Sean Payton turned to Davis Webb and went for a fist bump. Maybe a high five. It turned into basically a good slap on the chest.
Atta boy.
Broncos rookie running back Jonah Coleman had just slid down to put Denver’s 20-13 win against Jacksonville on ice. Denver didn’t run the ball a ton, but did it effectively when it needed to over the final five minutes.
Denver didn’t get off to a good offensive start, but spent three quarters taking the ball up and down the field on Jacksonville.
There was plenty of ugly along the way, but perhaps also the seedlings of what the Webb-called offense wants to be this fall.
Payton always frames the first month of the season as a “race to improve” for every team.
That is no less true of the Broncos, despite their overwhelming retention rate across the roster. It is perhaps particularly true for Denver’s offense, given that Webb is calling plays for the first time, and the unit, while similar overall, looks different in style and substance with the addition of Jaylen Waddle.
How close, then, is the Broncos offense to fully understanding what its identity is?
“Thatap a great question. I think that it has to show itself,” Payton said Monday. “There has to be a sense of urgency. We’re going to play in other games where that (Jacksonville) first half, for instance, won’t get it done.
“So we have to have that sense of urgency so that itap clear to everybody, ‘This is who we are.’ I think thatap something that we’re working on.”
Two games are not enough to say categorically, but the ways in which the Broncos adjusted from Week 1 to Week 2 are interesting, and so are the things Denver relied on while having success against Jacksonville.
Game situation matters, to be sure, but quarterback Bo Nix was under center just eight times in 51 non-kneeldown snaps against Kansas City. Against Jacksonville, that jumped to 22-for-61.
Webb’s rate of using multiple tight ends against the Jaguars was the team’s highest since the start of the 2025 season — excluding games against the Raiders — according to Next Gen Stats and jumped from 25.5% in Week 1 to more than 43% in Week 2.
The Broncos set the tone on that front in Week 2 as well, running their first two snaps of offense with two and three tight ends on the field, respectively.
They are also using motion much more frequently so far this season than in past years. They’re at 66% motion rate pre-snap through two games, which is No. 14 in the NFL. According to Next Gen Stats, the offense has put multiple men in motion at the fourth-highest rate in the NFL.
Most of the Week 2 numbers and overall trends in terms of presentation — more motion, more under center, more heavy personnel — track with what Webb seemed inclined toward as he and players talked through the spring and summer.
“It helps to have a calling card, if you will, but I think it helps for a different reason, though,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “It helps to open up everything else. If you’re really good at a certain couple things that defenses have to panic over and you can find what those things are, then make it look like those things are happening and get to something different, thatap when those explosives start happening.”
The win over Jacksonville looked like a step toward that for the Broncos. It looked like progress toward an identity beyond just moving the ball and scoring points. But that doesn’t guarantee that Sunday night against the Rams will look exactly the same.
“There’s a ton of things for him to say, ‘Hey, what do I like?’” offensive line coach Zach Strief said. “How are they being presented to him? Ending up on a run plan is a collaborative effort. How are we going to naked this team? How are we going to play-action this team? You’re kind of finding that stuff out as you go. Obviously we don’t have a lot of additions, but Waddle’s a big addition that makes people see you differently. So, how are they playing him? What do we have available to us given that?
“Itap not these massive far-ranging changes. We do what we do. How we present that or how we attack a given team or a certain defense, those things are ongoing throughout a season.”
The Broncos have talked quite a bit about the outside zone run game over the past 18 or so months, but that hasn’t yet materialized this fall. Per NGS, the Broncos have only run zone concepts 17 times through the first two weeks — though only Dallas has fewer rushing attempts total than Denver’s 43 in the early going. Denver is averaging 5.9 yards per carry, though, on those zone-run snaps.
Overall, the Broncos’ offense is still a work in progress. That would be the case to some degree if it had been all good or all bad through two games, but itap probably especially so because each of the first two played out so differently.
They think they’re on the path toward an identity, though, and they know they need to forge it relatively quickly.
“After a four-game stretch, you should probably know where the hell you’re at,” McGlinchey said. … “We’re just starting to scratch the surface of what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to become and thatap an exciting place to be.”
