Last Tuesday afternoon, news begin to make its way on the wire that former head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos agreed in principle to a deal that would bring Payton to Denver to be the Broncos ninth head coach since 2009.
On Friday the Denver Broncos made it official with a statement from CEO Greg Penner, “Sean Payton is an outstanding leader and Super Bowl champion with a brilliant offensive mind. He shares our commitment to winning championships for Broncos Country and we’re excited to welcome him as our new head coach.” Penner went on to say, “Sean knows how to build a championship culture with high expectations. He coaches with intensity and attention-to-detail while setting and maintaining high standards. Sean pours his heart into winning with preparation. Creativity and a genuine love of the game.”
So far Payton has only hired ex-Saints Zach Strief as the new offensive line coach while several other coaching positions remain unmanned as of this writing.
Broncos prior defensive coordinator (DC) Ejiro Evero moved on from Denver and took the DC position in Carolina with the Panthers. Several names of interest included Brian Flores and Sean Desai; however, Flores decided to sign with the Vikings as the DC while Desai is expected to meet with the Broncos this week.
While the defensive coordinator position candidates is dwindling down so goes the offensive coordinator positions with the Broncos set to interview Ronald Curry who joined Payton’s Saints staff in 2016.
In other sports the Denver Nuggets lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 128-98 on Sunday night while Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all sat out Sunday’s game.
The Nuggets will face the Timberwolves again (results not available at the time of this writing) on Tuesday and Jokic, Murray, Gordon and Caldwell-Pope are all expected to return Tuesday night.
The Nuggets are in Orlando Thursday night to face the Magic and kick off a three game road stretch before heading to Charlotte to face the Hornets on Saturday. On Monday the Nuggets head to Miami to face the Heat at 5:30 p.m.
The Colorado Avalanche are back after the All-Star break with a game against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Tuesday (results not available at the time of this writing). Colorado returns to Ball Arena on Thursday to host the Tampa Bay Lightning at 5 p.m.
The Avs have fallen behind after a stretch of losses in January that has put them 9 spots back in the Western Conference. The Avs have two months to regain their footing in hopes of a push into the post season.
