Head coaching candidates withdraw their names from consideration for certain jobs all the time, but usually the withdrawal doesn’t come with much of a storyline. For the Los Vegas Raiders, though, the withdrawal of Denver Broncos passing game coordinator Davis Webb came after some of the most unusual comments you’ll ever see in a coaching search, with the aftermath reported in a story by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
Specifically, head coach Sean Payton of the Broncos had some very pointed things to say about the Raiders job, stating that it would be a “pain in the [backside]” for Webb to be coaching in the same division as his current boss.
It wasn’t clear what Payton meant immediately after the comments. In addition to having to go up against Payton, Webb would have had another four games against the likes of Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh and coach Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs, and those, too, would have been tough matchups.
Still, it was an unusual thing to say, and Payton’s comments might have died a quiet death if he hadn’t fired three other coaches earlier this week, which just added fuel to the fire when it came to keeping the comments and what they meant alive.
Connecting the dots isn’t all that hard now, though. The two offensive coaches Payton fired were his offensive coordinator, Joe Lombardi, and his receivers coach, Keary Colbert. The purge was especially unusual given how successful Denver was this season, and Payton also fired his cornerbacks coach, Addison Lynch.
If Payton was clearing a path for Webb to become his new offensive coordinator, this isn’t the way things are usually done. Normally coaches at Webb’s level are given the opportunity to move up to a head coaching job, but in this case Payton may have been keeping his guy by disparaging an opponent in a pretty blatant way.
Lombardi added a little more fuel to the fire when he made a comment about Payton being in “one of those moods,” according to NFL.com, where he felt like making changes, which doesn’t exactly suggest there was a lot of thought involved in making this call. We still haven’t heard from Payton, Webb or the Broncos about what’s going on with all this, and at this point it’s not likely that we will, at least not right away.
For the Raiders, though, it does point to a clear path forward. They’re scheduled to interview Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak tomorrow, and the fact that they’ve also announced that they’re going to wrap up their search after that interview strongly suggests they’ll wait until after the Super Bowl to announce the Kubiak hire. All of which should make for some interesting back and forth when the Raiders meet the Broncos next season.