Does friction between Sean Payton and Bo Nix help the Broncos?

The Broncos are 7-2 with an offense still behind the yellow tape, and the hosts say the tension between coach and quarterback may be how it gets finished.

BY DENVER SPORTS

Nov 12, 2026, 3:19 PM

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Watch: Sean Payton says it's time to cut through the yellow tape, what took so long? | Freshly Grated | 22 mins

A driver who passes the same orange barrels all summer eventually wants to know when the road opens. Mike Evans says that is how it feels to watch the Broncos offense. Head coach Sean Payton said it was time to “cut through the yellow tape,” and Evans wants to know why the building has taken this long.

On a recent episode of “Freshly Graded” on Denver Sports, host Marcello Romano and Evans took up the question. Denver is 7-2, but the offense hasn’t looked the way they expected. Evans asked it plainly.

“Why has this offense been under construction for so long,” Evans said, “and when are we as Broncos country gonna get to move into this new house?”

Why friction helps

Romano’s answer is that the tape started coming down when Payton took back the play calling about a month ago. His view is that “friction can spark fire,” and that it was missing while Davis Webb called plays. He described that stretch as a pump-you-up environment with less criticism of missed plays. He pointed to a sideline exchange between Payton and quarterback Bo Nix last week as the kind of thing the two need.

Evans backed that up with some reporting. He asked analyst Mark Schlereth whether the sideline cameras would have caught any tension between Webb and Nix. Schlereth said they would, and Evans said nothing ever showed up.

What the Webb move was about

Evans doesn’t think the switch was mainly about play calling. His read is that Payton, used to a ready-made veteran like Drew Brees in New Orleans, was struggling to connect with Nix. A peer voice might help. Coming off the ankle injury, Nix may also have been playing a little risk-averse and needed a push.

Payton’s return supplies that push. Evans said it is a voice that “probably can kind of tick Bo off at times.”

Nix doesn’t back down from it. “Bo doesn’t hesitate to go back at Sean,” Evans said.

The substitute and the hard teacher

Evans’ comparison was the substitute teacher. When one walked in, students exhaled, goofed off and knew it wasn’t real. Even the sub understood it wasn’t really their class.

Then Payton returned, and Evans asked everyone to picture their toughest teacher.

“Think of the worst, hardest teacher you ever had,” Evans said.

You sit up straighter and mind your manners. The teacher may irritate you, but Evans said that probably made you a better student.

Romano agreed, with a personal memory of a disliked teacher at every level of school. “When you got that A or B in that class, you kind of felt really good about it,” he said.

The tape isn’t cut yet

Romano doesn’t excuse the experiment. He credits Payton for recognizing that something had to change quickly, but he said the timing is fair to question, and the offense “almost went backwards” when Payton first took over. Now, he said, the tide appears to be turning.

Evans is just as measured. He graded Nix a C+ through nine games, “but getting better,” and Romano joked that Nix was earning extra credit. On the show’s “confetti test” of Super Bowl contenders, Evans said the Broncos fail. The defense is clutch, but the offense has “a ways to go.”

Romano put the running game and the offensive line at the center of that gap. Evans said the first step is benching left guard Ben Powers.

So the hosts’ argument comes down to whether the friction leads to results. A tougher teacher can improve a student, but only the grades will show it.

Disclosure: This article was transcribed from our original audio content and edited for readability with the assistance of generative AI. The article has been reviewed by our editorial team prior to publication. Please watch or listen to the clip above for the full segment.