Well, it is now official. During media availability on Thursday, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton announced that he would be calling the plays for the team, and he will be the one in Bo Nix's ear during the game.
The Davis Webb-play-calling experiment lasted a total of four regular season games, and the Broncos have turned out to be one of the worst offenses in the NFL across the first month of the season. With that said, the team has played a gauntlet of opposing defenses to begin the season, so in some regards, can you really blame Webb...?
At any rate, the Broncos offense was not good enough, and among all the ugly stats that have plagued this team through four games, these three stand out.
Denver Broncos needed to make a play-calling change to spark the offense
18.5 points per game
The Broncos are scoring just 18.5 points per game, which ranks 27th in the NFL through the first month. In 2025, the team ranked 14th in the NFL with 23.6 points per game, and 10th in 2024, averaging 25 points per contest.
Denver cannot make the playoffs without scoring more than 20 points per game - it's really that simple. The team has not gotten into the endzone enough and has already suffered two double-digit losses. They had just one of those losses in 2025, which came against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Broncos likely need to average an entire touchdown more per game to get this offense in a solid spot. Getting into the endzone at least three times per game and at least reaching that 23.6 total from last year would give the team a chance to repeat as AFC West champions.
The name of the game in the NFL is putting up more points than the opponent - duh - and the Broncos have not done that.
325 total rushing yards
The Broncos have gained jsut 325 rushing yards in four games this year, which is the 4th-worst mark in the sport. That averages out to be 81.3 yards per game. For reference, the Broncos averaged 118.7 rushing yards per game in 2025 and 112.2 in 2024, so this is a massive drop-off.
And it's not like Denver had a notable rushing attack those years, either. While much of the attention with the Broncos is with Bo Nix and his alleged struggles this year, this passing attack is never going to get off the ground unless the team can establish some sort of identity running the ball.
Games in the NFL are won and lost in the trenches, and there might not be a team that has invested more in the trenches in the Payton era than the Broncos. Them not being able to run the ball is simply inexcusable.
One of the main points of emphasis with Payton taking play-calling back has to be to get the run game going. The offense won't improve unless the run game improves.
19 punts in four games
The Broncos have punted 19 times this year, which is tied for the 3rd-most in the NFL. This team is going 'three and out' far too much. What is neat, though, is that Jeremy Crawshaw, the team's punter, ranks 8th in yards per punt and 5th in net average, so he is having a fantastic season.
It would be even uglier if Crawshaw simply wasn't good, but, either way, he doesn't need to be punting as much as he has thus far. Averaging nearly five punts a game us not sustainable in this league. The offense needs to continue drives and at least come away with three points instead of gifting the other team a new possession.
For reference, Crawshaw averaged 4.41 punts per game last year. He's up to 4.75 this year, which would put him on pace for 81 punts across a full season. That would end up being six more punts than his rookie season.
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