Sean Payton is wasting no time attacking the upcoming season. Following the defeat against the New England Patriots, the Denver Broncos missed out on the chance to play in the Super Bowl. Payton doesn’t want the same things to repeat. As a result, he started an overhaul of the coaching department. One of the moves involves bringing in the former Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator.

“The Broncos are “expected to hire” former Lions offensive coordinator John Morton as their pass game coordinator, @JFowlerESPN reports,” reported Brad Galli on X.

John Morton joined the Broncos as their pass game coordinator. Davis Webb’s promotion to offensive coordinator left the post empty. Before coming to Denver, Morton was the Lions‘ offensive coordinator. The Lions hired him in early 2025 but fired him after one season due to a poor offensive display and missing the playoffs.

Despite not performing well in Detroit, Payton put his faith in him. The reason? Morton has worked under Payton twice before. The first time was in New Orleans, when Payton was the head coach, and Morton was the wide receiver coach. He stayed there for two seasons, 2015-2016. The second time was as the pass game coordinator for the Broncos in 2023.

The assistant coach had an impressive result for the Broncos. In his first season, his contribution led the team to an 8-9 finish in 2023, from 5-12 the previous year. There was further improvement in 2024, when the Broncos made it to the playoffs for the first time since winning Super Bowl 50 in 2015. Looking at the metrics, there’s very little doubt why the head coach put his faith in Morton once again. Morton’s hiring was part of the overhaul. But it became possible only after Payton had to make multiple firings.

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Sean Payton sacked three assistant coaches before the upcoming season

Sean Payton is taking no risks when building a strong team before the 2026 season. To ensure he brings in the right coaches to improve the roster, he has fired several assistant coaches in a row.

Recently, the Broncos parted ways with offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, wide receivers coach Keary Colbert, and cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch. Lombardi was fired two days after losing out to the Patriots. They fired him because the franchise’s offense “didn’t do much.” Luckily, the Ravens came knocking and hired him as their senior offensive assistant. Lombardi spent 15 years working for Payton in various roles. He was with the Saints from 2007 to 2013 and then from 2016 to 2020. He joined Payton again in 2023 before getting fired in 2026.

The reason for Colbert’s departure remains undisclosed. However, Payton revealed that he was unhappy with how the pass-catchers played, especially since they led the league with more than 40 drops and did not run routes correctly. The same goes for Lynch, whose performance was not satisfactory to Payton.

Payton also released a statement after their release.

“I want to thank these coaches for playing an important role in elevating our program over the last three seasons,” Payton said in a statement. “I’ve been fortunate to work with Joe Lombardi for 15 years and am particularly grateful for his many contributions to our success as offensive coordinator. We sincerely appreciate Joe, Keary, and Addison’s hard work and wish them all the best in the future.”

Payton has promoted Webb as the new OC and hired Morton in his old job. The head coach is trying to bring the band back together. Out of the two empty offensive coaching spots, he hired former Bills quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry as the wide receivers coach. Curry was the wide receivers coach at New Orleans under Payton. To fill the defensive vacancy left by Addison Lynch, the Broncos hired former USC defensive backs coach Doug Belk to take over the secondary.