The Denver Broncos fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi on Tuesday, two days after they played in the AFC championship game,NFL Network reports.
The news arrives as offensive pass game coordinator Davis Webb is considered a candidate for openings around the league, including the head coaching vacancy of the Las Vegas Raiders. It's not clear if the Broncos intend to pursue Webb to replace Lombardi and entice him from leaving for another team.
The news broke hours after Broncos head coach Sean Payton held his end-of-season news conference.Payton joked about Webb's potential departureto the rival Raiders, but gave no indication that Lombardi's job was at stake. The Broncos had not confirmed Lombardi's dismissal in the aftermath of the NFLN report.
Why did Broncos fire Lombardi?
Regardless, the news of Lombardi's dismissal arrives as a bit of a surprise following a season in which the Broncos finished tied for the best record in football, earned the No. 1 seed in the AFC and advanced to Sunday's conference championship game, whichthey lost 10-7 to the New England Patriotsin a snowstorm while starting quarterback Bo Nix sat with a fractured ankle.
The Broncos advanced as far as they did largely on the strength of a defense that ranked second in the NFL in yards allowed and third in points allowed (18.3 per game) during the regular season. But the offense was no slouch. Denver ranked 10th in yards and 14th in points per game (23.6). The Broncos presumably would like to see those numbers improve, and perhaps they believe that Webb is the man to lead them there.
Whoever takes over for Lombardi will be tasked with further developing Nix. Nix showed slight signs of regression from his surprising rookie campaign last season, with dips in completion percentage (66.3 to 63.4) and yards per attempt (6.7 to 6.4) while seeing his touchdown-to-interception ratio drop from 29-to-12 to 25-to-11.
The Broncos frequently found themselves playing from behind in the fourth quarter, only for Nix to help lead a comeback. It's not a sustainable model for success, and the Broncos would be better served next season with an offense that can create some separation prior to the fourth quarter.
