Sean Payton says Bo Nix, like everyone, is ‘disappointed’ Webb experiment didn’t work

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton had a surprise press conference on Thursday.

Payton wasn’t originally scheduled to meet with the media, but word had leaked he’d be calling offensive plays for the Broncos moving forward. The head coach stepped to the podium and immediately confirmed the news.

But that led to a lot of questions now that the duty has been stripped from offensive coordinator Davis Webb. And several of the inquiries revolved around Broncos QB Bo Nix.

First of all, who’s in Nix’s ear during Sunday’s showdown with the Chargers?

“I’ll be in Bo’s head, because otherwise you lose like four seconds,” Sean Payton said. “Mechanics, it’ll be fast. It’ll be fast, it’ll be fast… the mechanics will be quick.”

The 62-year-old Payton initially gave play-calling duties to Webb, in part, because of the speed of the game. But Payton wanted it to be known that won’t be an issue with the Broncos battling the play clock.

Later, Payton was asked if the decision was made to light a fire under Nix or get him back on track after a slow start to the season.

“No, listen, Bo’s the byproduct of a lot of things, that position. And so, hopefully that’ll be one of the things that can happen. But, there are a lot of other things that I think can allow that to happen first,” Sean Payton said.

Essentially, Payton is hoping this change can spark not only Nix but also the entire offense. He clearly wants the running game to get better along with a slew of other execution issues.

“It’s the little things that every one of us has to look closely at,” Payton said.

And what’s was Nix’s reaction to being informed that after only four games Webb was finished calling plays and it’s back in Payton’s hands?

“Bo? Yeah, everyone’s a little disappointed cause you feel like you let one of your teammates down. You know, that’s like the human part of it. And that’s our game, a little bit, in this league,” Sean Payton said.

It’s a results driven business and right now the 2-2 Broncos haven’t looked good enough of offense. They’re 27th in the NFL in both points per game (18.5) and yards per game (280.3).

In that same answer about Nix, Payton let his mind wander back to Webb.

“But I’m going to go back to what I said earlier relative to his talent. And, it’s rare. And he’s gifted and so it’s all ahead of him, I’m talking about Davis,” Payton said.

Payton opened the press conference by noting he thinks Webb can be a future head coach in this league. But on Oct. 8 this is best for the Broncos.

“Just felt like we needed a change right now,” Sean Payton said.

The first test to prove the change was correct comes in fewer than 72 hours against the Chargers. Denver will look to get the offense back on track and improve to 3-2 on the season.

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