ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The schedule was already built by February. Sean Payton’s offseason program was laid out in great detail well before players would arrive two months later. It would end June 13, the final day of a mandatory three-day minicamp serving as a springboard into summer break. Not in the original plans: letting players “put the keys in the ignition” one day early.
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And yet there Payton was Wednesday, announcing at the start of his post-practice meeting with reporters that he was wiping the final session of the minicamp. Players were free to go. See you in late July. It has been a rare occurrence for Payton as a head coach since the 2011 collective bargaining agreement condensed the offseason, limiting teams to 10 OTAs and the three-day minicamp.
“Prior to that CBA, you almost always had to find a day where you were doing something different,” said Payton, who was known to schedule activities like paintball or a trip to a water park during his early days as a head coach. “After 2011, it got reduced to 10 OTAs, your minicamp and your weightlifting. It’s a little harder to just plan a day.”
So why did he decide to plan a rare off day in this program, something he didn’t do during his first offseason with the Denver Broncos?
“This was more a byproduct of what we’ve been seeing and where we’re at,” Payton said. “I like where we’re at.”
Finished strong. 😤 pic.twitter.com/6KzBPhROp2
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) June 12, 2024
It was a common refrain from Payton during the offseason, which began with a rookie minicamp in early May and ended with Wednesday’s full-team practice. The Broncos got younger this offseason — no more so at quarterback, where 24-year-old Bo Nix has arrived to replace 35-year-old Russell Wilson — and, Payton said repeatedly, more competitive across the roster. Players have said the continuity has helped, too. Nearly the entire coaching staff returned and the schemes on both sides of the ball have remained in place, a rare occurrence for a team that has seen so many year-to-year changes in that regard since it last made the playoffs in 2015.
It all led to a better product this offseason, Payton said, a conclusion reached whether the evaluation tool was the biometric readings from players’ GPS monitors or evaluation of the film.
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“I’d say the competition kind of sharpens things,” Payton said. “We have it in a lot of spots and it felt different this year, in a good way.”
The glowing assessment Payton gave his team for its offseason work likely won’t do much to alter the outside perception of the Broncos heading into 2024. It’s hard to find anyone picking the Broncos to make the playoffs. Oddsmakers are penciling Denver in for five or six wins, maybe seven. They see this year as the start of a reset, with too much uncertainty at the quarterback position — among other spots — to believe the Broncos are ready to compete for anything meaningful. Skeptics of the Broncos’ chances would point out that open competition at numerous positions happens because there aren’t known commodities at those spots.
A relaxed Payton hasn’t seemed to sweat that perception. He is less concerned with any outside noise than he might have been last offseason, when he was eager to put his stamp on the franchise and exhibit his passion for the work after a year away from coaching.
“There’s probably a little bit in that first year where you’re pissing on all the trees,” Payton said. “I (was) probably guilty of that.”
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That doesn’t mean that internal expectations have changed. Payton has pushed back against the idea the Broncos are rebuilding, even if they ultimately start a rookie quarterback in Nix. It’s a “year-to-year league,” he said earlier this week, and the Broncos believe they can be in the playoff mix.
Or, as linebacker Alex Singleton eloquently put it: “We don’t want to suck. I think that is every team’s goal.”
“We’re competing to win this year, and we’re going to make the right decision relative to who gives us that opportunity,” Payton said. “I think not only at quarterback, the thing I see different this offseason is in the secondary, in the receiver group. There is a lot of competition for jobs and playing time. That’s encouraging. You guys who follow and who watched these (practices) a year ago, maybe you see something that’s different. Certainly, I feel like it’s been different.”
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There might be many roster decisions as the Broncos begin cobbling together a 53-man picture in training camp, but none is more important than the one Payton and the team make at quarterback. The offseason program offered the start of what is being billed as a three-way competition among Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson. The Broncos managed an even split of the reps for all three quarterbacks during OTAs and minicamps.
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At some point, perhaps early in training camp, that will change.
“We’ll have a plan when we start camp,” Payton said. “Then, we begin to make some decisions relative to reps and all that. But right now, it kind of went how we expected. There was a lot of good things to coach off of, a lot of things to correct.”
Payton has not tipped his hand about which way he is leaning with his quarterback choice, but it’s fair to conclude Nix’s performance during the offseason program played at least some role in the coach’s favorable assessment of the work the Broncos put together. The rookie is going to be the starter at some point. First-round picks don’t sit long in the current NFL landscape. But the Broncos don’t want to have to squint to see Nix in the Week 1 role either. So far, they haven’t had to.
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Nix didn’t end minicamp with his best day — he threw an interception to Levi Wallace in seven-on-seven drills and failed to guide the offense to a touchdown during his red zone session — but the overall consistency of his performances impressed coaches and teammates during camp.
“His sense of maturity, it almost feels like he’s been here before,” right guard Quinn Meinerz said.
But the truth is Nix hasn’t been here before. And none of the other quarterbacks has taken a team where the Broncos are trying to go. That is part of the reason valid skepticism exists about how much this team can do in 2024. But Payton can only judge his squad, for now, by the work it did during 12 offseason practices.
One fewer than planned.
(Photo of Sean Payton and Patrick Surtain II: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
