Three weeks ago, I introduced a strategic theory to start an emerging offense: The Power-Slot Pivot. The concept is simple but radically logical. By treating Evan Engram as a de-facto fifth wide receiver, moving him permanently to the slot, and activating rookie tight end Dallen Bentley to anchor traditional inline roles, Sean Payton can manipulate defensive personnel at will.
Originally, this blueprint was drawn as the definitive antidote for a Chargers defense that, despite entering the game with an injury-riddled record, completely suffocated Denver’s offense on a down-by-down basis. In a game where the Broncos were held to just 224 total yards and 9 first downs, the offense basically stalled by going for a miserable one. 2-of-13 on third down.
However, we have seen immediate glimpses of what the Power-Slot concept could be. Engram was targeted early, operating as the obvious intermediate security blanket for Bo Nix. He ended that contest on a productive one 4 receptions for 55 yardsshowing that when he’s separated from the formation and allowed to use his 4.42 speed against linebackers and nickel, he’s a mismatch nightmare.
Since that Chargers game, Engram has been quiet again. Through seven weeks, he’s sitting on just 13 catches for 136 yards on the season. For a player Sean Payton has labeled a “key piece” in the offseason, he’s barely on the weekly stat sheet.
As the Denver Broncos prepare to face the Kansas City Chiefs for a critical division showdown, it’s time to refine this strategy. If Denver wants to avoid another third-down execution failure, they need to look at what happened in Kansas City on Sunday Night Football. While the Broncos struggled to stay on the field a few weeks ago, the Seattle Seahawks just gave a masterclass in how to sustain drives against Kansas City, destroying Steve Spagnuolo’s defense by converting a historic 11-of-16 third-down attempts (68.8%).
The Casualty Ward and a Smarter Approach to the Bye Week
Denver’s receiver room is currently starved for reliable targets. Big-bodied threat Pat Bryant remains sidelined on Injured Reserve with an ankle injury. Unlike last season, when the coaching staff unfortunately rushed a concussed Nate Adkins back onto the field before he could fully recover, Sean Payton may have wisely chosen to take a more patient approach with Bryant.
With Denver’s Week 10 looming, the staff has the perfect excuse to hold off on Bryant until he gets home. There is no reason to compromise his long-term health.
However, that patience leaves an immediate void for Sunday. With explosive slot weapon Jaylen Waddle battling a chest injury, Payton can’t run a predictable, stagnant deck of cards against Steve Spagnuolo. This creates the perfect window for a temporary tactical adjustment. The Power-Slot Pivot doesn’t have to be a permanent identity overhaul; it can serve as a lethal, situational wrinkle specifically deployed to bridge the gap until the bye week.
Reshuffling the Board: The Roster Reality for LJH
To make it onto the day’s active game roster, Sean Payton had to pull the trigger on a personnel shift that was ultimately inevitable. Lil’Jordan Humphrey provides a physical presence on the perimeter, but the reality of the numbers game is clear: Humphrey will certainly lose his spot on the roster however sophomore Pat Bryant returns from IR after the bye. Payton should start that transition now by making Humphrey a gameday inactive against the Chiefs.
Engram soaks up the receiving snaps, effectively filling the WR5 spot on the depth chart. In order to maintain the structural integrity of Denver’s preferred heavy 12 and 13 personnel packages, the Broncos must officially activate the rookie tight end Dallen Bentley.
Bentley is biding his time as a healthy scratch. With the season at a critical inflection point, it’s time to put the seventh-round pick on the field and see what the young tight end can do in the trenches. By letting Bentley, Adam Trautman, and Nate Adkins handle the dirty work at the line of scrimmage, Payton completely frees Engram to hunt for vacuums in the secondary.
The visual layout of this arrangement works like a lateral chess piece move. In a traditional 12-personnel look, the defensive front is highly aligned for a down run or a standard play-action max-protection set. Once the ball is snapped, the Power-Slot Pivot triggers: Engram completely disengages from inline blocking duties, sliding directly into a wide slot alignment. Structurally, the defense thinks they’re defending the tight end, but suddenly they’re forced to react to an empty, five-receiver spread look.
