For as unpredictable as football can be, football season is all about routine.
Habits and patterns are established early and often stick.
Take Broncos senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael. He entered this training camp in a new place for the first time in nearly two decades.
Yet every day before training camp practice he could be found in the same place at the same pace — walking the perimeter of the practice fields with passing game coordinator John Morton.
Carmichael might now be looking at the Front Range on his commute to work instead of the Bayou after 18 years with the New Orleans Saints, but there’s plenty of familiarity here, too.
There’s head coach Sean Payton, of course, for whom Carmichael served as offensive coordinator 2009-21 and as an offensive assistant the three years before that. But there are many other familiar faces from the Saints and from a life spent coaching the game.
“I was with the Cleveland Browns in 2000 and (Broncos vice president of player development) Ray Jackson was a cornerback there,” Carmichael told The Denver Post earlier this month. “There’s a couple other guys — the trainer, Beau Lowery. … Even on the defensive staff, I was with (inside linebackers coach) Greg Manusky on two other staffs. We were together with the Commanders back in the early days and with the Chargers as well.
“Anybody and everybody that’s here, it’s been a smooth transition for me.”
Carmichael is a trusted set of eyes but a fresh set, too, for Payton. When Payton got the job here in February 2023, Carmichael remained in New Orleans for the season. At the end of the season, Carmichael was fired after a long and decorated stretch for the Saints. Within a couple of weeks, Payton made the reunion official and hired him.
“I wouldn’t trade those 18 years for anything, and I’m appreciative of everything in New Orleans,” Carmichael said. “The Saints, the community, everything that that organization did for me. It was a point where, for me and my wife, with the kids all getting through the school system and being out, it was an easy transition.
“It’s exciting for me. A new challenge.”
The setup here is slightly different than it was in New Orleans, even if many of the faces are the same. From 2009 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2020, Carmichael served as the coordinator under Payton while Joe Lombardi coached quarterbacks. Now Lombardi is Payton’s coordinator, Davis Webb coaches quarterbacks, and Carmichael joins the trio daily in the quarterback meeting room.
“There’s an advantage where a lot of us on the offensive staff have worked together, kind of know the roles and how the week goes,” Carmichael said. “I’m just here to help in whatever way they ask me to. It’s a strong, great coaching staff. A lot of great minds. I know once the season starts, everyone’s compatible and has their ideas, and then obviously it’s Sean and Joe that will be narrowing it down to what they want to do.”
Earlier this summer, Payton called Carmichael’s addition to the staff “unremarkable” and meant it as a compliment. That he fit in seamlessly.
“He’s a great teammate,” Payton said. “He wears well in the building. That’s a good trait to have. He gets along with others. He’s smart and he has that same deep vocabulary and library of instances relative to what we’ve done offensively.”
Carmichael has seen literally every play Payton’s called as head coach. He’s been in the building for all of them except last year in Denver. That kind of resource might end up being particularly good for, say, a rookie quarterback like Bo Nix, who just this week was named the Broncos’ starter.
“Just a calm voice in the back,” Nix told The Post of Carmichael earlier in camp. “He’s seen just about every play that we’ve run. He’s very wise. I can go to him and say, ‘Hey, now did I do this right?’ And he’ll kind of walk me through it if I’ve got questions.
“He’s just a great answerer and coach for me. He’s given me a lot of what he processes and what he thinks and that helps me as I move forward.”
Nix has caught on fast. So, too, has Carmichael. The reunion with Payton has gone just about the way he figured it would.
“It’s obviously his second year and my first year being back with him, but I think he’s obviously always had a ton of energy,” Carmichael said. “He does this because he’s so passionate about it. The minute you’re back with him, you feel it.”
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Originally Published: August 22, 2024 at 2:13 p.m.
