What will that be for Denver’s (relatively) newly-minted offensive coordinator and play-caller was, of course, impossible to say from a sunny June practice field at Broncos Park, but if this new arrangement goes the way that Webb, head coach Sean Payton, quarterback Bo Nix and the rest of the Broncos think it will, Webb might be leading an NFL team sooner rather than later.

Not that there was ever much chance of that opportunity arising in Denver given the way Payton’s built a winner and title contender on the Front Range, but any notion of Webb succeeding Payton here — at least before leaving to go elsewhere — essentially rode the breeze West on Thursday when Payton agreed to a new five-year contract and said he plans to keep coaching for quite a while still.

“I’ve got a lot of juice left,” the 62-year-old head man said.

Five years in Webb Years is an eternity.

Five years ago, he was still turning down coaching job offers. It was between the 2021 and 2022 seasons that he told former Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott he wasn’t ready to be Josh Allen’s quarterbacks coach because he wanted one more shot at playing.

Since then, Webb’s autumns have looked like this:

2022: Back-up quarterback for the New York Giants

2023: Quarterbacks coach for the Broncos and Russell Wilson

2024: Quarterbacks coach for the Broncos and Bo Nix

2025: QB coach and passing game coordinator for the Broncos and Nix

Now he’s been promoted again to offensive coordinator and is taking over primary play-calling duties for Payton.

Five years from now, Webb could be any number of places doing any number of things, but perhaps the biggest surprise of all would be if he’s the offensive coordinator and play-caller for the Broncos. Heck, he nearly landed a head coaching job already this past winter when interviewing in, among other places, Buffalo and Las Vegas.

Had any of that or his future in Denver crossed his mind when he heard Payton signed a new deal?

The big Texan laughed a bit and smiled at the question Thursday.

“Nah, I’ve got a lot going on,” Webb said. “I like this, though. I like this new role.”

If there’s a person in the Broncos building that thinks Webb will be anything other than a smashing success calling plays, they’re hiding it well. The terms that get thrown around are the kind that come to mind when it����ap hard to put your finger on just what the thing is. Genius, mad scientist, savant, so on and so forth.

A veteran defensive player popped his head out of the building during rookie minicamp last month, surveyed the scene and immediately marveled about Webb.

Maybe that����ap how it will go. Webb will help the Broncos offense find a spark, continue his rocket ship trajectory and become the next whiz kid leading a team somewhere else next year.

It����ap not always a smooth ride, though.

Four guys got their first chance at calling plays last year around the league. Three of them got fired, while Nick Caley is back in the saddle in Houston.

Of course, every situation is different. The New York Jets never really stood a chance and, by extension, neither did offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand. Kevin Patullo waited for his chance in Philadelphia and flopped. Josh Grizzard perhaps thought he’d follow in the footsteps of Dave Canales (2023) and Liam Cohen (2024) in Tampa Bay, but instead got fired.

Canales and Cohen turned calling plays into head coaching gigs and now are defending division champions in Carolina and Jacksonville. That can happen. So can the unemployment line.

Webb, for his part, seems to know it����ap not easy.

“The most attractive thing was leaning on Sean,” he said about the job. “Being in gameplan meetings with him. Using his experience. I think that����ap going to benefit a young play-caller. I’m not dumb. I know this is a lot.”

He also knows it won’t come without criticism and second-guessing. That will be loudest from fans after a bad game and most cutting if it comes from Payton the way Payton’s described it coming from his mentor, Bill Parcells.

All of that — the talent, the youth, the reverence from others, the relationship with quarterback Bo Nix, the future prospects and the trust from Payton — makes Webb the most interesting man on the field for the Broncos.

His impact and imprint on Denver’s fortunes this fall will be difficult to measure until the regular season begins because Payton’s always had his coordinators call plays during camp practices and he’s regularly handed the duty off during preseason games, too, including to Webb for one last summer.

He knows the first defensive coordinator out of the chute this fall: His former interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo and the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Spags could do whatever he wants to do,” Webb said. … “That will be a fun one.”

What comes after that is uncertain, for the Broncos in 2026 and for Webb down the road a bit further in what����ap been a rapidly accelerating career.

This much feels obvious, though: It����ap going to be a compelling ride.

Head-coaching buzz around 31-year-old quarterbacks coach Davis Webb had risen from sneaky whispers to verbal conversations in late January, and Denver had no obvious other options than to promote a hot commodity or risk him walking out of the building. So Payton — around the time Webb had interviews with Buffalo, Baltimore and Las Vegas for head coach vacancies — a source told The Post — floated the concept of play-calling duties to him. Webb had separate conversations with general manager George Paton and owner Greg Penner, too.

And once that concept became real, there was no other decision to be made, as Webb told reporters Thursday.

“I didn’t really know what the situation was going to be for me,” Webb said. “But, I mean, I pretty much signed immediately whenever they offered that.”

The question, as Webb himself outlined there: What, exactly, did he sign up for?

Even as he’s publicly inherited play-calling duties from Payton, Webb made clear to reporters Thursday that Denver is still operating under Payton’s offensive philosophy. Through OTAs, Webb has run the unit through practice similar to how previous offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi did in previous years. And Denver’s offensive style hasn’t looked markedly different through OTAs than it did in 2025, when the Broncos ran sizeable doses of screen and mesh concepts.

