Why Broncos QBs coach Davis Webb will be ‘an NFL head coach in no time’ | Paul Klee
ENGLEWOOD — The most interesting man at Broncos HQ is a self-described hoarder.
“My girlfriend hates me for that,” says Davis Webb, the quarterbacks coach. “But whatever.”
So who is this 29-year-old assigned to mentor and guide a quarterback competition between an incumbent (Jarrett Stidham), former No. 2 draft pick (Zach Wilson) and rookie (Bo Nix)?
“Gosh, where do you start?” Jake Spavital tells me.
Coach Spav is the offensive coordinator at Baylor. He’s fishing buddies with Kliff Kingsbury — they hunt big redfish down in south Texas — so you know the football type we’re dealing with.
A scoring type. An offense type. A quarterbacks type.
Back in 2016, Webb was a quarterback transferring out of Texas Tech because someone named Patrick Mahomes was coming in off the bench. So Spav recruited Webb, a fellow Texan, to Cal-Berkeley. How’s that for culture shock?
The passing numbers that followed were typical of a football system schooled in ‘Air Raid’ principles that’s churned out NFL-caliber quarterbacks on an assembly line: Baker Mayfield (another one of Webb’s teammates), Kyler Murray, Case Keenum and, yes, Mahomes.
Webb’s 37 touchdowns and 4,295 passing yards helped him become a third-round pick of the New York Giants. But it was Webb’s football-obsessed brain that still makes Spavital laugh.
“It’s insane,” Spav says. “He’s one of the most prepared humans I’ve ever been around.”
Obsession or preparation? Well, you judge: Webb’s friends joke he still has playbooks from Pee Wee ball… through high school… through college… and through seven NFL seasons.
“I really enjoy information,” he says.
Plus, he listens to everything. He documents everything. And, well, he’s a hoarder.
“’COVID’ really helped me there,” Webb says. “The first month and a half there was nothing to do. I just scanned every document I had and made it into one (PDF) file.”
Despite Webb’s age and non-existent coaching experience, Sean Payton trusted him to lead his quarterback room with the Broncos — first with a career-rehabbing Russell Wilson, next with Stidham, Wilson and Nix, the presumed future.
Payton called Eli Manning, among others, to get a proper read on Webb during the hiring process. After Webb’s interview at Dove Valley he was off to the airport to fly back to Texas.
“And I’m thinking, ‘What am I doing?’” Payton said. “We called the driver and brought him back and hired him.”
For once, Webb is the oldest in the quarterback room. Stidham is 27. Nix and Wilson are 24. Webb’s first order of business was squashing beef before a “nasty” competition could surface.
“These competitions sometimes get dicey at times,” Webb said. “We nailed that (down) in the first week. That’s not going to happen here.”
The natural progression for Webb’s career will be calling plays, which won’t happen with Payton’s Broncos. But that’s for another day. The end game seems almost preordained.
“He will be a head coach in the NFL in no time,’” Spavital says. “And I was saying that when he was still playing for me (at Cal) in 2016.”






