Bills hiring Broncos offensive assistant Pete Carmichael as OC, source says

The Broncos are losing a top offensive assistant coach to Buffalo.

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, following Payton’s decision to fire offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, 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.

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