A stalled offense, a coach who suddenly changed his plans, and quarterback Bo Nix admitting that his teammates had not made life easy for the coordinator. Inside the Denver Broncos locker room, the mood after the latest shake-up sounds more like regret than anger, and head coach Sean Payton has now explained why.

“Sean Payton said Bo Nix was disappointed in Davis Webb losing play calling because the offense feels like they let a teammate down,” DNVR beat reporter Zac Stevens relayed on X.

Payton shared that line on Thursday, October 8, when he confirmed he is taking play-calling duties back from first-year offensive coordinator Davis Webb after only four games. Former Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley first reported the move Wednesday night on Denver Sports Radio 104.3, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter described it as a more collaborative approach.

“We’ll make a change offensively,” Payton said. “I’ll call the plays.

“I’ve done this long enough where I know when I have a future head coach, and Webb’s gonna be one. All the things that it’s hard to find will happen. In fact, the same thing to some degree, a little bit different, happened to myself earlier in my career.”

The disappointment Payton described has a clear backstory. On September 14, the Broncos lost 31-10 at Kansas City and gained only 176 yards in Webb’s first game as a play-caller. When a reporter asked Nix whether the offense let Webb down, he gave a blunt answer.

“Absolutely. I think players didn’t make it easy on him. Pretty pitiful, actually. But he was to me, in the headset, he treated it like he was a pro with it. … We called exactly what we prepared and what we wanted to get, and we just didn’t execute, and then we were behind. I don’t think we did a whole lot of good consistently to win the game.”

The numbers show how badly the offense has struggled. Denver is 2-2 after a 24-14 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on October 4. The Broncos rank 27th in the NFL in points per game (18.5) and yards per game (280.3), and their 13 first-half points are the fewest in the league. Nix has completed 60 percent of his passes for 819 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions. Against San Francisco, 29 of his 42 attempts went behind the line of scrimmage or less than 10 yards downfield.

Nix has not turned on his coordinator. After the loss to San Francisco, he backed Webb publicly.

“Yeah, I’m real confident in him. I think when you look at the overall landscape, we’ve played four of the top teams in the league, and it’s not easy for a first-time OC as young as he is to go against some of the, quite frankly, the best teams in the league.”

The next test arrives fast. Denver visits the winless Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS, then hosts the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night. For Nix, Payton’s first game back as caller is a chance to prove the offense can finally move without anyone feeling they let a teammate down.