Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and franchise quarterback Bo Nix are entering their third year together after a successful 2025 season campaign. The Broncos tied their franchise record for wins, went 14-3, and won the AFC West title. Along with Nix, the Broncos’ offense led the league in most sacks and once again proved its dominance. Nix, who was sidelined during their divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills, has always credited Payton for bringing out the team’s competitiveness and followed the same during the team’s mandatory minicamp.
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“It just frees him up to watch other players watch other things,” said Nix in a recent media interaction. “He really has an eye for that. He does a great job evaluating. So I think it’s just going to continue to use those strengths and that gift. But I’m excited because he can, you know, really challenge me to be better. He can look at things that he hasn’t necessarily gotten to look at in the past couple of years.”
Bo Nix on his relationship changing with Sean Payton now that he’s no longer #Broncos’ primary play-caller:
“He’s able to sort of, get back to his roots of being almost like a quarterback coach. Like, ‘Tell me exactly the things that I have to get better at.’” pic.twitter.com/3eHLxqoZEp
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) June 17, 2026
The Broncos have undergone massive changes ahead of the 2026 season. Head coach Sean Payton promoted Davis Webb from offensive pass game coordinator & quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator and the play-caller. Although this will be Webb’s first stint as the OC, Payton believes that the promotion is best for the team’s overall growth and will bring a fresh perspective to the offense.
“It helps a lot, just his experience with the system, with Bo, with the current players,” said Payton. “He’s got good energy, he’s extremely sharp, we’re better having him, we’re in a better spot with his experience here than we would be if he was just coming in.”
The promotion isn’t random. In the last two years, Webb has not only become a key part of the Broncos’ offensive success. But more importantly, Webb played a major role in developing their franchise quarterback, Bo Nix.
To be precise, Nix became the only quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 7,500 yards and 50 touchdowns while securing at least 20 wins across his first two seasons. On top of that, he also became just the third quarterback in league history to accumulate at least 3,500 passing yards and 25 touchdowns in both his first and second years.
Payton additionally gave the 31-year-old a live-game trial run during the 2025 preseason. In a preseason victory over the Arizona Cardinals, where Webb was handed the walkie-talkie, his modified offense erupted for 562 total yards. So, the expectation around Webb is to bring out similar results as the play-caller for the Denver Broncos.
But how does it affect the relationship between Bo Nix and Sean Payton? Notably, Webb’s promotion eventually pushed Payton to focus more on individual players than the entire team.
“He can just straight up watch me and give me the knowledge that he has from the quarterback position that he’s really coached since he got brought up. He played it, coached it. And now he’s able to sort of get back to his roots of being almost like a little bit of a quarterback coach, like tell me exactly the things that I got to get better at then,” Nix added.
Like many other coach-QB duos, Nix and Payton’s relationship over the past two years has been dominant yet playful. The 26-year-old quarterback appreciates his coach’s playbook. However, they often engaged in light-hearted banter.
Following Nix’s fractured right ankle during the final minutes of their playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills in January, the HC joked that he “wouldn’t have drafted” Nix had he known the full extent of his ankle history.
Despite moments like this, both share a deep respect for one another. As Nix recovers, the QB feels confident about delivering another strong performance in the 2026 season.
