The New Orleans Saints are in a precarious spot this offseason with an uninspiring, expensive roster, and they’ll be hoping that new head coach Kellen Moore can bring some of the magic he captured with the Philadelphia Eagles as their offensive coordinator along with him.
Like other new head coaches, Moore will surely be filling out his own staff, which doesn’t include Darren Rizzi, who had been with the Saints since 2019 and will now be headed elsewhere after coming up just short of securing the team’s head coaching gig.
Analyst Tom Pelissero shared on X that the Denver Broncos are hiring Rizzi as their new special teams coordinator, where Rizzi will reunite with Sean Payton, who he coached with in New Orleans for years.
Got Rizz: The #Broncos are hiring Darren Rizzi as their special teams coordinator, per source.
The #Saints rallied behind Rizzi, 54, as interim coach and he was a finalist for the full-time job. But New Orleans hired Kellen Moore and now Rizzi reunites with Sean Payton in…
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 14, 2025
Rizzi originally joined the Saints in 2019 as the special teams coordinator before being promoted to assistant head coach and special teams coordinator in 2022 and ultimately, ascending to interim head coach this past season after the Saints fired Dennis Allen.
The Broncos lost their special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Mike Westhoff during last season when he resigned from his role, but during his tenure, the Broncos’ special teams did improve quite a bit.
Denver still has some other vacancies on the staff that need to be filled before the season starts, but this is a big acquisition and should be a seamless transition given Payton’s familiarity with Rizzi already.
Good days are ahead for Broncos fans as they head into a fun offseason ready to build off a surprising playoff run from 2024.
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