Could Broncos get better offense from crisper pre-snap process?

When Sean Payton answered questions following Sunday’s 13-6 Denver Broncos loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was still in the process of disseminating just what went wrong for an offense that has just one touchdown in two weeks — the fewest through an opening two games in team history, tied with four other seasons.

“When you run a play and it has success, you look at the pieces. When you run a play and it does not have success, are we putting our guys in the best position?” Payton said when answering a question.

And then Payton noted something that could bear remembering for future weeks.

“We are rotating a lot of different personnel groups in and out,” he said. “I do not know if that is helping us, quite honestly. We need to evaluate that closely relative to our personnel.”

The constant shuffling adds a layer of complexity to the pre-snap process. And with a rookie starting quarterback in Bo Nix, an offense that is only clicking in brief spurts, and two timeouts used Sunday — one in each half — when the Broncos were at risk of not getting off the play before the expiration of the play clock — evaluating the process is wise.

The Broncos used another timeout in the second quarter when they backtracked from deciding to punt, instead opting for a fourth-down pass that would be deflected incomplete at the line of scrimmage.

That’s three of six timeouts wiped out because of either a hitch in the pre-snap process or a reversal of a decision. Fourteen of 56 snaps — 25 percent — came with the play clock at 3 seconds or fewer.

And given that the Broncos operated more efficiently when they had more time with which to work, that is worth investigating — including the first of this week’s postgame three numbers:

7.03

That’s how many yards per play the Broncos averaged when they were able to snap the ball with at least 11 seconds remaining on the play clock. Aiding this was no-huddle work on their penultimate drive.

While going with a hurry-up pace precludes mass substitution and use of pre-snap motion, it seemed to settle Bo Nix and the Broncos offense — perhaps because it lacked complicating elements, particularly with the changes of personnel.

Now, aiding this average was the 49-yard strike from Nix to Josh Reynolds that followed the direct snap to Javonte Williams and the pitch back from Courtland Sutton to Bo Nix.

But even without that singular play, the Broncos averaged 5.36 yards on their other 25 plays when the snap came with more than 10 seconds left on the play clock, compared with 3.73 yards a snap on the 30 plays that saw the clock dwindle to 10 seconds or fewer.

42.9

The percentage of first-and-10 snaps in the last two weeks on which the Broncos ran the football. The NFL average heading into Monday night was 52.8 percent.

Getting the ground game going has to be a priority, and as Payton said Monday, the cause for issues is “probably a collection of all of us,” and not strictly on starting running back Javonte Williams, who has failed to average 4.0 yards per carry in 12-consecutive games.

“I saw it (the burst from Williams) in training camp. I look forward to seeing it this season,” Payton said. “In the meantime, some of these other guys are doing a good job.”

6

Number of quarterbacks since the AFL-NFL merger who have thrown at least 75 passes in their first two starts without throwing a touchdown, according to pro-football-reference.com. Bo Nix joined Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Dak Prescott, Ryan Lindley, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tom Tupa.

Sean Payton, on the state of the Broncos offense: "I just finished telling the offensive coaches … "That side of the ball needs to get cleaned up, and that starts with me. We got to start really looking at who we're asking to do what. And that was — it was frustrating because… pic.twitter.com/e0fIE8i6SR

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) September 16, 2024