Sean Payton is taking back the Broncos’ offense.
The move ends the Davis Webb experiment after just four games, with Webb set to lose the play-calling duties he picked up in the offseason. Denver will make the switch this weekend against the Chargers, putting Payton back in charge of the offense on game day.
Former NFL receiver Brandon Stokley was first to report the change, tweeting Wednesday night, “I’m hearing that Sean Payton is going to be taking over play calling this week,” and the team has since confirmed that Payton will indeed handle the calls again.
This decision has been building for weeks. Denver’s Week 1 showing against the Chiefs set the tone in the worst possible way. In that 31-10 loss, the Broncos as a team finished with fewer yards from scrimmage, 176, than Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III had in his debut with the team, 191.
The offense showed signs of life in the second half against the Jaguars in Week 2, and for a while that seemed to calm the waters. But the questions kept coming.
By the second half of the Week 3 game against the Rams, with Denver already trailing 16-0, attention turned to whether Payton might step back in. That never happened, and the Broncos again rallied without a change.
Then came Week 4. A 3-3 halftime tie against the 49ers turned into a double-digit loss, and that was enough to push the issue over the edge.
The timing also lines up with what’s ahead. Denver gets the Chargers this week, then turns around for a Week 6 Thursday night matchup with the Seahawks. Bringing Payton back now gives him a chance to settle back into the role before a major prime-time game, one with extra baggage attached after Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald’s not-really-on-the-record remarks to Graham Bensinger resurfaced a dustup from the Week 1 meeting between the teams in the 2024 season.
The Broncos’ bigger picture has changed, too. If they’re going to get back into the No. 1 seed race in the AFC, there isn’t much room left to stumble. Last year’s team finished 14-3, and through four games this season, Denver is already one loss away from matching that total.
That said, the 2025 Broncos were also 1-2 before ripping off 11 straight wins. What’s happened through four games in 2026 doesn’t point to another run like that unless this change gives the offense a different gear.
In the end, this is Payton’s call. And with the bar set high by what Denver did in 2025, the pressure to get this right is already obvious.
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