In his first offseason media availability Thursday, though, Webb offered a few glints as to how the Broncos’ attack will eventually function differently — and made clear he feels ready for the pressure of becoming the new face of Payton’s offense in Denver.

“Yeah, I think so,” Webb said, when asked if he feels he has thick enough skin to handle play-calling duties. “My dad was a coach for a long time, so I heard that. I was a backup QB for a while. Everybody likes the backup. It just, it is what it is. That kinda comes with it.

“Our whole deal is, ‘Let����ap score some points, let����ap have some fun, let����ap have a different attitude on offense. Let����ap get up with some excitement, celebrate with your teammates, no dumb penalties. And let����ap just play clean football.'”

Between the lines, those comments clearly pointed to a fatal flaw in Denver’s offense last season: operational speed. Webb largely played the wait-and-see card when asked how his own offensive ideals would fit into Payton’s scheme, noting that the Los Angeles Rams — as an example — decided to move to heavier personnel groupings midway through last season. But Payton himself acknowledged in February that a reason for passing off play-calling was “being quicker,” as the Broncos’ 14th-ranked offense alternated between pockets of up-tempo flow and sluggish starts amid constantly rotating personnel groupings.

On multiple occasions in 2025, quarterback Bo Nix became visibly frustrated with Payton for not getting play calls from the sideline fast enough. That’s been an early emphasis of Webb’s planning in Denver, through OTAs.

“Right now, we’re just teaching the installations and making sure we get the bad football out of our system,” Webb said Thursday. “Break the huddle efficiently, get to the ball fast, and allow the QB to see the game.”

That can play to the benefit of the Broncos’ franchise quarterback, on simple precedent. Nix’s efficiency took a leap in both yards-per-attempt and quarterback rating in no-huddle looks in 2025, a situational comfort that’s played out since he began his collegiate days at Auburn.

In perhaps the worst year of Nix’s football life — a disjointed 2021 season at Auburn — Nix simply didn’t respect then-head coach Bryan Harsin and his offensive system “at all,” as former Auburn offensive analyst Kendall Simmons recounted to The Post. The saving grace in a 6-7 season came when Nix could simply see the defense and react without a play call in late-clock situations.

“You (could) just see the frustration on a normal play-call of, ‘OK, why are we calling this? Because the defense keeps presenting X to us, and we’re going all the way back to A, and it����ap not working,'” Simmons recalled. “And so when we went up-tempo and Bo could go with himself, you can see the confidence. And I almost felt like we should’ve done more of it, instead of calling plays — we should’ve done more up-tempo, and letting him get the feel and call things out.”

The same realization appears set to play out in Denver in 2026, in a much more stable situation. And Webb, now, will have a new toy to play with in receiver Jaylen Waddle, who has the physical tools to win matchups faster than any receiver Nix has had in two seasons in Denver.

“He’s good,” Webb deadpanned when asked about utilizing Waddle.

In 2020, Webb was a backup quarterback with Buffalo when the Bills traded for Stefon Diggs as a new weapon for a rising Josh Allen. Allen, in his subsequent third NFL season, promptly earned an All-Pro nod and a second-place MVP finish. And Webb drew a connection between the Allen-Diggs pairing and Nix’s partnership with Waddle in Denver’s offense — as Nix readies for his third season, himself.

“There’s some similarities of what����ap starting to happen here,” Webb said. “Doesn’t mean it����ap going to. We got a long way to go. But man, he’s good. And I’ve just enjoyed the person, and just watching him work. He is a blessing to be around. He is a multiplier. He is a thermostat.”

The heat, with Denver swinging on Waddle amid Super Bowl aspirations, has been turned up on Webb. He is no longer an idea, a hotshot offensive mind hidden behind a play-sheet; he is a reality, one of the most important figures in this Broncos offseason. And he’ll be directing traffic that’s still operating on Payton’s grid system, as the 62-year-old head coach just signed a new five-year contract Thursday and can yank back play-calling duties with one fell swoop.

But Webb said Thursday the “most attractive thing” about staying in Denver, ultimately, was leaning on Payton.

“I trust him, he trusts me, we think very similar,” Webb said. “I know how he wants the game to be played. It����ap the same offense for the most part. There’s some little tweaks here and there.

“But this is a Sean Payton-coached football team.”

The Broncos are hosting the Buffalo Bills on Christmas Day at Empower Field, multiple sources confirmed to The Post.

The game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. and will stream on Netflix.

The game is a rematch almost exactly 11 months after Denver’s 33-30 overtime AFC Divisional round win against the Bills on Jan. 24. That night, of course, Sean Payton’s team advanced to the AFC Championship Game but also learned shortly afterward that quarterback Bo Nix had fractured his ankle and needed season-ending surgery.

The Broncos’ overtime win included several other signature postseason moments. Nix threw a touchdown to receiver Marvin Mims Jr. with less than a minute to play in regulation to take a 30-27 lead before Allen led a last-second field goal drive. Then, in overtime, Allen looked poised to position the Bills for a win when he arced a deep throw down the middle. Broncos nickel Ja’Quan McMillian, however, wrestled the ball away from Buffalo receiver Brandin Cooks in the air and made one of the most memorable defensive plays in Denver playoff history.

