One day later, Sean Payton points to factors beyond Bo Nix as reasons for defeat

SEATTLE — Bo Nix was far from perfect Sunday, and Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton wasn’t going to pretend that he was.

“I just watched a play where he climbs the pocket, like — there were some bloody looks and he’s off-schedule, throwing off the wrong foot,” Payton said as he began a response to a question about the rookie quarterback during his day-after-game teleconference with Denver-area media Monday.

“But I would say, he’s doing what he has to on that play. You know, in other words, there’s a dagger opened up, but we’re not good in protection.”

Payton expounded on that regarding Bo Nix a moment later.

“Look, certainly like I saw a three-step and a hitch instead of a five and a hitch on a certain play; we’ll get that cleaned up. But overall, when he’s climbing a pocket or he’s on the move extending a play, there’s times where the ball is going to get away from you,” Payton said.

“But my bigger concern today, number one, the first half provided — that game early was there a little bit for the taking. We didn’t take advantage of the field position. The interception by Alex [Singleton], we’re sitting there in a perfect position to really go up and we don’t take advantage of the field position there. Our red-zone offense wasn’t nearly as good as it needed to be and we did have some drops early on.

“But I think when I watch this tape offensively, we need to be better around him and we will be.”

And that continued a theme on which Payton lingered after Sunday’s 26-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks: that Bo Nix has work to do, but there might be more work looming in areas beyond Nix that are needed in order to facilitate a young QB’s growth and success.

“So, look, certainly when we watched this game tape and evaluate the [QB], there’s a number of things that will get cleaned up and corrected,” Payton said.

“But man, I said it yesterday, I’ll say it again. One of the key things that was important in this game is winning the run-game battle. And we weren’t able to do that. We struggled.

Indeed, Payton’s focus remained on the running game, where backs Javonte Williams, Jaleel McLaughlin and Audric Estimé collectively averaged 3.2 yards per attempt during Sunday’s loss.

“There were too many 2-to-3-yard gains,” Payton said. “When you look at Javonte and Jaleel’s numbers, we have to be more effective there. And that’s something we talked about in the team meeting.”

“… And I would say from an assignment standpoint, our landmarks, some of those things have got to get cleaned up. And then I’d tell you there’s a couple runs that we’ve got to see better vision-wise from the running back position. Audric has one where I don’t know that his eyes are in the right spot, but he’s got a chance for a much bigger play. Javonte has one. So, overall, we’ve got to improve in that area.”

Payton also mentioned dropped passes by his pass-catchers, as well. Courtland Sutton and Lil’Jordan Humphrey each dropped passes Sunday.

“There were some early drops by the receivers, and then we bounced back,” Payton said.

Sean Payton assesses Bo Nix’s Week 1 performance and reiterates that the team will “need to be better around him.”

“Look, certainly like I saw a three-step and a hitch instead of a five and a hitch on a certain play; we’ll get that cleaned up. But overall, when he’s climbing a… pic.twitter.com/LzMibZ3rhz

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) September 9, 2024

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