Sean Payton opened his Tuesday news conference by reminding everyone how little time the Denver Broncos had to get ready for the defending champions. “So obviously a different schedule this week,” he said. “Today’s our first day. We have two days, really, of work.” On a short week, he said, teams lean on what they have already practiced and on walkthrough repetitions. “I think all the teams know a little bit more now compared to 20 years ago or 15 years ago how to handle a shorter week.”
The first thing on his list was the Seattle Seahawks’ defense. “They’re complete in all three areas in every statistical mark you look at,” Payton said. “They’ve got a real good front, they’re fantastic in their coverage fits, they defend the run well when they’re in their seven-and-a-half-man fronts, you know, very well. You don’t see plays get on top of them. They’ve got a real good pressure package.” He credited head coach Mike Macdonald for “putting together, you know, a super talented defense” in a short period of time.
Calling plays again: not quite riding a bike
Sunday’s 23-17 win over the Chargers was Payton’s first game after taking play-calling duties back from Davis Webb. Asked whether it was like riding a bike, he said it was “probably a little bit of both.” There were “some things that you have to spit out quickly” and “some subtle terminology changes,” he said. “I wish it was like riding a bike, because my memories of riding bikes was always carefree, relaxing, so I wouldn’t use that necessarily. But you do get used to how fast everything goes.”
He also talked about what he says to Bo Nix during games, and how much. “You get to game day and I don’t think you’re talking as much mechanics,” Payton said. “I think you’re talking about what you see, and I think you’ve got to be careful how much you say.” He added: “Only the expert knows what to ignore. I remember as a young coach, you want to cover everything, and then sometimes when you’re young and you don’t know better and you’re covering everything, you haven’t covered anything.”
On Nix and risk, Payton said the staff keeps looking for clean throws early in the progression “that make it less risky,” while accepting that Nix will sometimes have to scramble and find a throw against tight coverage. “I don’t want to feel like we’re down 17 in the fourth quarter, where now you’re playing in a different type of game relative to the throws you’re making,” he said. “There is that happy medium, I think.” He said he and Nix talk about it, and that Nix’s experience at Oregon has helped him. After a play goes wrong, Payton said, sometimes the message is simply: “I’m fine with what just happened, let’s get to the next play.”
Darnold, Smith-Njigba and the third-down pressure
Payton called Sam Darnold’s rise “impressive” and compared it to other quarterbacks who found the right home. “You get the right script, the right producer, the right actor, the right player, and we see it all the time in our league,” he said. “You have to say career changing, because he’s a Super Bowl winning quarterback on a fantastic team. His confidence is entirely different. Where he’s going, he’s decisive.” On receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, he pointed to “great football IQ” combined with “talent and hips,” and said he is “a really, really good rack player” who catches the ball cleanly with his feet on the ground.
Asked about the pressure Denver has faced on third down, which one reporter said some metrics rank as the most in football, Payton called it a “fair question.” “Certainly it’ll keep coming if you don’t have ways to beat it,” he said.
Takeaways, late-game drills and a loud stadium
Denver has come from behind in the fourth quarter in all three of its wins, a reporter noted. Payton said he likes the confidence that comes with it, but repeated what he said at the start of the season: “It’d be nice to play well earlier and not constantly put ourselves in that position.” He also wants the takeaways to keep coming. He traced the shift from “turnovers” to “takeaways” back to coaches like Lovie Smith and Monte Kiffin and players like Charles “Peanut” Tillman in the years after. “Those are purposeful,” Payton said. “Those are huge, huge swings of momentum.”
Asked about end-of-game situations around the league, including the Washington game, Payton said the Broncos review those every week. He recalled Joe Pisarcik’s fumble that Herman Edwards ran into the end zone in 1978 and how “everyone had an index card the following week.” With him calling plays again, he said he wants staff members reminding him about end-of-half scenarios and timeouts, even when he yells back at them: “I always want that.”
Payton was also lighthearted with a veteran reporter about an exchange from the day before. “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said. “I was just frickin’ tired and cranky. What’s my nickname? I was Mr. Crabby Pants yesterday.”
Asked whether the home crowd had changed since he talked about crowd noise late last season and early this one, he did not hold back. “It’s been fantastic. It’s been fantastic. It’s been fantastic,” Payton said. “If you ask them to quiet down, they will. But it’s been fantastic. The atmosphere has been great.” He noted that Thursday games have historically often been against division opponents, “obviously in this case, it’s not, but maybe an old division opponent if you follow the game,” a nod to Seattle’s years in the AFC West. Seattle (3-2) visits Denver (3-2) on Thursday, October 15, at 8:15 p.m. ET.
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