Payton prepping young QB, team for tough fight with more experienced Seahawks

Good morning, Broncos Country, and welcome to WEEK ONE!

Taking on the Seahawks at Lumen Field on Sunday will be no easy task for Bo Nix and the Broncos, but head coach Sean Payton has every intention of making it as simple as possible for his rookie signal caller.

Mostly by relying on a solid run game and strong defense.

“Anytime there’s a different player under center, [you ask] what do they do well?” Payton said, adding it’s tough to play QB — especially as a rookie — because “more is asked” of that position. “I’ve said this before, it’s certainly tough if you’re having trouble defensively or if you’re having trouble running the football.”

The goal for every coach with an inexperienced QB is to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

Easier said than done, but Payton has proved this preseason he can singlehandedly improve the offense with his players and his play design (and a QB who won’t fiddle around and get sacked).

“[When] you get a young player like Bo Nix, there are certain skill sets he has [and] strengths and weaknesses,” Payton said. “Hopefully we build on the strengths and then really minimize the things maybe that a young player might face to open up the start of the season.”

Given that Seattle has a lot of returning starters — including the quarterback, two top wideouts and a running back — the Broncos’ defense will have no time to slouch.

And since the Seahawks are entering a new coaching era with Mike Macdonald, Payton acknowledged there can be a lot of unknowns for scheming against their opponent.

“There’s a lot of moving parts,” he said, adding that last year’s Seahawks film is only relevant for evaluating individual player skill. Guesswork plus a lot of Ravens film plus University of Washington film will be in order to predict what Macdonald and the Seahawks will do Sunday.

But expect Payton to have some surprises of his own for the Seahawks defense.

The beauty of a rookie QB is that there’s no “NFL book” on him yet. And given Payton’s play design prowess, I expect some creativity utilizing the running backs, tight ends and Nix’s own legs to bolster the offensive scheme.

Payton isn’t just preparing Nix for the challenge of facing down a bonafide NFL defense. He’s also preparing him for playing in one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL.

Since the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom era (2010s), Seattle has had the NFL’s fifth-best home record during the regular season, and a 6-1 home record in the postseason.

The impact of the noise is not lost on Payton but he believes his rookie QB can handle it.

“It’s going to be loud,” Payton acknowledged but countered that Nix played in a pretty loud stadium down the road when Oregon played at Washington. “So we’ll deal with the crowd noise this week. This won’t be the first game we play where it’s loud.”

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