Denver Broncos Hire Darren Rizzi as Special Teams Coordinator

Rizzi and Broncos head coach Sean Payton previously worked together in New Orleans.

Josh Wilson | Feb 14, 2025

Rizzi coached the Saints on interim basis this season after head coach Dennis Allen was fired / Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

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The Denver Broncos have added to their coaching staff. Head coach Sean Payton has hired Darren Rizzi as the team's new special teams coordinator according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. The pair worked together for two seasons when Payton was head coach of the Saints before a short-lived retirement. Rizzi was also Payton's special teams coordinator then.

Rizzi was hired after the 2018-19 season by the Saints. This past season, after New Orleans head coach Dennis Allen was fired, Rizzi stepped in as the interim head coach.

Rizzi was a finalist for the team's vacant head coaching role, but ultimately the Saints hired Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore after he helped the organization win a Super Bowl.

The Saints went 2-7 before Rizzi's promotion to interim HC and 3-5 after. A few Saints players expressed strong hope that Rizzi would be retained in full-time fashion as head coach.

Now, he reunites with Payton in Denver.

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Published Feb 14, 2025|Modified Feb 14, 2025

JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.