Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton went a little crazy after the season, firing multiple coaches despite an extremely successful season that saw the Broncos get within a field goal of a Super Bowl berth.
Most of the focus was on the offensive coaches Payton fired, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and receivers coach Keary Colbert, but cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch was also let go in the coaching staff purge. The team found Lynch’s replacement, however, hiring defensive backs coach Doug Belk, who’s making the jump from the college ranks after holding the job at USC.
Belk has a successful track record in college, so the jump makes sense. According to Ely Allen via Matt Zenitz of ProFootballRumors.com, Belk coached defensive starts like Kamari Ramsey and Bishop Fitzgerald, and before his stop in USC he was the defensive coordinator for the Houston Cougars.
He’ll have some impressive pieces to work with in Denver. The Broncos have former Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II, and free agent pickup Talanoa Hufanga had a strong season, although he did drop multiple potential interceptions that could have been key plays for Denver.
The safeties also had a good year. Brandon Jones is considered solid, and P.J. Lock and Devon Key both had some moments when they were rotated into the lineup. If there’s one member of the secondary who’s on the hot seat, it the other cornerback, Riley Moss, who’s a considerable source of controversy among the fan base.
Moss is mostly reliable in coverage, but he does get exposed by speed receivers who are downfield threats when they can’t be matched up with Surtain. The backup cornerbacks were solid enough when Surtain went out with a shoulder injury, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Broncos draft for depth, and possibly even Moss’s replacement.
Part of the reason for the firing appeared to be a key moments in a couple of key moments when what looked like blown coverages resulted in big plays. That’s not a great reason to fire a coach in and of itself, but Payton didn’t take the loss well at all, so this feels like a reasonable guess right now.
The other possibility is that Payton may have just felt like it was time for a change. He described himself as getting "a little salty” during the weeks before the playoffs as he grew frustrated with the team’s offensive inconsistency, and perhaps there were analogous frustrations with the secondary.