Broncos coaches explain what makes Sean Payton a unique play caller

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — New Broncos head coach Sean Payton is well-known as one of the NFL’s top offensive minds. A couple of Denver’s defensive coaches have gotten an up-close look.

“Coach is one of the best play callers in NFL history,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said.

Joseph, 50, played a handful of games against the New Orleans Saints during Payton’s 15-year stint as head coach.

“Going up against Coach, there have been some good days, and there have been some bad days,” Joseph said.

Only one of those games came when Joseph was running the defense. In 2019, Joseph was in his first years as coordinator of the Cardinals’ defense. Payton’s Saints put up 510 yards of offense in 31-9 win that improved their record to 7-1.

“He always attacks what you do best,” Joseph said. “He’s always ahead of the curve as far as your next move.”

Joseph isn’t the only Broncos’ coach who has played against Payton.

Greg Manusky, 56, signed on as the Broncos’ inside linebackers coach this offseason. He’d previously served as defensive coordinator of four different teams and has 12 years of experience in the position.

In those 12 years, Manusky played Payton six times. The Saints came out on top in all six. The average score was 32-20.

“I’ll tell you what, man,” Manusky told DNVR. “They had some good players, don’t get me wrong—Brees-y and the works down there. It’s just… it’s amazing seeing it now—day-to-day-to-day—and the processes that go through it. Seriously, there’s not a lot of balls that have been picked off, not a lot of fumbles, and we’re trying to get the ball out and trying to make plays. It’s just a good offense that I can see performing well. And against me, it performed well.”

Joseph agreed that he’s learned a lot from watching Payton’s process in Denver. And there was plenty more crossover between what the two had to say, as well.

Joseph: “The personnel groupings he uses on an every-down basis is really to match [while] figuring out where he’s going next.”

Manusky: “It was just the influx of personnel going in and out of the game and stuff like that. You had to be on your P’s and Q’s, when going up against him.”

When Payton was coaching the Saints, he used the most different personnel groupings per game in the NFL multiple times. That means the most different combinations of skill position players on offense. These three receivers with that fullback and that running back is one personnel group. Swap out one of the receivers for a different receiver, and that’s a different personnel group. When Payton ran the Saints, a dozen different combinations of running backs, fullbacks, tight ends and receivers in a single game was not uncommon.

The philosophy behind the different combinations is to find out how the defense will react to each group. For example, if the Broncos put Albert Okwuegbunam and Greg Dulcich on the field—two tight ends who both excel as receivers but struggle as blockers—the defense has two options. It can play a base defense with four defensive backs, or a nickel defense with five defensive backs. Against the base defense, the Broncos should have a favorable matchup in the passing game. Against the nickel defense, that advantage dries up.

By rotating in group after group after group, Payton can find the matchups he likes and exploit them.

Or the defense might make a mistake, as Manusky noted, if it doesn’t stay on its P’s and Q’s. With dozens of personnel changes happening in the brief periods between plays, it’s easy to send the wrong group out once or twice per game. Payton can exploit that too.

The other key point that the coaches brought up was the pace.

“The tempo he plays with and calls plays is unique,” Joseph said. “It’s tough to defend.”

Typically when tempo is noted, it’s because a team is moving quickly. But that wasn’t the case in New Orleans.

As Joseph said, Payton’s teams aren’t necessarily fast-tempo or slow-tempo. They’re just “unique.”

The Sean Payton offense rarely uses no-huddle offenses. In five of his final six seasons with the Saints, his offense was in the bottom three in the league in no-huddle usage, according to Football Outsiders’ numbers. But he emphasizes getting out of the huddle quickly. The rule—at least as of a half-decade ago—was to be out of the huddle and lined up in 15 seconds or less. That leaves 25 seconds to snap the ball… a very large number.

But that time is spent reading the defense and making tweaks to the play. It also allows 10 seconds of in-helmet communication between Payton and his quarterback before the system shuts off.

The best way to explain the pace is up-tempo, but only after a huddle, and with the purpose of allowing the quarterback plenty of time at the line of scrimmage. He could snap the ball quickly if he likes what he sees, or he can take his time and make a couple of tweaks.

The effect is an offense that can feel fast-paced, but averaged the third-most time consumed per play over his final five seasons in New Orleans. It had been notably faster, about league average, prior to those final five seasons.

It’s complicated. It’s “unique.”

But another element of Payton’s play-calling is much simpler.

“He saves plays for big moments in the game that you haven’t seen in a month or maybe a year,” Joseph said. “They pop out in the fourth quarter, and he pops them on you. He’s a great play caller.”