Sean Payton: Broncos have ‘yet to establish’ offensive identity

Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos have struggled to find consistency on the offensive side of the ball through three games. They’ve shown flashes against the Colts and the Chargers, but they have yet to put together a consistent game in which they’re getting first downs and keeping their defense off the field.

Part of that is because they haven’t established an identity yet. Second-year quarterback Bo Nix hasn’t looked like the same signal caller he was late last season when he started to find his groove, no receiver has put together two strong games back to back, and the running back rotation is still getting ironed out with J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey and whoever the third stringer is from week to week between Jaleel McLaughlin and Tyler Badie.

Payton knows that, and said after Broncos practice on Thursday that they’re still looking to find that identity heading into a must-win clash with the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football in Week 4.

“I think this sums it up, is to say, ‘Hey, this is an identity relative to running and throwing the ball. This is our identity.’ And I would say we’ve yet to establish that clearly for anyone watching ourselves,” Payton said.

He was also asked if he has a section of the playbook that’s his “bread and butter” that he can go to on critical downs, which he said yes to, but didn’t elaborate on outside of the identity aspect.

Payton’s right. Through three games, no one truly knows what this Broncos unit can hang their hat on. They had just nine first downs on Sunday compared to six three-and-outs. They rank 28th in offensive success rate league-wide, and only rank above the Texans, Titans, Browns and Raiders — four terrible offenses. For comparison, the Colts are first in the league in success rate (51.58%) while the Chargers are eighth (45.18%). Broncos fans have watched two good offenses the last two weeks while their own team has struggled to move up and down the field.

That’s not going to win a Super Bowl, something that Payton has done before with the New Orleans Saints, on top of the many times he made the playoffs in the Bayou with Drew Brees orchestrating the offense. What was the identity of those teams?

“If you looked at all those playoff teams, they were real good rushing teams, and so that balance was important always, and it will be for us and for the QB,” Payton said.

There were five years in New Orleans in which the Saints finished in the top seven in the league in both passing and rushing yards (’09, ’11, ’17, ’18, ’20). The pass offense finished in the top five in passing yards for 11 straight years (’06-’17). The Broncos have a long way to go to reach those heights, but that’s clearly the identity that Payton is working toward.

Does Payton know when he’s going to be able to establish an identity on offense with a date on the road against the defending champs looming?

“Soon.”

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