While the Broncos are still searching for their new offensive and defensive coordinators, they are making a coordinator hire Friday. The team is set to add Ben Kotwica as its special teams boss, JP Finlay of NBC Sports Washington tweets.
Kotwica has been a special teams coach in the NFL since 2007. He most recently worked as the Vikings’ assistant special teams coach, moving to Minnesota after Kevin O’Connell took over. Kotwica has not worked for Sean Payton previously, but he will head up a staff with a familiar name.
Payton’s Mike Westhoff meeting is expected to produce a hire. The Broncos and Westhoff have agreed to terms, Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com tweets. Westhoff has been on Denver’s radar for a bit, having resided on Payton’s New Orleans staff from 2017-18. He has been retired since, however.
Kotwica, 48, and Westhoff, 75, were on Rex Ryan‘s Jets staff together. The latter worked as Gang Green’s ST coordinator during that period, overlapping with Kotwica from 2007-12. Kotwica took over as the Jets’ ST boss in 2013, after Westhoff’s exit, and headed up Washington and Atlanta’s ST staffs from 2014-20. Despite being out of coaching since the Bills fired him during the 2016 sea son, Ryan has become a frontrunner for the Broncos’ DC job. He would have some familiar coworkers on staff.
Westhoff, who has been in coaching since 1974. He has been an NFL special teams coordinator since 1986, enjoying lengthy tenures with the Dolphins and Jets. A Don Shula hire in Miami back in 1986, Westhoff coached the Dolphins’ special teams for 15 seasons. He then headed up the Jets’ for 12 years. He will be the second former ST coordinator the Broncos have brought out of retirement in two years. Denver hired Jerry Rosburg in September to oversee game management, after concerning issues early in the season. Rosburg ended up finishing the season as the Broncos’ interim HC.
On his first day in charge, Rosburg fired Broncos ST coordinator Dwayne Stukes. Veteran NFL reporter Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings slotted the Broncos 25th. While the Eagles and Chiefs ranked 31st and 32nd this past season, respectively, those squads had considerably more to fall back on compared to the Broncos.