“You’ll go 5-10 years without seeing a turnover like that,” Payton marveled after the game. “It was a tremendous play.”

The game is also an indication of the regard league officials have for Payton, Nix and the Broncos. It is the second known primetime game on Denver’s schedule. There are likely multiple more to come when the NFL unveils its entire slate at 6 p.m.

It’s the second straight year the Broncos have played on Christmas. Last year, they dispatched the short-handed Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium and positioned themselves to capture the AFC West and the AFC’s top overall seed.

This year, Denver opens its regular season at Arrowhead Stadium Sept. 14 on Monday Night Football.

They are the hunted. The reigning AFC West division champions and last year’s No. 1 seed in the conference.

They carry heavy expectations after coming just one win short of the Super Bowl.

They also already know they will play a rugged schedule, though the sequencing will not be fully unveiled until 6 p.m. Thursday.

What fun is waiting, though?

We know the opponents and the locations. We know how the story begins now that ESPN has announced the Broncos will open the season at Kansas City on Monday Night Football, a Sept. 14 capper to Week 1 in the NFL.

We don’t know the rest, but we are here to guess. It����ap time for The Post����ap most meaningless time-honored tradition where Broncos beat reporters Parker Gabriel and Luca Evans guess the schedule.

It says here that Gabriel nailed the Week 16-18 stretch last year of vs. Jacksonville, at Kansas City and vs. the L.A. Chargers — though the Chiefs date was announced ahead of time.

Good luck getting anything right beyond the opener this year, let alone three in a row.

Gabriel’s schedule prediction

Week 1: at Kansas City (Monday Night Football)

Mark it down. One for one. ESPN will hit a home run with this one as long as Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is on the field after tearing his ACL and LCL in December. If not, it����ap a mega advantage for the Broncos.

Week 2: vs. Miami

We know this game won’t be Buffalo (opening its new stadium Thursday night of Week 2) or the Chiefs. So, guessing should be easy, right? Well, not so much. Non-division home game feels right after the Broncos open on the road against K.C. The Jaylen Waddle Bowl arrives early.

Week 3: vs. Las Vegas

This would represent a chance for a hot start. The Broncos have to take advantage, given their overall rugged schedule.

Week 4: at New England (Sunday Night Football)

The rematch of the AFC Championship game arrives early and in prime time. Bo Nix and Drake Maye were in the same draft class, are friends and hung out at The Masters together this spring. Now they get their first matchup.

Week 5: at Carolina

The NFL gives head coach Sean Payton what he wants, putting two of Denver’s four East Coast road games back-to-back. Now the only question: A week at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, or somewhere else? Just a free thought, Sean: How about IMG Academy on Florida’s Gulf Coast, instead?

Week 6: L.A. Rams (Thursday Night Football)

A short week into a matchup between Sean Payton and Sean McVay. It would be almost a shame to get a matchup this good on Thursday night, but, hey. Dollars for the billionaires.

Week 7: at Arizona

Week 8: Buffalo

A midseason rematch of January’s AFC Divisional round classic. This time, if things are going well for the Broncos, there is no lurking ankle issue for Nix.

Week 9: at San Francisco

Week 10: Bye

Week 11: at Las Vegas

Week 12: at L.A. Chargers (Black Friday)

The Broncos, somehow, someway, are going to end up part of the NFL’s holiday scheduling. It feels inevitable. So, why not try something novel and slot them at SoFi — home of a Valentine’s Day Super Bowl, come to think of it — on Black Friday.

Week 13: Seattle (Sunday Night Football)

What a year for the AFC West and NFC West to square off. The reigning Super Bowl champs come to town in early December for what should be a terrific matchup. And a big, ol’ what-if for ����apountry given how close Denver was last year.

Week 14: at New York Jets

Week 15: Jacksonville

Big matchup, small market.

Week 16: L.A. Chargers

Week 17: at Pittsburgh

The final of four East Coast road games for Denver and one with potential postseason implications — especially if Aaron Rodgers A) actually signs with the Steelers as expected and B) is still upright as we ring in 2027.

Week 18: Kansas City

Why not? The Chiefs get the opener and the Broncos get the closer. Let this happen and let it be heads up for the division. Please and thank you.

Evans’ schedule prediction

Week 1: at Kansas City Chiefs (Monday Night Football)

Starting off with a bang. This one was cemented on Tuesday, and on the surface, kicking off the season at Arrowhead sounds less-than-ideal. But Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes is still somewhat up in the air for the start of the season after a late-season ACL tear in 2025, giving Denver a chance to see Mahomes with some rust and avoid this matchup later in the year.

Week 2: Miami Dolphins

The Jaylen Waddle revenge game. Is it revenge if Miami’s entire regime is different, with new head coach Jeff Hafley and new general manager Jon Eric-Sullivan? Not really. Still, an exciting early-season matchup with some extra motivation for the Broncos’ newest offensive weapon.

