Sean Payton will take a page out of Eagles’ playbook in 2023
Broncos head coach Sean Payton is planning on changing things on the offensive side of the ball, one sneak at a time.
New Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has been in the Mile High City for less than a month now, and he’s already stirred up some exciting drama.
Payton dismissed the idea of Russell Wilson having his own personal coaches in the building next season, and more recently, Payton was rumored to be recruiting former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan to Denver to take the defensive coordinator job.
These are just mini-quakes compared to Russell Wilson’s seismic activity all throughout the 2022 season, and mixing a usually stabilizing presence like Payton with a destabilizing one like Wilson is the franchise’s riskiest bet this year. It just might work out.
Payton, the unlimited offensive mind that he is, has already concocted some ideas for the Broncos offense next season, planning to take a page out of the Philadelphia Eagles’ playbook.
A certain offensive play, comically called the “Tush Push” and more seriously called the quarterback sneak, is reportedly under review by the league’s competition committee.
Dean Blandino, who served as the NFL’s vice president of officiating from 2013 to 2017, told the 33rdTeam that the quarterback sneak “amounts to a rugby scrum” and “is just not a skillful play.” Blandino has also been talking to Sean Payton, and Payton told Blandino he plans to execute the QB sneak every game next year if the NFL doesn’t outlaw the rule.
Broncos HC Sean Payton wants to weaponize the QB sneak just like the Eagles did in 2022
Blandino explained that the league outlawed similar tactics teams used on PATs and field goal situations, so why not outlaw the QB sneak as well?
The quarterback sneak has been legal in the NFL since 2005, yet the Eagles are arguably the first to really weaponize the tactic and execute it an unbelievably high success rate.
Six of Hurts’ 10 rushing first downs in Super Bowl LVII came on quarterbacks sneaks, and in the regular season, Hurts and the Eagles converted an astonishing 36 on 40 sneaks. The play is currently undefeated against every NFL team in 2022.
Given the Eagles’ top-caliber offensive line and savvy ball-carrier in Hurts, it’s not hard to see why the play works so well for them.
With the Broncos’ more average O-line, the QB sneak may yield different results. Denver’s offensive tackle rotation consisting of Cameron Fleming, Billy Turner and Calvin Anderson visibly struggled against strong the pass-rush, and Turner and Anderson accounted for more than 40 pressures last season.
The team will look to free agency and the draft to boost its strength in the trenches, but more often that not, elite offensive lines aren’t built in an offseason.
Then there’s the question of whether Russell Wilson has any effective ball-carrying ability left in his aging legs. Wilson rushed for 5.0 yards per attempt in 2022, not terrible by any means but nowhere near his 2014 league-leading 7.2 yards per attempt.
Sean Payton will have to pull something truly magical out of his sleeve to execute the quarterback sneak as perfectly as the Eagles did last season. At least it’ll be better than Wilson throwing ducks.