The Historical Precedent: Mastering the Defensive Gameboard
For those skeptics who think that moving a tight end permanently into the wide receiver rotation seems too experimental for Sean Payton, look no further than his historic playbook. It also directly refutes the lazy narrative that Payton has been too tough to adapt his system. In reality, his recent game plans have shown a brilliant, highly disciplined balance between the run and pass to ease the burden on Bo Nix. This arrangement doesn’t abandon that balance—it maximizes it. Payton hasn’t built a top-ranked offense in over a decade by running standard, static sets; he did this through aggressive, lateral role-manipulation.
Think back to Payton’s fame “Pony Backfield” packages with the Saints. Traditional orthodoxy dictates that a team field one running back and one fullback, or spread the field with wideouts. Payton threw that out the window, routinely putting two dynamic, pass-catching tailbacks on the field at once (like Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas, or more recently, Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram). By putting “21 man” into the coaches’ headsets but splitting one of the backs out wide in the slot, he paralyzed the defensive coordinators. If the defense stayed with base personnel to stop the run, the tailback burned a linebacker in space. If they switch to nickels, Payton shoves it down their throats.
The dynamic is the same here. In New Orleans, Payton put two running backs on the field and watched the defense panic as one moved into the slot, leaving a heavy base defense stranded in space. In Denver, the new Power-Slot twist does the exact same thing with heavy personnel: we flash three tight ends onto the field where Dallen Bentley is active, only to have Engram come out on the perimeter, leaving a heavy defensive package to guess the line of scrimmage.
We see the pinnacle of this ideology in Payton’s execution of “Joker” position. He finished the tight end with outstanding athletic qualities—Jimmy Graham—and fundamentally violated the NFL’s defensive rules. Graham rarely plays like a traditional inline blocker. Payton took him away, played him out wide, and considered him a prime X or Z wide receiver, completely redefining what the tight end position looks like in the modern era.
The Power-Slot Pivot with Evan Engram and Dallen Bentley is not a radical departure from Sean Payton’s philosophy. It is a direct evolution of this. It takes the blueprint of the Pony backfield and the Joker position and applies it to a uniquely limited roster in Denver.
Chiefs are exploiting the Structural Flaw
This strategic adjustment perfectly targets the exact defensive weakness exposed by the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle completely dismantled Kansas City’s defense by feeding Jaxon Smith-Njigba out of the slot to the tune of 150 yards.
The general public views the Chiefs as an extremely aggressive, man-to-man blitzing defense. The underlying coverage data tells a different story. The Chiefs actually run zone coverage in a lurch 79.1% clip—the fourth-highest rate in the league. Furthermore, Spagnuolo deployed a Middle-of-the-Field Open (MOFO) split-safety shell in 52.8% of their defensive snapsrelies heavily on Cover 2 and Cover 4 concepts to maintain a cover on explosive boundary plays.
The weakness of a 52.8% Middle Open zone rate is structural. As the outside corners press and the safeties backpedal to their deep quarters, a massive intermediate vacuum forms directly in the middle of the gridiron.
If Engram is exclusively deployed in the power slot, he takes advantage of that structural gap and completely bypasses the boundary press. His speed allows him to quickly break through soft zone voids before the Chiefs’ rush gets home. This gives Bo Nix an easily defined, high-percentage target right in his line of sight, forcing the ball out in under 2.3 seconds and rendering Kansas City’s split-field rules completely useless.
Dictating Unpredictability on the Gameboard
Beyond just surviving Week 8, implementing this layout provides tremendous long-term utility for the Broncos’ offense. The modern NFL defensive coordinator excels at diagnosing film and avoiding predictable teams. When Denver puts tight ends on the field, defenses match up with heavy personnel. When they put three wideouts on the field, defenses match up in sub-packages.
By mixing Engram’s and Bentley’s roles, Payton breaks up the defensive coordinator’s gameboard. Flashing the “12 man” on paper while playing a spread-empty wide-receiver sets opposing defenses in a state of constant reaction. It showcases the exact brand of lateral thinking and offensive flexibility that Payton has built his career on—leaving future opponents with a highly volatile new wrinkle to spend valuable practice time planning against.
It’s time to stop trying to force Engram into a traditional tight end box. Let’s see what Bentley can do, attack the Middle-of-the-Field Open void, and beat these mofo Chiefs.
Caption: Steve Spagnuolo tries to determine if Denver broke the heavy running personnel or an empty five-wide vertical concept.