Broncos head coach Sean Payton has won four straight games at Raymond James Stadium. Three of those victories came with Drew Brees under center. The last, however, was a 9-0 triumph with Taysom Hill as the Saints’ starting quarterback late in the 2021 season.
As Payton prepares another inexperienced-but-mature quarterback for a visit to Tampa Bay on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX), Denver may want to implement a similar, simpler gameplan against the 2-0 Buccaneers, who last week held Jared Goff and the Lions to 1-for-7 in the red zone.
Nate Tice from Yahoo! Sports posted video of Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix breaking the huddle in the team’s 13-6 loss to Pittsburgh last week.
Down 10-0 midway through the third quarter and facing second-and-7 from his own 18, Nix took an excruciatingly long time to get Payton’s playcall in his helmet, recite the play in the huddle and line up his offense. Officials waved off a delay-of-game penalty because Denver burned a precious timeout milliseconds before the playclock expired.
That timeout proved costly when Denver weighed its options late in the game, especially after kicking a field goal to make it 13-6 with less than two minutes left.
Nix appears to be headed in the right direction, however, judging by his production. He improved on his Week 1 totals, finishing last week with 246 yards. He also leads NFL rookies with 46 completions and has proven to be surprisingly mobile, leading the team with 60 rushing yards, including a touchdown at Seattle in his NFL debut.