Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton is happy that his team is 5-3 after they took care of business at home on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, but everything is under the microscope still as it pertains to surrounding rookie quarterback Bo Nix with the right talent around him.
Denver Broncos’ HC Sean Payton touches on personnel around Bo Nix
For a good part of this season, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has mentioned that the team is still trying to paint a cleaner picture around the offense and their personnel. In Sunday’s win against the Carolina Panthers, the Broncos put together 400 yards of offense against one of the NFL’s worst defenses, and there were a handful of missed plays due to drops that could have added a significant amount of depth to that profile.
Right before halftime, Nix fired a nice shot down the middle to Marvin Mims, who was wide open, but he didn’t appear to turn his head and look back for the ball in time. Nix placed a beautiful deep shot down the left sideline to Troy Franklin later in the game, but it fell through his hands while trying to track it. The Broncos’ rookie quarterback fired a pass to Courtland Sutton in the fourth quarter, which was heading toward his fourth touchdown pass of the game, but it was fumbled, and the Panthers took possession at the one-yard line. On Denver’s first offensive drive, wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey caught a pass from Nix, but the ball was punched out from behind and recovered by Carolina.
“For a rookie quarterback, I think all of these are steps,” Payton said. “Confidence steps. We’ve seen it. The key is—and I’ve said it—the key is around him. Are we good enough at these other positions around him? That’s what we’re constantly looking [at]. We have to paint the picture, and when we do that, we’ll have success. We’ll move the ball. Today we were much better on third down, better in the red zone. [We had] two wide receiver fumbles. [It] just is what it is. It bothers you.”
Sutton turned in an impressive performance after having zero targets against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football, hauling in eight catches for 100 yards. Behind him, Adam Trautman took advantage of National Tight Ends Day and hauled in four catches for 84 yards and an impressive one-handed touchdown.
Denver got more production this week out of the tight end room than they’ve had all season long, and Sutton’s performance was what they needed for Nix to shine this week, but they’re searching for consistency and other players to step up.
Devaughn Vele hauled in two tough catches on the day and could find a larger role coming up as the season progresses forward.
While the offense was better on Sunday than it has been all season, Payton has a standard he hopes the team can reach when they face better teams, including the next two against the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs.
“We felt going into this game, we felt like we had a good week of preparation and a good plan going in,” Payton said. “We have good leadership on this team. The most important thing is that their expectations can’t be lower than mine as players. I said to them, ‘We’re going to play in bigger games than this. But in bigger games than this, some of those games are going to cost us.’ So we have to take care of that.”
