Sean Payton says play-calling was ‘smooth’ in his return, but not happy with third-down

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton made his return to offensive play-calling on Sunday afternoon.

His hiatus was only four games long.

The Broncos pulled out a 23-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers thanks in large part to their defense, with the offense still struggling for a majority of the contest.

Naturally, Payton was asked in his press conference afterwards how he though it all went. Payton officially stripped offensive coordinator Davis Webb of the play-calling earlier this week.

“Yeah, we’re good. We were fairly smooth, substitutions, all of that. Davis is, when you’re on there, you’re wanting conviction. He’s got conviction on certain plays,” Sean Payton said.

The head coach is still taking the OC’s input on the headset, but neither of them had a good day on third-down. The Broncos offense went just 1-12, something Payton wasn’t pleased about.

“We’ve got to obviously clean that up. I think we converted one third-down, so that’s not good enough,” Payton said.

QB Bo Nix finished with only 123 yards passing and one touchdown, plus he fumbled twice, losing one of them. Payton was asked if even in an ugly win are there things to improve upon.

“You’re looking for small steps. There were some things that were good and then, specifically just staying on the field and converting four or five more third-downs,” Sean Payton said. “I’ve got to be a little bit better too just with some of those calls relative to protection.”

Nix was only sacked one time by the Chargers defense, but it felt like L.A. had pressure on him all day. He did deliver a dart to Courtland Sutton for a touchdown shortly after a completion to Jaylen Waddle in which Nix got hit low and the Chargers were flagged.

As for Webb’s mindset after no longer calling plays, Payton went out of his way to praise him.

“He had a good week, considering, and it’s difficult. It’s really difficult. And I appreciate him,” Payton said.

The Broncos are now 3-2, but there’s a ton of issues to fix, specifically on offense.

Sean Payton kept coming back to third-down, but they’ve only got three days to rectify it before the defending champion Seahawks come calling on Thursday night.

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