Sean Payton taking back the Denver Broncos play-calling is the right move.
This team needs a jumpstart and Payton is the man to provide it.
At the quarter-pole of the 2026 season, he saw enough of the struggling offense and decided to take on improving it himself.
Sean Payton is taking back Denver Broncos play-calling and that’s the right move to make
The Denver Broncos offense has regressed compared to 2024 and 2025.
So has quarterback Bo Nix.
Through four games the Broncos offense is nowhere near where it needs to be if they want to compete for the Super Bowl this year.
In 2025, they were a middling offense. Their 23.6 points per game were 14th in the NFL, but they’ve slipped to 27th at 18.5. The run game is a disaster currently, averaging 3.6 yards per rush which is 26th in the league. And Bo Nix has fallen from mediocre to barely passable as a passer. His passer rating has slipped from 93.3 as a rookie to 87.8 last year to 80.4 in 2026.
So, did Payton take over the play-calling to save Nix?
“No,” Payton said on Thursday. “Bo is the by-product of a lot of things at that position. Hopefully that will be one of the things that can happen, but there are a lot of other things that I think can allow that to happen first.”
So, what is Payton talking about here?
First and foremost, the Broncos run game needs to be fixed. And that’s easier said than done.
J.K. Dobbins doesn’t have any life in his legs, and RJ Harvey was the starter last week. Even Tyler Badie got the ball before Dobbins in the loss to the 49ers. If Dobbins doesn’t have the juice, Payton should put Harvey in as the starter.
Beyond those running backs though, the run game is broken because the offensive line isn’t opening up run lanes like they were last year or like they need to be. They’re currently 20th in ESPN’s Run Block Win Rate, winning only 73% of their blocks.
So, the line needs to block better, and the backs need to run harder.
Picking the right plays at the right time should help that.
And Payton has shown in the past that he will throw Marvin Mims in the backfield for handoffs when he needs some extra explosiveness back there. Maybe we’ll see some of that as well.
The offense needs something, anything to get that run game jumpstarted. It’s currently on life support.
And that’s what Payton means by Nix’s play being a by-product of the rest of the offense. If the run game is terrible, the defense won’t honor it and lock in on the pass game. That’s bad news for Bo, as we’ve seen.
Nix does need to improve too
But if and when the run game steps up, Bo Nix needs to improve his game as well.
He’s currently dead-last in the NFL in air yards at 6.0 per pass. Everyone knows where he’s going with the ball; he’s the checkdown king after all.
Sure, RJ Harvey reaped the rewards of the 10-catch performance against San Francisco, but the Broncos offense was easy to corral when Nix refuses to attack downfield.
I get that Payton doesn’t want to call out his quarterback when the media asks him a tough question, but the reality is Payton needs to elevate Nix’s game now too.
This is Year 3 in Payton’s offense and Year 3 in the NFL. There’s no more excuses for Nix. If he wants to be the quarterback of the future as well as the present, he needs to lock in and start making more big-time throws.
The Broncos have only one 40-plus yard play, which is lowest in the league. And their explosive play rate is 4.3%, fifth-worst.
The offense is floundering when they throw the checkdowns on nearly every play. Courtland Sutton has become basically irrelevant in this offense and Jaylen Waddle isn’t being used nearly enough considering Denver traded a first-round pick for him.
Sean Payton re-taking the reins of the Broncos offense was the right move as he hopes to fix many issues.
We’ll see how well that works starting this Sunday against the Chargers in a tailspin.
It’s a game Denver should win, especially with the Seattle Seahawks coming up on Thursday on a short week.
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