Week 3: at Carolina Panthers

Week 4: at Pittsburgh Steelers

Let����ap just copy-paste the 2024 East Coast trip here for funsies, when the Broncos just stayed on the other side of the country in between a Week 3 trip to Tampa Bay and a Week 4 trip to New York. That was this Broncos’ regime’s first introduction to Sean Payton’s beloved Greenbrier Resort, and the schedule could align again to give this Denver team another week of practicing and bonding up in West Virginia. The Greenbrier lies almost exactly in the middle between Charlotte and Pittsburgh. It����ap too perfect not to happen.

Week 5: Bye

Yes, this is early in the year. But Denver has learned its lesson from last season, when the Broncos didn’t call for a bye after an early-season gauntlet: a Week 5 trip to Philadelphia, an immediate trip to London to play the Jets, and no bye before a trip home to play the Giants. The Broncos started off brutally sluggish in that famous Week 7 game, before exploding for a franchise-record 33 fourth-quarter points. Here, they target an off week after the East Coast trip.

Week 6: Jacksonville Jaguars

Hop right out of a bye and right into a brutal matchup. Jacksonville played Denver as well as any team in the regular season last year, and snapped an 11-game win streak with a 34-20 win over the Broncos in December 2025.

Week 7: at Arizona Cardinals

A midseason reunion with Nathaniel Hackett, now Arizona’s offensive coordinator.

Week 8: Buffalo Bills (Sunday Night Football)

Of course, the league will want to platform the rematch of one of last year’s great playoff duels between Bo Nix and Josh Allen. How about a little late-October primetime action? This matchup becomes even more juicy in 2026, with former Broncos defensive staffer Jim Leonhard now in Buffalo as the Bills’ defensive coordinator and dueling with new Broncos play-caller Davis Webb, a former Bills backup quarterback.

Week 9: at New York Jets

Week 10: at San Francisco 49ers (Sunday Night Football)

This intra-conference clash seems primed for primetime treatment — and not on a Thursday night, when a short week of practice could stunt the potential offensive chess match between Sean Payton and Kyle Shanahan.

Week 11: Los Angeles Chargers

Week 12: Seattle Seahawks (Thanksgiving, Thursday Night Football)

Let����ap set up a sheer defensive slugfest on a holiday. No way either Denver’s or Seattle’s offenses are at full operating power here. That’ll set the stage for the No. 1 defense in 2025 (Seahawks) and No. 3 defense to muck it up.

Week 13: at Las Vegas Raiders

Week 14: Kansas City Chiefs

Back-to-back AFC West slate here, as the divisional standings get tight late in the season. The Chiefs’ home matchup later in the year is considerably more favorable than a November or December trip to Arrowhead.

Week 15: Los Angeles Rams

Week 16: at Los Angeles Chargers

Back-to-back Los Angeles matchups, in two different settings. Rams-Broncos should be a dynamic showcase of offensive weaponry, and this Chargers Week 16 showcase could shift the entire tide on divisional standings.

Week 17: at New England (Christmas)

The NFL will want this AFC Championship rematch on the grandest stage possible. What better than Christmas? Nix and Drake Maye finally square off in a matchup that could have massive conference-seeding implications, and could feature a blizzard in Foxborough instead of a blizzard in Denver this time around.

Week 18: Las Vegas Raiders

“To me, personally, it speaks about the rich getting richer, and (everyone else) has to absorb the cost of everything,” Hayes sighed when I reached her by phone on Monday. “Honestly, I don’t know how you get around that.”

Mary is a Josh Allen gal in Bo Nix territory, a Bills Mafia transplant, a Rochester, N.Y., native who’s lived in Boulder County for eight or nine years now. When she hears talk about the Burnham Yard stadium site and the Walton-Penner Group, or when folks start whispering about “Personal Seat Licenses,” or PSLs, in Denver, she circles back to her ex-father-in-law.

Almost every adult Broncomaniac has met somebody like Mike from upstate New York at some point. He had Bills season tickets for five decades. He was a combat veteran who served in Vietnam, was awarded a Purple Heart, and became a true Don of Bills Mafia. Now in his 70s, Mike recently elected to give up his tickets rather than pony up for a PSL — a fee paid by customers of some NFL franchises to gain the right to purchase season tickets. In essence, it’s a cover charge for a cover charge.

Major pro franchises that agree to foot the bill for privately financed stadiums these days often seek to defray at least some of those costs by adding PSL fees to their customers’ bills. The Walton-Penner Group is working on a privately financed stadium and entertainment district for the Burnham Yard area near I-25, with an estimated $4 billion price tag. It’s not hard to do the math on the possibility of PSLs landing here.

The Bills announced last December that it had sold out its PSLs — reportedly more than 53,000 —  The average annual cost of a PSL at its new Highmark Stadium ranged from a reported $750 to $50,000 per seat, depending on location. Just to give you a ballpark figure, literally, of what might be coming down the pike for ����apountry. And why she thinks of Mike.

“And those are the people who are behind the scenes, with personal stories,” Hayes continued. “Growing up a Bills fan, to me, that was all about family. I remember watching games with my dad on the couch on Sunday afternoons. And him taking us to games that we could afford … it’s just become this thing, now, where that (tradition) is getting lost in everything. To me, that’s the heart of being a Bills fan or a Broncos fan, is generational memories. And its connection.

