ATLANTA — Sean Payton may never lose another preseason game.
After the Broncos dropped the first two of his tenure in August 2023, they’ve reeled off eight straight wins over now four different seasons.
The latest: A 27-7 drubbing of the Falcons on Friday night to kick off 2026 exhibition play.
Payton insists that results do matter in the preseason, though more to instill a culture of competition than anything else.
There is only so much to be taken from the box score of an exhibition. The Broncos racked up major advantages in total yardage (360 to 178), first downs (24 to 10) and time of possession (34:32 to 21:20). Payton was particularly pleased with the way his team played up front, finishing with a rushing differential of plus-113 yards.
“I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage,” he said.
The Broncos mounted four scoring drives on offense and also scored on defense when second-year cornerback Jahdae Barron returned an interception 98 yards for a touchdown late in the first half.
That was an electric takeaway. Here are five more.
Davis Webb’s promise is about more than a handful of scoring drives
Davis Webb said over the summer he thinks the Broncos will have a bit of an element of surprise early in the regular season.
Conventional wisdom might be that there’s no reason for the 31-year-old to show the true good stuff through three preseason games before his regular-season debut arrives against Kansas City and long-time defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
Payton’s reaction to that notion Friday night? Forget all that.
“We’re not thinking that,” he said. “He’s thinking about having his best night tonight.”
Really, the Chiefs don’t enter the thought process at all? There’s no cloak-and-dagger?
“No, no,” Payton insisted. “We’re not thinking that far ahead. He’s thinking about having his best night tonight and thatap — I’d approach it the same way. The self-scout, the opponent stuff, then what they’re doing defensively, how they play defense is a little different.
“He’s thinking about, man, getting that confidence going with the group, the run game, the play action.”
Well, whether Webb called Friday night like a regular-season game or not, his second time in the driver’s seat for a preseason game looked awfully good.
It wasn’t just the six-play, 69-yard opening touchdown drive or the 217 yards and 14 first downs over the offense’s first four drives.
It was the way the offense flowed, too.
“It was so good,” quarterback Sam Ehlinger said. “He did a great job tonight. He’s got a great feel for the offense, a great feel for offensive football.”
Webb has natural flow. Plays are in quickly. The operation, at least from afar, looks clean. The head coach thought so, too.
“It was smooth,” Payton said. “I felt like, maybe there was a play or two when we got down to three seconds, but the subs were good, Davis was on point. I thought the QBs were good in and out of the huddle.”
Getting to the line quickly is great. It allows the quarterback precious seconds to survey the defense, decode looks and run the mental checklist for each play.
Thatap not all Webb is doing, though.
Stidham reiterated a strength of Webb’s that starter Bo Nix mentioned earlier in the offseason: The play-caller’s radio to the quarterback’s helmet cuts off at 15 seconds left on the play clock. Webb doesn’t just consistently get the call in quickly; he’s also got time for other information, too.
“There were little things he was telling me in the headset tonight — and I remember him doing the same thing last year — and just doing a very good job communicating and just being calm and collected. Like I said, just giving reminders on each play and just being helpful.
“He’s going to be a really good play-caller for a long time.”
Payton knows what it looks like. He’s been among the best in the business for a long time.
There are several steps to go, of course. Calling plays in mid-September, mid-November or mid-January is an entirely different beast than in the dog days of August.
There’s a more immesignpostn post ahead, too. Next week, Webb should get to radio plays into starting quarterback Bo Nix for the first time in a game situation.
Overall, though, the things that will determine whether Webb is a consistently high-level play-caller at this level are things he hasn’t experienced yet.
Namely, to Payton’s mind: What do you do when nothing seems to be working?
“Honestly, you can have games where that play sheet looks magnificent and then there’s games where you can stare at 140 (plays) and hate all of them,” Payton said. “When you have a rhythm, thatap great, but how do you create it when there’s not? We started doing some sequencing studying — there’s four things that can happen in a series (on first and second down): Run/run, pass/pass, run/pass, pass/run.”
The key for Payton, regardless of your sequencing: How to reset if the opening play-calls don’t go well and how do you do it as quickly as possible?
Plus, good play-callers dictate games but they also feel how games are flowing across the board.
