Longtime Denver Broncos fans will no doubt remember the early days of the Dan Reeves Era. The joke was that Reeves’ offense was a ballet: “one, two, three, kick.” Those were the years when young quarterback John Elway was typically kept under wraps for three quarters by Reeves’ conservative play-calling, more or less forcing Elway to become the master of the fourth-quarter comeback.
It often went like this: After a pair of handoffs to workhorse backs like Sammy Winder and Gerald Wilhite, and maybe a failed screen pass, the Broncos would kick it away and depend on the original version of the “Orange Crush” defense to keep the game close. Then, often in need of late-game heroics, Reeves would remove the shackles, and Elway and the previously dormant Broncos passing attack would ad lib their way to a come-from-behind victory.
That happened a lot.
Does any of this sound a little familiar?
After a few years, Reeves brought in a young, offensive-minded offensive coordinator/play caller named Mike Shanahan, and things changed. Elway and Shanahan meshed, and those Broncos – especially after Reeves moved on and Shanahan took over – took their offense to another level (including beating the Atlanta Falcons, coached by Reeves, in the Super Bowl.)
Fast forward to last season. Certainly, Sean Payton will never be confused with Dan Reeves in terms of actual play-calling; Payton doesn’t have the same affinity for running the ball into the line three times in a row. Nonetheless, Payton’s offense wasn’t particularly good last season, especially during the first three quarters. Later in several games, it fell on the shoulders of young quarterback Bo Nix to pull the Broncos fat out of the fire, as they say. Like Elway, everyone loved fourth-quarter Bo.
It’s way too early to start comparing the Hall-of-Famer Elway and third-year-man Nix, but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s interesting to note that there will be a new, young play-caller to help the young QB take the next step this season – someone who Nix reportedly has already meshed well with.
This could bode very well for the Broncos’ offense, Nix and Davis Webb.
Ever since arriving, Payton had been trying to juggle play-calling duties and game-management duties at the same time. It’d be like a baseball manager trying to coach third base. He could do it, but there’s no question some important stuff would slip through the cracks. Better to turn over the minute-to-minute stuff to a qualified assistant, so the guy in charge can keep his focus on the big picture. Credit to Payton for finally making this change.
With Webb calling the plays – from a script that will have been previously prepared by the head coach – they’ll reach the quarterback sooner, something Nix very clearly wanted to happen last season. That will allow the QB to execute any and all changes that need to be made at the line of scrimmage, and give the entire offense the chance to develop some badly needed in-game pace and rhythm.
Will it improve Denver’s side of the scoreboard, especially early in games? It certainly should. And if it does, Webb will get (and deserve) a lot of the credit, the same way Shanahan did.
Is Webb on the same trajectory as Coach Shanny? There are those who think so. And considering that Shanahan, after having had big success in Denver as an OC, left the Broncos back in the late 1980’s to take his first head coaching job with the (then Los Angeles) Raiders is a striking coincidence, since Webb nearly did the same thing after last season.
Shanahan coached the Raiders for less than two tumultuous seasons before he eventually came back to become the Broncos’ leading man, and with Elway at the helm, won they pair of Super Bowls. Bronco fans are eager for immediate success, of course, but who would not want to see Webb repeat the Shanahan pattern and with Nix under center, return as Denver’s head man and win a couple more Lombardi Trophies a few years from now?
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