“Those were the people that want it and need it the most, that are struggling to make ends meet every day. And now you’re taking away the one thing that they look forward to year-round.”

That one thing — the Broncos — is more than a line item on a tax return. It’s fathers and daughters, mothers and sons. It’s woven into the fabric, baked in the blood. It’s passed on, like a grandfather clock, from generation to generation.

“But we’re winning now,” chuckled Lori Hosmer of Rochester, N.Y., child of two massive Bills fans “We have to pay up. If you want Josh Allen, you’ve got to pay Josh Allen. If you want James Cook, you’ve got to pay James Cook.”

The Bills are not a perfect comp, granted. For one thing, the new Highmark is jointly funded by public and private sources, with at least $850 million coming from New York taxpayers. For another, the Bills’ home upgrade is estimated to feature about 10,000 fewer seats (62,000) than the current version’s reported 71,608. Empower Field features a capacity of 76,125 for football.

But in terms of passion, devotion, organization, loyalty, national presence and a blue-collar ethos, ����apountry and the Mafia are cousins cut from the same AFL cloth. And the ones in upstate New York have some advice for Denverites on the fabric of PSL life:

1. Do your homework

If you treat PSLs sales like Black Friday at Walmart and storm through the doors at midnight, you might get your bank account trampled, Hosmer noted. Have a plan.

“Understand what your budget is before you walk in, so you don’t get excited about the hype,” she said. “Your experience depends on who your rep is … we had some (fans) who felt very pressured (initially).”

Hosmer’s old seats were above one of the Bills’ tunnel entrances, but that section wasn’t offered to her in the new Highmark.

“It’s a very good idea to have written down what you can actually want to afford and what you can afford, and what you actually want to spend on (seats),” Hosmer said, “before going forward. It’s a big commitment. It’s easy to get caught up in that (sales pitch).

“Our rep said, ‘Guys, no pressure, but all these other people are going to have a chance to (have these seats) the next couple weeks, I’m not sure where you’ll land.'”

2. Be patient and prepared to change seats

Hosmer described the PSL selection and confirmation process as “very long” and “very confusing, because you had no idea when you’d be called … that was just an odd thing.”

Another layer of odd? Her PSL ‘rep’ was not the same person as her season-ticket rep.

“My understanding is that every team does it how they want to do it,” she stressed, “but (Buffalo) was not based on seniority, because seniority didn’t matter. People spending the most money got first dibs. That makes sense. It’s a business.”

While preaching patience, Hosmer also would advise Broncos fans to “be prepared to change seats.”

“Someone who was sitting next to me (for years) was like, ‘I’m not paying $2,500, I’m not paying $3,000 (for this),’ so he ended up in a different (section),” she said. “He said, ‘I wanted to be in the new stadium, but it was too much of a (financial) ask. It was just too much.'”

3. Brace for sticker shock

Hosmer’s end-zone seats cost $450 a head in 2010. The ones she’ll be getting this fall landed at $1,895 — and that’s before parking.

“If (a Broncos fan) is not sure (about a purchase), you make sure you find out before you sign any paperwork,” she said. “People in our group were really mad to find out afterwards, after we signed our (contract), that the Bills were actually going to go in and out at the end of the half and at the end of the game by their bench and not by (the end zone).”

The community hand-wringing picked up when the Bills began charging $8,000-$50,000 annually per patron on PSLs for club seats. Late last year, Bills ownership introduced a $1,000 PSL cost for an upper-deck seat, and some higher-up end zone seats were offered at a three-figure level — $500-750 per patron.

In all cases, Hosmer said, financing options were made available, “so it’s not killer .. you have to have a credit card, you have to put down a deposit.”

She recalled being offered a six-year plan to pay off her PSL at an interest rate of around 8.7%. Hosmer was also told she couldn’t sell her PSLs until at least a year after its purchase, and that there were restrictions as to how those licenses could be resold, and to whom.

“I’ve heard fans complain about the (lack of stadium giveaways and bobbleheads) here,” she said, “and I’m like, ‘You don’t get that, but you get Victory Mondays.’ Take your pick. Do you want cheap sunglasses, or do you want AFC Championships? I know what I’m choosing. Every time.”

When general manager George Paton met the media on Monday at the NFL owners meetings, he provided an interesting nugget about Nix and the acquisition of receiver Jaylen Waddle.

“I wasn’t with him when he found out, but he was pretty excited when I walked down to the training room. He obviously went to dinner with all of us. I think Bo thinks he is a quasi-GM sometimes,” Paton said. “Sometimes he is right, and sometimes he is wrong, but I think he’s right on this guy. This guy is pretty special.”

So, too, is Nix. The Broncos know this. A transition is happening right before our eyes. Nix’s stature in the organization is growing, a testament to his maturity and remarkable first two seasons.

Reticent to question anything from coach Sean Payton as a rookie, Nix began voicing his opinion about preferring uptempo last season. He also has no issue screaming at Payton over slow substitutions, something that played out on a weekly basis.

