Broncos coach Sean Payton knows who he likes, and he likes who he knows — when it comes to a coaching staff, that is. And that means another familiar face to him will return to his side for the 2026 season.
John Morton, who left the Broncos last year to join the Detroit Lions as offensive coordinator, will formally return to Denver as the team’s pass-game coordinator after coming back to the club for its playoff run as a consultant.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was first to report the move on Sunday.
The job title is the same as Morton had during the 2023 and 2024 seasons before he departed to join Dan Campbell’s Lions staff last season. But with the Lions lumbering at 6-4 and having lost three of their previous five games after a 4-1 start, Campbell seized play-calling duties from Morton for the rest of the season.
The results of the change were mixed; Detroit averaged 32.3 more yards of total offense per game after the switch, but its offensive scoring output fell from 28.8 points per game with Morton calling plays to 26.8 thereafter.
That 28.8 points-per-game average would have been good for third-best in the NFL over the course of the full 2025 season.
PRIOR TO HIS FIRST BRONCOS STINT, MORTON HAD WORKED WITH PAYTON TWICE BEFORE
Morton was a member of Payton’s first New Orleans Saints staff as passing-game coordinator and offensive assistant in 2006 before moving on to USC for four seasons and then to the San Francisco 49ers under Jim Harbaugh for another four campaigns as wide receivers coach.
Morton then returned to the Saints as wide-receivers coach in 2015 and 2015 before moving on to the New York Jets as offensive coordinator. Stints with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders and Lions followed before he joined the Broncos in 2023.
This upcoming season will be Morton’s 23rd on an NFL coaching staff. He also has five seasons of college coaching experience to his name.