Good morning, Broncos Country!
What’s old is new again.
By now, you’ve heard that Sean Payton is taking back play-calling duties for the Denver Broncos offense. Through the first four weeks, the Broncos have been inept offensively. That’s not all on the new offensive coordinator, Davis Webb, who was calling plays in the first four games. As Payton said to the media on Thursday after practice, it’s a collective.
In the end, the Broncos offense has not been good enough, and Payton felt the time was right for the change. Denver heads
on the road to face the hapless and winless Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
As Payton said on Thursday:
“We’ll make a change offensively. I’ll call the plays. I understand the questions at the start of the week. I want to say this first, and I said it to Davis the other day, talking to him. I’ve done this long enough where I know when I have a future head coach, and he’s going to be one. All the things that it’s hard to find will happen. In fact, the same thing to some degree — a little bit different — happened to myself early in my career. I met with the offense.
“As the head coach, no different than evaluating your right tackle, your slot receiver, your running backs, something to change it up. Ultimately, I used that word the ‘collective’ yesterday. It’s the group. So when I met with the offense, it’s about buttoning up all of the little things that keep you from sustaining drives. Davis is all-in with the game plan, just like we’ve been operating. He’ll be down on the field with me.”
When Payton was asked why he made the change now rather than waiting, he said there were too many to list.
“We know we have to improve our balance in running the football,” he said to the media. “There’s a handful of things. Then the hard thing when you are not the head coach is certainly there are things you want to feel like are cleared, where when you’re calling them as the head coach, you’re in your mind prepared to say, ‘I don’t have to run it by anyone.’ So it’s changing things up and really trying to reduce some of the calories to get back to getting some things really well. That’s going to be the focus.”
If it’s any solace to Webb, Payton had the play-calling duties taken away from him in 2002 when he was with the New York Giants. So Payton is using that experience now in Denver.
“It was tough,” Payton said when asked how he handled getting the play-calling taken from him. “Davis, he’s going to respond well. It was different. I’d just lost my mother during the bye week. We got imbalanced a little bit. I just remember the professional setback, if you will. We had gone to the Super Bowl in (2000) so this was a couple years into it. It wasn’t until a couple years later that you’re like, ‘Man, you really didn’t mourn the loss of your mom because you were so out of whack with your career.’ And the team did better.
“Very quickly, it’s still about the team, and we went to the playoffs. There are certain things that I learned that maybe I needed to. Then shortly thereafter, I’m in Dallas, and then three years later, I get that opportunity (in New Orleans). He’s been fantastic. A much different situation, if you will.”
As for this Sunday, Payton will be the voice in Bo Nix’s helmet. Payton also said he and the Broncos are focused on this week. As the head coach, Payton felt the time was right to make the move for the team. He saw something that needed correcting, and this was the course of action to fix it.
“Everyone’s a little disappointed because you feel like you let one of your teammates down,” Payton said when asked if Nix had any reaction. “That’s the human part of it. That’s our game a little bit in this league. I’m going to go back to what I said earlier relative to (Webb’s) talent. It’s rare. He’s gifted. It’s all ahead of him.”