And the offseason has only amplified his gravitas.

He cemented every belief about his character by the way he tackled his ankle rehab, and showed his growth by speaking up about Waddle. Write it off as him having a strong opinion because he played against the receiver at Alabama in the Iron Bowl if you must.

In my belief, there is more to it than that.

Folks in charge want to know what Nix thinks. And we would be foolish to believe that Nix did not welcome Davis Webb’s promotion to offensive coordinator with anything but open arms. He became close to Webb over his first two seasons, his development progressing rapidly under the quarterback coach.

Webb had leverage this offseason as a hot head coaching candidate. There was no reason for him to stay without being given some play-calling duties. Payton reluctantly relinquished the role — don’t blame him, since he remains good at dialing up gems. And in case you didn’t hear, it was — all together now — his decision.

But there is no way this change happens without Payton, Paton or owner Greg Penner — or some combination thereof — having a conversation with Nix.

This is how the NFL works. As a rookie, it was Nix’s time. Last season, it was his team. In his third season, he will become the face of the Broncos, a role filled by Payton since 2023, as he navigated a hairpin U-turn.

Nix should be coming off a third straight playoff berth and in line for a $50 to $60-million a year contract. That kind of deal comes with perks, spoken or not.

We have seen this evolution with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. They were all rookies once. Now, you can’t mention their team without thinking of them.

Nix is quickly ascending into this role. The good news? He gets it. He knows the Spider-Man principle — with great power comes great responsibility.

The star franchise quarterback is the answer to every question. And he is both the excuse and the target of criticism when expectations are not met. It all comes with it, especially when the salary matches a gross national product.

Since being drafted, Nix has passed every test. If he reaches his potential next year with a Super Bowl berth, it will be obvious that he is the fulcrum on which the organization pivots.

Avs sweaters: The Avs are in position to clinch the NHL’s best record. It is not because of a certain sweater. Best line seen on this: The Avs are the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. The Quebec Nordiques are the favorites for the top draft pick. Time to stop wearing the blue jerseys.

Go-Go Rox: Adding Jake McCarthy and Willi Castro has given the Rockies a throttle. They had 10 stolen bases through six games. They posted 87 last season. The Rockies have no plans to stop running. “It’s how we are going to play,” outfielder Mickey Moniak said. Coors Field awards more than power. Nice to see a front office recognize this.

Curry worked as New Orleans’ wide receivers coach from 2018-20 under Payton and then served as the Saints’ quarterbacks coach for Payton’s last year with the club in 2021. He then spent two more years in New Orleans before becoming Josh Allen’s quarterbacks coach in Buffalo for the past two seasons.

In those years, Allen has played some of his best football, including an MVP year in 2024.

Earlier this offseason, Curry interviewed for Denver’s offensive coordinator job, which ultimately went to Davis Webb.

Now he’s returning to Payton’s staff to coach receivers again, this time in Denver.

Payton fired receivers coach Keary Colbert after the season and, though he hasn’t spoken with reporters since that move was made, he outlined disappointment with the manner in which the Broncos’ pass-catchers played during the 2025 season.

“We’ve drafted to (the position) and I like who we’ve drafted to it,” Payton said last month. “Yes, there were too many drops, even down the stretch. The thing with the draft, man, we’ve invested, and I like the players in that room. We’ve got different (skill sets). We have speed, we have size, we have all the things I’m used to and that you’d want to have in a good offense.

“But I think that there’s a proper way to catch a football and most of the time, it’s with your thumbs together. Not the other way around.”

Among the other contenders who drew consideration for the job, a source with knowledge of the situation said, was Broncos offensive quality control coach Favian Upshaw, a young coach whom Payton and Denver are high on.

Payton also appears likely to find a place on his staff for John Morton, who served in 2023-24 as passing game coordinator before leaving to be Detroit����ap offensive coordinator last year. He was fired in January and then did some consulting work with the Broncos during their postseason run.

Denver and New England’s whiteout matchup in the AFC Championship in 2025, though, brought back several degrees of recent history. Back to the days of Brady, and Peyton Manning, and the last time the stands at Empower Field rocked as loudly as they did this winter. Back to a Broncos group that knew quite well, as ex-Denver running back C.J. Anderson recalled, who they’d have to go through in the AFC to get to a Lombardi Trophy.

“It����ap interesting to see like — it����ap them two at the top of the apex,” Anderson told The Denver Post this week. “I think for us, it was like, we knew that we were going to run into Ben (Roethlisberger). Or we were going to run into Brady.”

History has repeated itself, a decade later. These Broncos have thrust their Super Bowl window wide open after a 2025 season where they came three points and a blizzard away from a trip to the Super Bowl last Sunday. They built a team to climb over the Chiefs and the Patrick Mahomes hump. They built a team to climb over the Bills and the Josh Allen hump.

Now, though, they’ll have to build for a future where they can topple the Patriots, a similarly young team that also employs a culture-changing head coach and a second-year quarterback still on his rookie deal.

“Denver’s a great team,” Patriots receiver Trent Sherfield said, sitting at his locker Sunday after New England’s loss to Seattle in the Super Bowl. “This team’s a great team. Like, you’re in the first year of a rebuild, and you get to the Super Bowl.”

