Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton suggested as recently as Wednesday that he would not remove offensive coordinator Davis Webb from play-calling duties. That position reportedly changed before Denver’s road game against the Los Angeles Chargers this coming Sunday.

The Broncos enter the matchup with a 2-2 record, while the Chargers are 0-4. Reports emerging Thursday indicated that Payton will return to calling Denver’s offensive plays against Los Angeles.

Former NFL wide receiver and current Denver Sports 104.3 personality Brandon Stokley shared the development on X. Stokley wrote that "Payton is going to be taking over play-calling this week."

Stokley also indicated that Payton already had increased his participation in that area. "Sean was more involved last week calling plays, and I’m hearing he’ll be more involved this week," Stokley added.

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The extent of Payton’s involvement had not been completely clear in Stokley’s initial update. He wrote, "Will it be 100%? We shall see, but I’m hearing he’s taking over the majority, if not all, of the play-calling."

NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and NBC Sports then provided another update Thursday morning. Florio revealed that he had "confirmed that, indeed, Payton will be calling the plays again" this weekend.

The reported move comes with Denver near the bottom of several offensive categories. According to ESPN’s Jeff Legwold, the Broncos began Thursday ranked 27th in the league in scoring and 27th in total yards per game.

Denver also stood 29th in rushing yards per game and 20th in passing yards per game. The Broncos were 22nd in offensive expected points added for the season.

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Quarterback Bo Nix also finished Week 4 in the lower portion of multiple rankings among qualified players, according to Pro-Football-Reference. Nix ranked 21st with a 46.1 adjusted QBR.

He also ranked 22nd with an 80.4 passer rating and 22nd with 204.8 passing yards per game. Across four games, Nix threw five touchdown passes and three interceptions.

This season marked the first time in Payton’s career as a head coach that he delegated offensive play-calling responsibilities to a coordinator.

Florio explained why he believes "the timing makes sense" for Payton to make the switch now rather than wait for the Seattle matchup.

Florio pointed to the sequence of games Denver faces, beginning with Los Angeles and followed by the Thursday night meeting with Seattle. He also referenced the additional subplot connected to comments from Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald.

"The Broncos face the potentially overmatched Chargers this weekend, before the Week 6 Thursday night showdown against the Seahawks," Florio wrote. "Making the move now gives Payton an opportunity to get his play-calling sea legs back before a very significant prime-time game that carries the subplot of that bizarre story from two weeks ago, when Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald’s not-really -on-the-record remarks to Graham Bensinger peeled back the curtain on a dustup that emerged after the Seahawks and Broncos played in Week 1 of the 2024 season."

Shortly after Florio published his report, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Denver as a road favorite against the Chargers. The Broncos were favored by 3.5 points for Sunday’s game.

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