Sean Payton doubles down on his defense of Bo Nix after a rough debut with the Denver Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Bo Nix‘s NFL debut with the Denver Broncos did not go as planned.

The Broncos’ first-round pick went 26-of-42 for 138 yards, two interceptions and a passer rating of 47.5 through the air, while adding a team-high 35 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

But don’t blame the rookie for the underwhelming start to the season.

“I think when I watch this tape offensively, we need to be better around him,” Sean Payton stated on Monday, after watching the film of the Broncos’ 26-20 loss to the Seahawks. “And we will be.”

Following the game, the head coach made this clear and then doubled down on his defense of the rookie on Monday morning after watching the film.

“I said it yesterday [and] I’ll say it again,” the head coach stated, before distributing blame around the team. “One of the key things that was important in this game is winning the run game battle, and we weren’t able to do that. We struggled and in that inefficiency on first and second down, it was one of our keys to victory and we were anything but. Defensively in the first half we were outstanding, then the third quarter was the flip around quarter. That was when the momentum shifted.”

After the game on Sunday, Payton’s initial reactions to his offense was that the lack of a ground game around Nix was unacceptable, pass protection was “average at best” and the receivers dropped too many passes.

Once Payton rewatched the film, his feelings remained the exact same.

“It wasn’t good enough. I think I said that after the game,” Payton said, when asked about pass protection and run blocking. “There were too many two-to-three-yard gains. When you look at Javonte [Williams] and Jaleel’s [Mclaughlin] numbers, we have to be more effective there and that’s something we talked about in the team meeting.”

Denver’s top two backs rushed for 50 total yards on 18 carries for a disappointing 2.8 yards per rush. In the second half, outside of Nix, the Broncos rushed for 12 total yards.

“I would say from an assignment standpoint, our landmarks, some of those things have got to get cleaned up,” Payton explained. “Then I’d tell you, there’s a couple of runs that we’ve got to see better vison-wise from the running back position. Audric [Estime] has one, where I don’t know that his eyes are in the right spot, but he’s got a chance for a much bigger play.”

“Javonte has one, so overall we’ve got to improve in that area and then there were some early drops by the receivers and then we bounced back,” he continued. “I thought we blocked OK on the perimeter. We got a lot of soft coverage and so it’s difficult when you’re getting some of that soft zone. It encourages you to run it more or attack underneath or inside with the tight ends and running backs.”

Payton added the plan was to not have the rookie quarterback throw the ball 42 times. But that’s what he had to resort to with the flow of the game and lack of a rushing attack.

For a second-straight day, Payton called out the offensive line, receivers, running backs and even himself as needing to be better to help the rookie quarterback.

“We have to ask ourselves as coaches, alright, ‘If we played it again, what would we have done different?’ There are a handful of things that I felt like I didn’t do a good enough job with relative to the intertriangle as to what we were seeing,” the head coach admitted.

Nix, however, wasn’t completely unscathed after Payton dove into the film.

“I saw a three step and a hitch instead of a five and a hitch on a certain play. We’ll get that cleaned up,” Payton said, slightly critiquing Nix’s performance, before shifting to defend a few arrant throws. “But overall, when he’s climbing a pocket, or he’s on the move extending a play, there are times where the ball’s going to get away from you.”

Despite being arguably the most accurate quarterback in college football history, Nix let a couple of passes sail on him, two resulting in interceptions, while a few more could have been picked off. Even then, Payton directed the criticism elsewhere.

“It did and I’ll give you a few examples,” Payton said, when asked if Nix was accurate after watching the tape. “I just watched the play where he climbs the pocket. There were some bloody looks and he’s off schedule, throwing off the wrong foot, but I would say doing what he has to on that play. In other words, there’s a dagger opened up, but we’re not good in protection.”

In discussing Nix’s accuracy, Payton went on to say his “bigger concern” was the team not capitalizing on opportunities early in the game, not taking advantage of field position, Denver’s red zone offense not living up to what it needed to be and, finally, the receivers dropping passes early in the game.

“Certainly, when we watched this game tape and evaluate the cue, there’s a number of things that we’ll get cleaned up and corrected,” Payton added.

On the surface and on the stat sheet, Bo Nix looked like a rookie making his NFL debut. But for a second-straight day, instead of pointing at the rookie, Sean Payton pointed to many others around the team as to why Nix struggled.