Joel Klatt says he would have already taken the play calling back from Davis Webb

The Davis Webb era lasted one game before the first serious cracks appeared. The Denver Broncos were dismantled 31-10 by the Kansas City Chiefs on “Monday Night Football.” And the offensive performance was so lifeless – one touchdown, 131 passing yards, 61 rushing yards – that the conversation has already shifted from what Webb’s offense will look like to how long it will exist at all.

On a recent edition of “Stokley and Evans, with Mark Schlereth” on 104.3 The Fan, Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt joined the show and delivered the kind of verdict that landed like a thunderclap across Broncos Country.

Brandon Stokley posed the question that has been building since the final whistle at Arrowhead.

“How long do you give Davis Webb here moving forward if you’re Sean Payton, before you take back over the play calling?” Stokley asked.

Klatt didn’t hesitate.

“Well, I would give him about two days ago,” Klatt said.

Stokley’s reaction captured the shock in the room.

“Wow! That’s it huh? One game?” Stokley said.

One game. One hundred and thirty-one passing yards. Sixty-one rushing yards. A total offensive output so anemic that Kansas City’s newly acquired running back Kenneth Walker nearly outgained the entire Broncos offense by himself. That’s the body of evidence Klatt needed to arrive at his conclusion, and his reasoning went beyond the box score.

“I think as a coach, you have to understand what your superpower is. Why are you in the position you are in? And for Sean, he’s one of the better play callers that we’ve seen in football history. If there’s a Rushmore of 10 or 15 play callers through history, wouldn’t he be on it? Yeah, I think he would,” Klatt said.

That framing elevates the conversation from a Week 1 overreaction to a fundamental question about organizational decision-making. Payton didn’t hand off a minor responsibility. He handed off the single trait that has defined his career, the thing that put him in the Hall of Fame conversation, the thing that built championship offenses in New Orleans, the thing that resurrected the Broncos from a decade of irrelevance.

Klatt then made the broader point about what giving that up actually means.

“And to give that up, that is dangerous. That is incredibly dangerous to give that up,” Klatt said.

That word, dangerous, carries a different weight after Monday night. Before the season, handing play calling to Webb felt like a calculated evolution. A young coordinator with fresh ideas stepping into a role he had been groomed for. After a 31-10 loss where the offense generated fewer total yards than a single opposing running back, it feels like something else entirely.

The Broncos have sixteen games left. Webb may find his footing. The offense may look completely different in Week 2 against the Jaguars. But Klatt’s message is clear, Sean Payton’s greatest gift to the Broncos has always been his ability to call a game, and every week he sits in the press box without a play sheet in his hand is a week the franchise is gambling with its most valuable coaching asset.

One game was enough for Joel Klatt. The question is whether it will be enough for Sean Payton.

Related

Broncos list two players as not practicing on estimated injury reportWhere was the Broncos heart in a lifeless loss to the Chiefs?Bears make it clear: They’re coming for a cool Broncos recordCowherd explains viral Bo Nix rant, says ‘coaches fall out of love overnight’ with playersBlame the coaching staff for putting Bo Nix in an impossible positionThe Broncos are still trying to solve the riddle of offensive three-and-outs