Garett Bolles' Confidence in Davis Webb Comes From an Interesting Place

Sean Payton didn't relinquish play-calling duties to young offensive coordinator Davis Webb without due cause. Payton's decision may have stunned the NFL, but the Denver Broncos head coach had his reasons.

Payton is widely viewed as one of the NFL's best offensive minds and play-callers of the 21st century. Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil went on record in 2023, saying Payton and Andy Reid are the two top offensive coaches of this decade.

So if Payton gives the play-calling duties for an offense he's meticulously built over two-plus decades of coaching in the NFL to someone else, you know there's a good reason for it. Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles said as much in a recent sit-down with Kay Adams on the Up & Adams Show.

"What he's done with our program, obviously, he wouldn't just have just given up the play-calling just because to give it up," Bolles said of Payton. "That's not who he is. He's super passionate in his job and he loves it. He puts 100% every single day into it. He's doing it because he knows that Davis Webb is that smart, and that just speaks volumes of what type of men he has surrounded himself with."

Webb's Path to OC

Webb enters just his fourth year as an NFL head coach and first as an offensive coordinator and play-caller. When Payton took the head-coaching job in Denver, he plucked Webb — a career quarterback — out of the NFL playing ranks and hired him to be his quarterbacks coach.

Webb was a career NFL backup, but in 2022, he played for the New York Giants. He started a game for the Giants on January 8, 2023. By February 2, he had left the playing ranks to join Payton's coaching staff in Denver. It happened that fast.

At 31 years old, Webb could still be playing as a backup somewhere. He was drafted in the third round by the Giants in 2017 out of Cal, where he played his final collegiate season after spending his first three years at Texas Tech.

Renowned for his encyclopedic mind for offense, what Webb lacked in the physical tools department, he made up for with this football IQ. Coaches loved that about him. And that's also part of what has made him a great and effective coach out of the gates.

Bolles was drafted by the Broncos in the first round the same year that Webb was. They were NFL peers all the way up until Webb retired to join the coaching ranks.

That exposure to playing in the modern NFL, combined with everything he logged and learned dating back to his time as a prep player, has kept Webb on the cutting edge of offensive football. That's one of many reasons why Bolles is so bullish on Webb taking over the play-calling duties.

"It is, 'Damn, he's good.' That's really what it is. He's so young," Bolles said of Webb. "He just retired not too long ago. And to be able to have a coach that understands the game—but not the old-school game—I'm talking about this newest game that we play. Obviously, I was in the league when he was in the league. Now he can take what he's learned through so many different coaches and so many different offenses and find out what's best for him. And he's so smart with the Xs and Os."

Confidence Abounds

Davis Webb. — Denver Broncos offensive pass game coordinator Davis Webb before the game against the San Francisco 49ers. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

One thing Bolles appreciates about Webb is his confidence in himself and in his players. The Broncos' All-Pro left tackle says that Webb is unfraid to take chances with, and on behalf of, his players.

"He's such a good person and to have a younger guy like that on the coaching staff that understands how we feel, our emotions, and our ups and downs, he can control all that and put us in the best situations," Bolles told Adams. "He's not afraid to drop everything on the line and let it rip. And that's what we need. We want that confidence and we want that love and we have that."

Webb's ascension happened fast. After two years coaching the quarterbacks, he was given the additional title of offensive pass game coordinator last season.

Following the 2025 campaign, Webb was a hot commodity on the NFL head coach market, drawing interest around the league for multiple vacancies. He ultimately chose to stay with Payton in Denver, and that came with an official promotion in title and duties.

Bolles is uber-confident in Webb's ability. The veteran tackle doesn't sound in any way anxious about Webb taking over play-calling. It's the opposite. Bolles is psyched about it, especially with Payton's obvious vote of confidence in Webb by handing over the play-call sheet.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does," Bolles said.

In Payton We Trust

Sean Payton and Bo Nix — Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has a word with quarterback Bo Nix (10) before a game vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. | Dustin Brandford / IMAGO / Icon Sportswire

The trust in Webb is there, and a big part of it, again, comes from the faith Payton is showing in his young lieutenant. Payton has earned the full faith and belief of the Broncos organization since leading the team to 32 wins over his three seasons at the helm.

Remember, Bolles was around for the worst of the post-Super Bowl 50 depredations, when the Broncos couldn't get the head coach role and quarterback position right. Bolles struggled alongside his teammates through one sub-.500 season after another, becoming an AFC West doormat as the Kansas City Chiefs reigned for eight long years, and even put together a 16-game winning streak over the Broncos.

Payton changed all that in Year 1. Even with Russell Wilson as his quarterback, Payton put the kybosh on Kansas City's winning streak in 2023, winning eight games with a quarterback that was obviously not the right fit for his offense and culture.

When Payton finally got the right quarterback — Bo Nix — the Broncos became unfettered, snapping their eight-year playoff drought in 2024, and winning 10 games with a rookie quarterback. The following year, Nix helped lead the Broncos to a 14-win season, dethroning the Chiefs in the AFC West, and advancing to the AFC championship game before an ankle injury ended his and the team's run.

These results have earned Payton every benefit of the doubt within the locker room when it comes to his decision-making. But reading the room since the Webb news dropped back at the NFL Combine in February, there's been no evidence of doubt from the players when it comes to Payton choosing to hand off the play-calling duties.

"I trust [Webb]," Bolles told Adams. "Obviously, I love Sean Payton to death. It makes me emotional just talking about him because I'm forever grateful for him, and what he's done for me and my family, and what he's done for this organization, this culture that we built. And the love that he has for his players. All he wants is us to be the best versions of ourselves, day in and day out."

Payton has always had one foot in the old-school Parcellian way of doing things, and the other in the modern NFL. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, and there have been controversial moves Payton has made that have proven to be the right ones in the fullness of time, like moving on from Wilson.

That same ethos applies to how Payton coaches. There's always a method to his madness, and he will push and challenge his players, but it's always with their and the team's best interest in mind, according to Bolles.

"When you have a coach like that, you rally around him and you love him," Bolles said. "Yeah, he pushes us hard, and there's some things, you're like, 'Why are we doing this?' But there's always a reason behind it. When you ask him, he's not afraid to tell you, and he's going to tell you straight up. He's not going to beat around the bush... You either like those coaches, or you don't. And I love that type of coach because that's where I come from."

As a player, you never have to wonder where you stand with a coach like Payton. That resonates with Bolles, who went through the coaching carousel over his first six years in the NFL before Payton landed in Denver.

Those years exposed Bolles to a variety of different coaching approaches, from the top — like Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio, and Nathaniel Hackett — to the bottom, with the coaches in his position room, like Mike Munchak, Butch Barry, and now Zack Strief. Suffice it to say, Payton's approach, and that of his staff, is one that Bolles was quickly able to buy into, and part of that was due to his experience playing for Kyle Whittingham at Utah.

"Coming from the University of Utah, being with Coach Whittingham, it's a no-nonsense type of thing," Bolles said. "It's, 'This is what you're gonna get. This is how I'm gonna treat you. If you do these things, I'm gonna love you forever.'"

The Takeaway

The proof is in the pudding. Even if not everyone in Broncos Country has adopted the "In Payton We Trust" mantra, it's clear that his players have.

For those reasons and more, Webb gets the rubber stamp of approval as the Broncos' new offensive coordinator and play-caller.

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