Sean Payton did not mince words as Broncos starters struggled vs. 49ers

The Denver Broncos cruised to a relatively easy preseason victory over the San Francisco 49ers in their first action of the season, but the starters didn't look crisp on either side of the ball.

The first quarter of the team's preseason debut was about as sloppy as you'd be comfortable with in a preseason game without announcing that the sky is falling, and Sean Payton didn't like it.

Nor did he mince words about it after the game was finished.

Sean Payton called his starters "average to below average" in Broncos preseason opener

Everyone is knocking off a bit of rust in the preseason, but things got off to a bad start when starting slot cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian gave up a huge play to the 49ers' offense, which was being led by Mac Jones. The 49ers made their way into the tight red zone and scored easily on the Broncos' defense, which is supposed to be the best defense in the league this year.

Not without a preseason slice of humble pie first, I suppose.

The Broncos' inability to get a stop on that first drive by the 49ers was compounded by the offense struggling to reach midfield at all.

Bo Nix and the offense were not crisp, to say the least. Nix had multiple badly under-thrown passes, one to Troy Franklin and another to Courtland Sutton. Sutton also had a bad drop on a perfectly placed ball by Nix. The operation just wasn't where it needed to be considering the Broncos were going up against backups, especially, and it was disappointing.

Is it cause for concern at this point? Absolutely not. As we saw, the offense got hot after the first quarter and the Broncos coasted to a win. That could have easily happened for the starters as well, but they were limited to 19 plays.

And Sean Payton's decision to give them 19 plays was also indicative of how upset he was with their performance. He had told the 9News TV crew before the game that the plan was 12-14 plays. Obviously, he didn't want them going out on such a low note, so he had the starters at least finish with a scoring drive.

Right before halftime, Payton was interviewed by Cynthia Frelund and he told her that he was "not excited" about the way his defense and offense played when the starters were on the field. His comments after the game were obviously a bit more direct as he had time to stew on it.

Needless to say, it's going to be interesting to hear how practice goes on Monday when the Broncos return to their facility in Denver.