“So,” Sherfield continued, “it’s gon’ be real competitive.”

Sherfield, of course, saw both franchises’ ascent firsthand in 2025, after spending half the year as the Broncos’ fifth wide receiver and the end of the season on New England’s practice squad. He sees a future where Denver and New England — who both went 14-3 in 2025 — will have to go through each other, once again. And where quarterbacks Bo Nix and Drake Maye go head-to-head across the future playoff runs.

“I think Bo’s arm talent, being able to run the ball, extend plays, turn a bad play into a good one — I think they have a lot in common,” Sherfield said. “I feel like that����ap gonna be, probably, an AFC Championship for a couple of years. Kinda like how Patrick Mahomes is always in it.I think that those two will be going at each other for a long time.”

Of course, the two quarterbacks have yet to actually face off in their NFL careers, after Nix’s fractured ankle heard ’round the world. And several Broncos made it quite publicly known that they believed they should’ve been in the Bay Area if a couple of factors had broken differently, as the Seahawks  dominated the Patriots from kickoff to triple zeroes in a 29-13 win.

“This game is making me even more sick to my stomach that we lost,” safety P.J. Locke . “‘Cry me a river?’ Yes I am! Lol.”

Maye struggled mightily throughout the Patriots’ playoff run after an MVP runner-up regular season, posting an expected-points-added mark of -41.2 in the postseason — worst of any playoff quarterback, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Still, New England enters the offseason with just six players set to hit unrestricted free agency and an enviable $41 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap. Several key pieces beyond Maye, like left tackle Will Campbell and cornerback Christian Gonzalez, are also still on rookie deals.

For years, in general manager George Paton’s five-year Broncos tenure, Denver has structured its rebuild in part around toppling the Chiefs and Mahomes in the AFC West. The Broncos’ wild-card loss to the Bills and Allen in 2024, meanwhile, served as a direct wake-up call for areas of roster need.

Count New England and Maye, now, as the next conference foe that Denver will have to account for across the next few months.

“I would say that the league is in good hands,” Sherfield said.

Head coach Sean Payton officially hired Webb as Denver’s next offensive coordinator, the team announced Monday afternoon. The move comes less than a week after Payton fired offensive coordinator and longtime loyalist Joe Lombardi, setting in motion an offseason of offensive staff changes.

Denver also promoted offensive quality control coach Logan Kilgore to quarterbacks coach.

For weeks, it seemed Webb could have been heading for new pastures. The fast-rising Broncos quarterbacks coach was connected to the Las Vegas Raiders’ head-coaching job since Denver’s playoff bye week in early January, and emerged as a finalist this past week after meeting with them in person Jan. 26. Broncos second-year quarterback Bo Nix even acknowledged as much in an end-of-season conference call with reporters Wednesday.

“I think highly of him,” Nix said on Wednesday. “I know he’s a really good football coach. And I know he’s got a lot in store for him in the future — don’t know what it looks like, a lot of speculation. You never know until it happens.

“But for him, say he was a head coach in the division, I’d enjoy beating his butt two times a year.”

That’s no longer a concern, as the 31-year-old Webb will continue to work hand-in-hand with Nix in Denver. And Webb’s promotion hints he could take over play-calling duties, which would stand as an unprecedented move in Payton’s 18-year career since being named the head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2006.

A source with knowledge of the situation told The Denver Post that there’s nothing in Webb’s OC deal that stipulates he’ll take over play-calling duties from Payton, and staff haven’t made a concrete decision if he’ll actually assume that role. But Webb had standing interest from the New York Giants, Baltimore and Philadelphia for their respective offensive-coordinator positions and play-calling duties, leaving little reason he’d stay on the Broncos’ staff for a simple title change.

When asked about Las Vegas’s interest in Webb last week, too, Nix discussed Denver having a “play-caller” — but didn’t specifically mention Payton.

“I know everything is all going to work out,” Nix said on Wednesday. “The season’s going to get here. We’re going to have an OC, we’re going to have a play-caller, we’re going to have our team. And we’re going to go out and try to beat our opponents.

“But just me speaking on him, he’s an awesome coach, going to be an awesome — in whatever role he’s in, he’s going to do great things.”

In October, Payton was asked on a conference call if he’d considered transferring play-calling duties — even for a brief period — to another member of his staff.

“I think we’re comfortable as an offensive staff of how we’re operating,” Payton said.

But after a season of inconsistent offense in Denver (14th in the NFL in points in the regular season), Payton has been particularly introspective in recent weeks. He cautioned himself against getting too conservative as a play-caller before Denver’s divisional win against Buffalo. He immediately allowed for self-second-guessing after a failed fourth-down call in the Broncos’ AFC title-game loss to the Patriots. Payton said Tuesday that “those are the moments you wish you had back,” although he deflected any notion he felt pressure for the call.

“I don’t pay attention to all the criticism,” Payton said. “I think if I paid attention to that, I don’t know that we’d ever be in this position.”

