Broncos New Playcaller Will Have A Lot To Process In His First Year Handling This Job

The Denver Broncos have a new offensive coordinator who will be calling plays for the first time this year, and Davis Webb is getting plenty of feedback and advice. That includes some from his boss, coach Sean Payton, who isn’t exactly subtle in this department. 

The process of Payton supposedly turning over the reins in this department has been fascinating, probably because it doesn’t really feel like he wants to do it. The decision to turn over the chore consisted of a unique test, according to a piece from Nick Kosmider and Joseph Person of The Athletic that featured advice for first-time playcallers. 

Payton dug up one of his old box scores from back in the day when he got his first opportunity to call plays for the New York Giants back in 1999. 

“I had thrown (together) a couple call sheets — or basically stat sheets — from my first time and highlighted a few things (for Webb),” Payton recalled. “I said, ‘See if you can beat this.’ And he did.”

This was a very Sean Payton way to handle this process, but Webb did just that, although it should be noted that Webb’s game was a preseason tilt against the Arizona Cardinals last year. Still, the numbers are the numbers, and Webb was able to get his unit to put up 562 yards of offense in the game. 

This may or may not have been the way this decision really played out. Payton has a way of constructing his own narratives that sometimes don’t match up with reality, exactly, but he has made a tentative call to allow this to happen. 

“You get to a point where you’re focused strictly on improving your team any way you can,” Payton said. “I do think he has a gift.”

Most of the advice from other coaches aligned with the way this went down for the Broncos. The biggest issue was that plays weren’t coming in fast enough, and Kellen Moore of the New Orleans Saints spoke about his first season calling plays in 2019, when he helped the Dallas Cowboys lead the league in offensive yardage. 

“Obviously, the timing of everything, with the play clock, it happens fast,” said Moore. “You’ve got a few seconds to make a decision. You’ve got to go.”

Dave Canales of the Carolina Panthers echoed this, and he mentioned the anticipation that goes into the process. 

“The play clock comes around quickly,” said Canales. “Knowing after penalties, (in) 25 seconds, you’ve gotta have a play ready while you’re trying to figure out, ‘Is it going to be second-and-15 or third-and-7?’ Or whatever it is, so you have the appropriate play.”

Payton wound up coming back to the conflicts that inevitably occur, which is also a very Payton thing to do. 

“I’m sure there are going to be times where I say, ‘This is what I want to run,'” Payton said. “But there’s trust there. There’s trust with his ability and trust in our relationship.”