavital and the team. Webb arrived with dozens of play calls and call sheets from Spavital’s previous seasons.
“I’ve worked with over 60 NFL quarterbacks, 10 starters. I think (Webb’s) brain is as good as any I’ve ever had,” Racioppi said.
Near the conclusion of Webb’s career, he had the option to continue playing as a backup. But when Payton called about becoming the Broncos’ quarterbacks coach, Kingsbury told him the opportunity was “too good to pass up.”
Webb spent three years working with Russell Wilson, Bo Nix and the rest of the Broncos’ quarterback room. After Nix was drafted in 2023, Webb flew on a private jet to meet the franchise’s new signal caller. Webb and Nix developed an extremely close relationship, an essential element to a new play-caller’s success, several people told The Post.
“They’ve already been through a lot together, so now they’re just going to be a different label but the same people,” Plummer said.
This offseason, Payton shocked the football world by announcing that Webb would become the team’s new offensive coordinator. Not only that, but he would be relinquishing play-calling duties to a newbie. Even Webb’s inner circle was a little astonished.
“It was more a surprise that it was under Sean Payton’s staff that he was able to start calling plays. I think that was more the surprise,” Marquez said. “I think he could have been calling plays a year or two ago under some other coaching staffs.”
It took Webb just three years of coaching to become an offensive coordinator in the NFL. Decades ago, that would have been almost unheard of. Today, it’s much more common. Teams hired 17 new offensive coordinators this offseason, including seven first-time play-callers.
Through three games, the Broncos, Ravens, Eagles, Commanders, Falcons, Panthers and Seahawks (all teams with first-time play-callers) have averaged a combined 23.67 points per game. That’s almost a point a game higher than the NFL average. Grant said Webb’s trajectory could mirror another young offensive mind: Bears coach Ben Johnson.
“He wouldn’t be doing it if Sean didn’t think he can do it,” former Broncos quarterback Bubby Brister told The Post.
Maybe experience is overvalued. Or maybe, as Kyle Shanahan put it, play-calling duties are overrated.
An ‘overrated’ element?
Plummer played for an experienced offensive coaching staff in Denver. Gary Kubiak was in his ninth season as offensive coordinator under Mike Shanahan in 2003 when Plummer signed with the Broncos. The quarterback tended to play outside Shanahan’s system, which occasionally frustrated the coach. Kubiak served as a “buffer” between Plummer and the “mad scientist offensive brilliancy” in Shanahan.
“Sometimes it would get caught in the middle with Kubiak and it wouldn’t even get to me because he knew it would be too much for me,” Plummer said.
Other times, though, Shanahan would take back control of the play-calling duties.
“Gary didn’t care, I’m sure it maybe made him mad, but he’s like ‘Whatever, if you got better plays to call then go for it’,” Plummer said.
Former Broncos fullback Howard Griffith got an inside look at Shanahan’s brilliance. Before Griffith signed with Denver in 1997, the Broncos often ran a two-running-back system. But Griffith said Shanahan and former running backs coach Bobby Turner wanted to switch to a more powerful backfield, giving him the freedom to block whoever.
The system was detailed and meticulous. Players were asked to turn in a test every Saturday about the game plan for that week, he said. Because the plays were constantly changing, players were never bored.
“Play-calling is a feel. It’s not a system. There’s never been a system that’s not been set up to succeed,” Griffith said to The Post. “To me, the brilliance of play-calling is the time you call the play.”
Kyle Shanahan watched his father and Kubiak master that in Denver. When Kubiak got a head coaching job in Houston and promoted Kyle Shanahan to be his offensive coordinator, the duo underwent the same transformation. Kubiak and Kyle Shanahan would switch off calling plays “a lot,” Shanahan said.
The now-49ers coach has become one of the best play-callers in football, but when asked about the adjustment Webb will undergo in his first season, he downplayed the Broncos’ change.
“I’m sure it’s hard (for Davis Webb), but sometimes I think it’s overrated,” Shanahan said about play-calling duties. “I guarantee, without me knowing, I guarantee Sean’s a big part of all of that on game day and during the week. It’s only been three games, so you can’t really tell yet. I mean, you can see over the course of the year, but sometimes I think that stuff’s made too big a deal about.”
Payton has said he still plays a large role in the Broncos’ offensive operation. Kingsbury said the entire offensive coaching staff spends the week cultivating the game plan and script, making the actual play-calling duties on Sunday less significant than they may appear.
While most people agreed Payton’s influence will certainly factor in, some cautioned against letting that overtake Webb’s mindset.
“He’s just got to take ownership of it and start going and doing it. And it’s hard when you have an offensive-minded head coach, because he’s always going to be there sitting over your shoulder, but you just got to eliminate that,” Plummer said. “If I was Davis Webb, if I could say anything, just act like Sean Payton isn’t even there. You can’t have that be something you’re worried about.”
Logan said he thinks Webb will be “really good,” but the process will take some time. Once he finds the offensive buzzword — a play-caller’s “flow” — things will start to click much easier for the Broncos’ offense, he added. Kittley described the “flow” as knowing what the opposing defensive coordinator is thinking and thinking “he can’t stop what I’m going to call.”
The people close to Webb think that will come sooner rather than later. His history — as a coach’s kid, zealous freshman, backup quarterback, coach in waiting and now offensive coordinator — has prepared him for it.
“He wants to make Sean Payton look like a genius for letting him have the reign,” Marquez said.
The Broncos’ big bet hinges on it.
