Prime adds well-connected former Broncos player to Buffs staff

The Colorado Buffaloes will hire former NFL defensive tackle Domata Peko as the Deion Sanders’ defensive line coach, according to a report from the Daily Camera.

The news comes as Colorado lost its defensive line coach Damione Lewis last week to Miami’s coaching crew.

Peko spent 15 seasons in the NFL most of which came in Cincinnati but with stops in Denver, Arizona and Baltimore as well. Last year he was also in the league as an assistant on the Dallas Cowboys staff working for former Buffs analyst Mike Zimmer. And a bunch of Peko’s time where he starred on the Bengals’ defensive line, came with current CU defensive coordinator Robert Livingston working as a staffer.

Peko, a Michigan State Spartan, spent one season in the Big Ten in college where he earned his way into a fourth-round pick. The American Samoa native is the best player from that territory as of now in NFL history, according to Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value.

The defensive lineman finished his NFL career with 616 career tackles and 47 tackles for loss, retiring in 2020. He spent the 2017 and 2018 seasons playing for former Buff Vance Joseph, who was leading the Broncos. The two forgettable teams were not a career highlight for the longtime pro, who featured in seven playoff games.

According to ON3, Peko was at Buffs workouts on Tuesday.

Colorado already had NFL Hall of Fame defensive lineman Warren Sapp on staff, serving as a senior quality control analyst for the Buffaloes. He’s expected to be promoted in the coming weeks, though the role hasn’t been shared. The Buffs also gave Livingston a sizeable extension this offseason and Coach Prime hired another NFL Hall of Famer, Marshall Faulk, to the offensive staff.

An interesting note is that Peko’s son, Joseph, is a three-star lineman in the 2026 class who has offers from several power schools.

The Buffs new DL coach on former RB Phillip Lindsay pic.twitter.com/yeDiRyhZHy

— eric (@EricMetcalfe) February 19, 2025