Nix it.
This is not the playbook. Payton comes from the Bill Walsh clan and has added his own personal touches over the years. The sound of it. It has been proven. Its modern. But it’s complicated.
Most NFL playbooks are complicated.
I had the fortunate pleasure of having a 5 hour dinner with Mike Martz about 25 years ago when he was with St Louis. He was a speaker at an off-season Clinic. As it happened my Group of coaches I was with had dinner with him.
So I got a PHD in his Offensive Philosophy that night. His race is the school of Don Coryell.
One thing that stuck with me from that dinner is it’s not about calling the plays, it’s the order in which you call your plays and that will change every week because your opponent is different every week. But the plays have to compliment each other.
He also said, while NFL playbooks are complicated, it’s often the window dressing that makes it so. In basic football its basically 5 run blocking schemes and 7 passing concepts. What window dressing does is scheme positions that are open or create running lanes to each opponent.
So Payton returned the play duties he was uncomfortable with the order the plays were called.
The reason the NFL game is so difficult for the QB position is limited space. The field is 54 yards wide and 100 yards long and when you put 22 grown men on the field with world class speed space becomes very limited.
Kurt Warner is the master of anticipation in space pre snap and execution post snap. He is not a world class athlete physically. He has a world class mind that can dissect a Defense instantly.
And of course you need some talent to be successful. The Brass in St Louis went on the Offense with their CAP space. St Louis had a pretty mediocre Defense at the time but it didn’t matter. Offense scored 30 ppg. Mike Martz is full of Offensive talent and “The Greatest Show On Turf” was born.
Denver has talent sans a Bell Cow at RB. The TE position is available. The WR Room is above average as is the OL. That leaves the QB position.
We all know that Payton’s Offense is extremely complex. This is why a long time Vet in Wilson and Payton began sniping at each other. This is why Nix’s rookie year playbook was so vanilla but they started to have great success in 2025.
These two are in their 3rd year and something is wrong.
Nix bailed from clean pockets to the point where he was running into sacks. He checks down at ridiculous rates leaving the WR open down field. He rolled to buy time when he didn’t need more time cutting the field in half and then throwing out of bounds. If that wasn’t happening the running game would improve…dramatically. The running game and the passing game definitely compliment each other and that doesn’t happen. But it should be. Payton projects WR’s tomorrow and Nix doesn’t hit them. If he hits them the dynamics of the Defense shift and you can now start getting your 4-5 yard average running the football.
Nix is the issue. No idea why or how to fix this but it is a big concern.
This Staff and these players on Offense aren’t this bad….and neither is Nix.
I take it.