ATLANTA — It took all of six preseason snaps for the Davis Webb hype train to gain steam and start rumbling down the tracks.
The Broncos’ first-year offensive coordinator and play-caller aced the first of three tests before Denver opens its regular season a month from now at Kansas City.
Caveats abound, but this much is fact: Webb has called two games for the Broncos in his career and the Denver offense has hummed in each. The Broncos racked up 359 yards and picked up 24 first downs in a dominant 27-7 win over the Falcons.
A year ago, Webb put together a 567-yard preseason performance against Arizona that was so good it stuck with head coach Sean Payton as the season wore on, and he began seriously considering handing the play-sheet to his 31-year-old protege.
On this night, the Broncos got the ball first, and Webb went right to work with Jarrett Stidham under center.
The Broncos raced 69 yards in six plays and waltzed into the end zone to open the unofficial portion of the 2026 campaign.
Over the course of the first four possessions, the Broncos offense rolled to three scores, a 17-0 lead on 217 total yards and 14 first downs.
The preseason started in an appropriate fashion, given the way training camp has gone so far: With an easy completion to second-year wide receiver Pat Bryant.
If a player is having a better camp in Denver than Bryant, the list is very short.
“He’s a confident player with strong hands,” Payton said Wednesday before the Broncos traveled south. “That ability to be on the ground and not alter your feet or your foot path (after the catch), I think really serves him well. Then, like anything, you have a good practice, then you have two. Then pretty soon there are a couple stories, and then there’s five stories and then all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘Hey.’
“You guys have seen these guys grow right before our eyes, and itap happened, I’m sure, more than a number of times. Itap good to see.”
Stidham also hit Courtland Sutton on a jump-ball down the field for 40 yards before fullback Adam Prentice punched home a 1-yard touchdown run.
By the end of the first quarter, the Broncos had one touchdown on the board in two drives, but had racked up 167 yards (8.8 per play) on 19 snaps and generated a whopping 11 first downs to Atlanta’s one.
One half of preseason football doesn’t mean the Broncos’ offense will be a top-flight unit through the regular season, of course, but there are few offseason moves more interesting and perhaps more impactful than Payton, long regarded as one of the league’s best play designers and play-callers, turning the duty over to Webb.
Certainly, it is the most important development for the 2026 Broncos that could actually be measured on Friday night. Quarterback Bo Nix, as expected, did not play and nor did star wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, the team’s biggest offseason addition. Other key players who did not dress included wide receiver Marvin Mims, Jr., running back J.K. Dobbins, the team’s top two centers in Luke Wattenberg and Alex Forsyth, key reserve Alex Palczewski and several other backups.
Payton announced Wednesday that Nix would not play and instead would make his preseason debut next week at home against Green Bay after having a pair of right ankle operations earlier in the offseason.
Nix has been a full participant through training camp, but Denver wanted to give him another week before real, live football, especially since Atlanta plays on turf.
Nix made the trip with the Broncos as Payton said earlier he would. He was out on the field for a brief workout and throwing session about three hours before kickoff. Then he watched Stidham and Ehlinger go through their normal early warm-up routine and throw to Broncos receivers, chatted with new Falcons president of football operations Matt Ryan, and eventually gave Webb a hug and donned a ballcap and headset to listen to his offensive coordinator call the game.
He watched his Broncos team dominate.
Not only did the offense score three times in the first half, but the starting defense — and a few key reserves — allowed just one first down in the first quarter.
The Falcons moved the ball more once Denver’s reserves had completely taken over late in the first half, but even a trip to the red zone didn’t result in points.
Instead, inside linebacker Karene Reid broke on a ball over the middle and tipped it into the air to cornerback Jahdae Barron, who raced 95 yards for a touchdown and a 24-0 halftime advantage.
Barron, the Broncos’ 2025 first-round pick, hasn’t found consistent playing time yet, but he made a series of sure tackles and followed his pick-six up with an athletic break-up on Atlanta’s next possession.
It was the kind of half that leaves even the most demanding of head coaches feeling good in the house of an old division rival.
On the way into the halftime locker room, Payton couldn’t help but take a jab at Falcons fans to 9News sideline reporter Cynthia Freelund, saying, “a lot of people dressed up as empty seats.”