“We have to be connected in the three phases,” Payton said. “The better teams are connected as to what the overall plan is. So, as a play-caller, you’re paying attention to how you’re playing defense. Or, you’re paying attention to — you’re playing a really high-end offense and the volleys are different, right? All of that matters. …
“But how do you reset if itap not going well? I think thatap always a trick. What can you get to based on whatap being stopped and how do you adjust there?”
All of those elements and so many more will determine how well Webb does calling games.
Many of them he hasn’t faced yet in a real, live game environment.
So far, however, he’s passed every test in front of him with flying colors.
The Broncos defense looks regular-season ready already
It didn’t take long for Vance Joseph’s group to show its form. It did, though, take some work to get starting players enough snaps for their targeted workload of around 15 plays. Atlanta went three-and-out to start and only ran 13 plays on its first four possessions.
The defensive line wreaked havoc. The edge guys generated pressure. A bit later, two expected contributors at corner, Riley Moss and Jahdae Barron, came down with interceptions.
Atlanta’s five full first-half drives went punt, punt, interception, punt, pick-six. Then came four more punts before the Falcons finally mounted a fourth-quarter touchdown drive.
“It was good going out there with everybody and doing it live again,” All-Pro defensive tackle Zach Allen said. “Some things to clean up, but some good things, too. … We’re just striving to be as consistent as possible. Thatap what this time of year is. You’re always trying to find new techniques because you’ve always got to evolve, but at the same time, too, knowing the ins and outs of your job. …
“Itap a fun group and guys have a really good attitude right now.”
The Jonah Coleman momentum is real
Sometimes all it takes is a comment from the coach to solidify what has been percolating all of camp: Rookie running back Jonah Coleman is in line to help the Broncos right out of the chute this fall.
Payton, asked about the fourth-rounder’s four-carry, 24-yard preseason debut, didn’t hesitate.
“Just what we’ve been seeing, right?” he said. “And then you see enough of it and you’re like, ‘alright.’ When you stop needing to (see it)… and, look, he’s had a good camp. I liked his balance coming out of some of the tackles. I thought overall that group had a good night.”
Jarrett Stidham waited a long time to get back on the field, then looked sharp
The last time Jarrett Stidham took the field, the Broncos lost a heartbreaker of an AFC Championship Game to New England.
Stidham, of course, was put in an unprecedented situation when his first start of the year came with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
Denver didn’t come up short only because Stidham turned the ball over and set up New England’s only touchdown. On offense alone, the Broncos also failed a critical fourth-and-1 in the second quarter and got the ball 33 yards from the end zone in the fourth quarter and failed to tie or take the lead.
“It wasn’t just a disappointment for him,” Payton said Friday. “I was disappointed in myself. You lose a game like that, you go back and look at it closely. Margins in that game, yeah. One of his strengths is his resiliency and I think he’s got a little bit of that ‘it’ factor. He’s really good with the operation. Quick. … I thought he handled it well.”
Stidham played the first half Friday, led three scoring drives and finished 9-of-15 for 131 yards and a touchdown.
“I feel like one of the things I try to hang my hat on is just putting my nose down and just working,” Stidham said. “Obviously, it didn’t go our way in the championship game, but itap football. There has to be a winner and there has to be a loser. If you get knocked down, you’ve got to get right back to work and thatap what it was the entire offseason.”
One of Sean Payton’s preseason pet peeves: The travel party
The Broncos had a couple of players that required medical attention during Friday’s game. Levelle Bailey needed a cart to get back to the locker room after an ankle injury and didn’t return. Jaleel McLaughlin came up limping after a kickoff but was back in the game later on.
Neither, according to Payton, had any trouble finding attention from Denver’s on-site staff.
In fact, this is one of Payton’s consistent issues with preseason games: There are a lot of players and a lot of staff.
“Well, we had 17 people in the training room that weren’t players,” Payton said, just starting to get warmed up. “We had every ortho. We had every doctor in Denver here. So we were covered there. We had 15 trainers. This is the time of year where everyone has three interns for the summer. Equipment room. And so… it was good. (Chief communications officer Patrick Smyth) was good, his numbers are down. They weren’t as bad as I made it out to be (earlier this week). But what happens sometimes is that more is not always better.”
Payton made a reference to the 1970 movie “The Out-of-Towners,” in which Jack Lemmon’s character is constantly making notes about the people around him.
“There’s just a handful of things we’ll be better at,” Payton said. “I give (VP of player health and performance) Beau Lowery a hard time, but itap everyone. We had an injury and (the player) got five opinions in our own locker room.”
