The Broncos had their fair share of issues with getting plays called quickly under former head coach Nathaniel Hackett and those issues have come up again early in Sean Payton’s tenure.
Payton said after Sunday’s loss that the team is burning timeouts and lining up too late in the play clock because of the issues getting the calls from the sideline to the field. On Monday, Payton addressed the topic again and said that simplifying the language of the play calls is the first step toward correcting the problems.
“The first thing we have to look at is reduce the verbiage,’’ Payton said, via Mike Klis of KUSA. “And if we have longer plays then we can easily get to a wristband but we have to reduce the variables. And I just finished saying this at the team meeting, if we’re offensively and defensively having trouble breaking the huddle and getting lined up then we’ve got to look at, ‘Do we have too much in?’ And then how do we reduce the verbiage at the line of scrimmage or in the huddle quite frankly because it goes from me to the QB, the QB to the offense and then here we go. So that’s going to improve. How we do it can vary. One is reduce the verbiage, the other is get to the line of scrimmage spontaneously, the other is wristband certain plays that are longer called.”
Payton mentioned using a wristband on Sunday as well and Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said quarterback Russell Wilson resisted using them when he was in Seattle. Wilson did use them while playing for Hackett at times last season, however, and it sounds like there’s a good chance that streamlining the play calling this year will lead to their return.