Julian Love may not be the name driving the change, but Sean Payton’s decision to take back the Denver Broncos’ offensive play-calling duties from Davis Webb after four games is the move that now frames Sunday’s offense. Payton said on Thursday he will resume primary play-calling against the Los Angeles Chargers, a reset aimed at an attack that has stalled through four weeks.
Sean Payton takes back control
4 games is all it took for the Broncos to reverse course, with Payton moving back into the play-caller role after Webb handled it during the opening stretch. The team was 2-2 when the switch landed, and Webb said the offense had not put together enough consistent football to hold the job longer. That is the practical significance here: the person shaping the first call, the tempo and the sequencing is changing before a divisional game.
1 hour was enough for Webb and Payton to talk through the change earlier in the week, after the 24-14 loss at San Francisco pushed the discussion into the open. Webb said Payton shared his own story of being stripped of play calling when he was an assistant with the New York Giants in 2002, and that the conversation helped him move past the disappointment of losing the responsibility this week.
Denver Broncos offense under pressure
28th is where the Broncos sat in offensive points scored through four weeks, at 16.8 per game, and they also ranked 28th in total offense at 280.3 yards per game. The first-half numbers are even sharper: 13 first-half points through four games, their fewest through four games in a season since at least 2000 according to TruMedia. That kind of production narrows the margin for a coaching staff that opened the season with Webb calling plays and is now asking Payton to speed up the start of games.
23rd out of 29 qualified passes was where Bo Nix stood in EPA per dropback in the first half through four weeks, also according to TruMedia, which gives the change a clear football reason instead of just a coaching one. Webb said, “I take responsibility for that. I'm the play caller. But we all have a hand in this and, hopefully, we can get going in (games) a little faster.” He also said, “We just didn't put a full game together consistently enough.”
Webb keeps his role
Webb did not treat the demotion as a collapse in trust. “It's on to the next thing,” he said on Friday, adding, “That's the NFL. We wake up and have a job to do, and that's to help these players be successful. That's the only thing that's on my mind right now, and I think our staff is doing a good job of that.” He also said he kept running the meetings and helping in the quarterback room, which keeps him inside the structure even as Payton retakes the headset work.
That split matters because Webb said he expected this possibility when he took the offensive coordinator job this offseason. “I taught myself early to think about the best- and worst-case scenarios,” he said. “If you're OK with both, then take that job on.” For now, the clean read is simple: Payton wants the offense in his hands against the Los Angeles Chargers, Webb is still inside the operation, and the next test is whether the sequencing changes the way the Broncos start games.
