Sources: Broncos fire OC after falling short of SB

Just two days after Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton said the team's offense "didn't do enough'' to earn a Super Bowl trip, he fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Tuesday.

With backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham in the lineup for an injured Bo Nix, the Broncos gained just 32 yards in the second half of Sunday's 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, had only one first down after halftime and didn't have a possession in the third or fourth quarters longer than 17 yards.

After the loss, Payton was asked what he would be most critical of in the aftermath, and he said he would start with himself, adding: "I think the big thing, that first half, momentum and field position didn't yield what it needed to yield, we needed more than that. It'll start there.''

Lombardi spent 12 years, over two different stints, on Payton's staff with the New Orleans Saints and had been the Broncos' offensive coordinator since Payton was hired in 2023. Payton, however, is the team's playcaller on game days. As the Broncos' offensive coordinator, Lombardi was in the coaches' booth and among those on the headset with Payton during games, but Payton was the voice in Nix's helmet.

The Broncos sported one of the league's best defenses this season -- No. 1 in sacks and in the red zone in the regular season, second on third down and third in scoring defense and fewest yards surrendered per play overall (4.46). Fueled by that defense, the Broncos also went 11-2 in one-score games in the regular season, the most one-score wins in NFL history, before winning another one-score game, in overtime, over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round.

But Payton had expressed his frustrations about the offense at various times this season, including Sunday night following the loss to the Patriots when the Broncos, as the snow swirled in the second half, made it into Patriots territory just once after halftime only to have a potential tying field goal blocked.

The Broncos were 14th in the regular season in scoring -- 23.6 points per game -- 10th in offensive EPA and 12th in QBR, but they finished 29th in three-and-outs (25% of drives). In his end-of-season news conference Tuesday, Payton expressed particular frustration with the team's run game and said he had already met Monday with run game coordinator/assistant head coach Zach Strief, who also coaches the offensive line, about a plan for improvement.

"That'll be an important study and with urgency,'' Payton said in Denver. "I want to play from the gun, but I also will always want to play with a two-back or multiple tight end mindset [and] have that flexibility. ... I think it's one of the key things that we have to do this offseason.''

J.K. Dobbins suffered what turned out to be a season-ending foot injury in the Broncos' Nov. 6 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, yet he still finished as the team's leading rusher -- by 232 yards -- and had the team's most runs of 10 yards or more (21), seven more than the next running back (rookie RJ Harvey).

Internally, the two most likely candidates to fill the OC job would be Strief, whom Payton promoted to assistant head coach last offseason, and quarterbacks coach Davis Webb, who is still a candidate in the Raiders' search for a head coach. Broncos senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael was also the Saints' offensive coordinator for much of Payton's tenure.

However, Payton has consistently said he will not surrender playcalling duties, so unless he has a major change of heart in that regard, the Broncos' offensive coordinator would be a prominent voice in the weekly planning as well as in Payton's ear on game day, but Payton would still call plays. Many inside the Broncos' complex believe that will make it difficult to keep Webb long term even if he doesn't get a head coaching job in this hiring cycle.