Sean Payton is focused on bigger issues than Bo Nix’s accuracy

Bo Nix's accuracy on deep throws was something that caught most people's eyes on Sunday, but Sean Payton was focused on a variety of other issues from the loss

BY TRENT FINNEGAN

Sep 22, 2025, 11:31 AM

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Sean Payton’s Denver Broncos are 1-2 after three games. Coming off a promising season in which the Broncos made the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, the expectations were high for the orange and blue coming into the season, and so far, they haven’t quite lived up to it.

Something that makes the 1-2 record even worst is that the Broncos have spent exactly zero seconds trailing in the fourth quarter of both games, as they lost to a buzzer-beating field goal both times. They were in this same exact position a year ago with a less-talented roster and a less-experienced quarterback, so there’s plenty of time to get things turned around. The teams they lost to also have a combined 6-0 record, so it’s not like they’re losing to the bottom feeders of the league.

One of the biggest notes from Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers was how Bo Nix missed multiple deep throws that would’ve been game-flipping touchdowns. He had Marvin Mims Jr. open on a flea flicker earlier in the contest and Courtland Sutton on a deep ball late, and wasn’t able to put it in the bread basket. He also missed Mims on a potential 28-yard touchdown, but the pressure in his face impacted the throw, so it wasn’t totally on him.

Bo Nix with three big near misses in Week 3:

1. Off Marvin Mims fingertips for potential 63-yard TD
2. Too long to Mims on potential 28-yard TD
3. Too long to Courtland Sutton on potential chunk gain that would have set up a go-ahead field goal pic.twitter.com/xcyaWSOsBA

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) September 22, 2025

Payton had plenty of concerns outside of his quarterback’s accuracy down the field, an issue that he addressed after the loss on Sunday.

“I think of the two long balls… driving in this morning, that’d be like 50th on my, to-do list,” he said on Monday morning.

What’s higher on Payton’s list?

PENALTIES

The Broncos have had 24 penalties called against them through three games, which is tied for the 11th-most in the league. They had 10 called against them on Sunday for a total loss of 90 yards, including a head-scratching offsides call on tight end Adam Trautman that negated an important play late in the contest.

“I think the penalties were a big issue today in the meeting. We had 10. Some of them, [the] defense forces a punt. We line up in the neutral zone, and that equates to a turnover. All of a sudden they’re first and 10 again, instead of you having the football. Those are the things. And look us as coaches, we’ve got to look closely at what we’re doing to help eliminate those issues,” Payton said.

Last season Denver was called for 111 penalties, which was tied for the 13th-lowest mark in the league. The reason why the organization went out and traded for Payton to be the franchise’s next head coach in 2023 was to limit the lower-level issues such as penalties, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday.

NEGATIVE PLAYS

Negative plays were killer all throughout the loss in California. Of the 47 total plays that the Broncos ran on offense on Sunday (not counting the kneel down at the end of the first half), four went for zero yards and five went for negative yards. That doesn’t include the 11 incompletions that Nix threw on the day.

“I think [the offense] was too inconsistent. There were too many minus plays,” Payton said.

The penalties are the obvious drive-killers in football, but the negative plays have just as bad of an impact — and usually cost the offense a down at the same time. These plays happened for a variety of reasons, someone missed a block, a running back hit the wrong hole, or Nix got off his progression and hit the check down too early. No matter the reason, there were too many of these plays, and they need to be minimized if this team wants to compete in January.

THIRD DOWNS

As a result of the negative plays, Denver ended up in third-and-long situations way too often. Payton said that those scenarios didn’t play to Nix’s favor.

“It was a hard day to play quarterback when your average third down is third and 11. So if we’re not more efficient on first and second down, the best in our league, are going to struggle with the numbers that we gave him on third down.” he said.

The Broncos were just 2-for-13 on third downs in the loss. That pushes the season-long total to 12-for-37 (32.43%) for Payton’s offense, good for 27th in the league right behind the New Orleans Saints. That’s not a number that will result in the Lombardi Trophy making its way a mile above sea level for the fourth time.

Payton emphasized that the problems spanned way beyond Nix’s inability to throw the deep ball in Los Angeles. While that issue was one that most people noticed, Payton is more focused on the ones that are the foundations for championship football.