Hours later, though, the first domino fell in an early offseason of rapid staff changes for the Broncos. Payton fired Lombardi on Tuesday, after Lombardi had served for three years as Denver’s offensive coordinator and served under Payton as an assistant for 11 previous years in New Orleans. Payton also fired receivers coach Keary Colbert. Then, on Friday, Pete Carmichael — a senior offensive assistant in Denver who’d been Payton’s offensive coordinator for 12 years in New Orleans — left the Broncos for the Bills’ offensive-coordinator job.

With the Raiders closing in on Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Webb pulled himself out of the running for the Raiders’ head coach job. Denver interviewed Buffalo quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry and Commanders passing-game coordinator Brian Johnson in compliance with the NFL’s Rooney Rule, but were always centered on Webb as a top candidate.

Webb, who has never before called plays in an NFL regular-season game, was hired in 2023 as Payton’s quarterbacks coach immediately after a six-year NFL career as a backup QB. In August, though, he sparked buzz in assuming play-calling duties for the Broncos’ 27-7 preseason win over the Cardinals.

“I had thrown a couple of call sheets or stat sheets from my first time and highlighted a few things and said, ‘See if you can beat this,’” Payton said after that game.

“And he did.”

Webb drew such rave reviews for his work in the Denver quarterbacks room that No. 3 quarterback Sam Ehlinger turned down multiple other contract offers throughout the season in part to continue developing under Webb.

Webb has spent time around a series of terrific quarterbacks and unique offensive minds, from backing up Patrick Mahomes in college at Texas Tech to backing up Eli Manning and Josh Allen in the NFL. He’s learned from Air Raid evangelist Kliff Kingsbury to a West Coast-rooted, old-school program in Payton.

Asked about Webb’s ability to lead a locker room as a head coach, Ehlinger said he recognizes Webb has never coached a bigger group than a quarterback room, but didn’t think leading a larger organization would be an issue.

“Any time you’re the quarterback of a large college program and you also get meaningful snaps with an NFL organization, you’re in a position of leadership whether you like it or not,” Ehlinger said. “So he definitely has experience from a leadership standpoint in a locker room with football players and organizations. As a coach, he’s been leading our room. So he’s developed skills there, too.”

He’ll now experience a dosage of it in Denver as Payton’s OC, Webb’s latest endorsement in a rapid ascent.

Ehlinger said he, like many around the league, is interested to see what Webb’s style as a play-caller looks like in regular season games, whenever that time arrives.

“You kind of have to be in that situation when the pressure is on and the bullets are flying to really develop that signature,” Ehlinger said. “I think he’ll have a unique mix of kind of new-school, Air Raid, attacking style. But also be able to balance the run game with all that he’s learned here from Sean and his experience in Buffalo. I’m curious to see what that becomes.”

Kilgore spent the past three seasons with the Broncos in an offensive quality control role, but Payton and the Broncos have been bullish on his talent. The 35-year-old worked primarily with tight ends and returners in his previous role, but played quarterback in college at Middle Tennessee State. Then he spent an offseason with Payton in New Orleans as an undrafted free agent before getting into coaching. Kilgore was coaching tight ends at Arkansas State when Payton was hired as Denver’s coach in early 2023 and called him to join the staff.

Moving him up from a QC job to being the day-to-day man in front of Nix is a big affirmation from Payton and a major step up for Kilgore.

Kilgore and Webb together are central parts of a revamped, substantially younger offensive meeting room around Payton.

Not Davis Webb, however.

The Bills and new head coach Joe Brady are hiring Denver senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael as offensive coordinator, a source confirmed to The Denver Post on Friday morning.

Carmichael was head coach Sean Payton’s offensive coordinator for nearly his entire tenure in New Orleans and has spent the past two seasons as a senior offensive assistant in Denver.

Brady, who was promoted to head coach Tuesday, spent 2017-18 working as an offensive assistant under Payton and Carmichael in New Orleans before going to LSU for one prolific year and then jumping back to the NFL.

Carmichael is the fourth assistant coach to depart the Broncos’ staff this offseason, receivers coach Keary Colbert and cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch earlier this week.

Perhaps more important, there is an apparent changing of the guard underway on the offensive side of the coaching staff.

Carmichael and Lombardi have a combined 30-plus years of experience working for Payton and have been stalwart presences on his coaching staffs.

Payton’s 20th year as a head coach in 2026 sets up to be the first he’s ever had without either Carmichael or Lombardi on his staff and the sixth without both. Payton has not coached a season with somebody other than Carmichael or Lombardi as his offensive coordinator since 2008.

The veteran head coach could hire familiar people in their places still, but regardless of who ends up in what positions, Payton is going to have a different set of voices around him in the Broncos’ offensive meeting room going forward.

He seemed to be interested or at least willing to entertain that idea after the season as he lamented some of the issues that unit, for which he leads the game planning and calls the plays, had over the course of the 2025 season.

Webb remains a central figure in the picture. He withdrew Thursday from the Las Vegas head coaching process and now will be a popular figure for offensive coordinator openings across football.

As jobs begin to fill — particularly in Buffalo, perhaps, which Webb has called his favorite place he played and where he has a very close relationship with quarterback Josh Allen — the possibility that he returns to Denver and is promoted to offensive coordinator appears to be growing.