Sean Payton has no intention of handing play-calling duties off, even temporarily.
The Broncos head coach, though, indicated Monday morning that almost anything else is on the table as he and his staff try to sort through what’s causing widespread offensive problems.
Denver, of course, roared to life in the fourth quarter Sunday against the New York Giants, scored a franchise-record 33 fourth-quarter points and hung on for a wild-as-you’ll-see 33-32 victory.
Sunrise, however, brought a new week and a sober Monday morning reality check about what the first 45-plus minutes looked like for Denver’s offense.
The Broncos didn’t score. They had just 10 first downs and 180 offensive yards at 3.8 per play. Bo Nix entered the fourth quarter 11 of 25 for 105 yards passing.
Even those numbers didn’t tell the entire story as the five plays to end the third quarter featured four carries for 48 yards from J.K. Dobbins and a 16-yard completion from Nix to Courtland Sutton.
“It’s been encouraging that we’ve been able to finish some games, and yet we’re going to play in bigger games and we’re going to have to be a lot more efficient in the first half of games,” Payton said.
The third-year Broncos coach said around 10 a.m. that players hadn’t yet been in for film review, but when that happened, they’d see myriad problems offensively.
“We really didn’t amount to anything until we got into the end of the game — fourth quarter,” he said. “Mental errors, mistakes, snaps, wrong reads. You name it.”
He sounded like a coach who is ready to put a lot of the offensive plan on the table with his staff and consider any number of changes to the group’s approach through seven games.
“You start with who,” Payton said. “Who is it that we’re asking to do certain things from a personnel standpoint? There may be some guys whose playing time goes up. Some might begin to diminish. You look closely at the personnel. Then you look at the scheme and does it fit us?
“There’s a lot to that question.”
One element that’s not part of the equation, though, is the play-calling duties themselves. Payton’s long been considered one of the best in the business — he’s called it a strength of his over the course of his career — and he had a quick answer when asked Monday if he’d ever considered handing the duties off to somebody else, even for a short stretch.
“No, I think we’re comfortable as an offensive staff as to how we’re operating,” Payton said.
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