The Week 6 Thursday Night Football matchup pitted Sean Payton’s Denver Broncos against the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. A primetime game, naturally, there were plenty of cameras following all the action closely.
Yet, with all the intrigue surrounding the Broncos and their poor start to the season, the limelight was also on Coach Payton.
At one point, cameras even showed an up-close shot of Payton, where his offensive play call sheet was clearly visible to the millions of spectators tuning into Amazon Prime for the TNF matchup.
For NFL teams set to play the Broncos soon, this information may be valuable. Of course, it would take some deep digging and additional film work, but each NFL team has several employees seeking any competitive advantage they can gain about their upcoming opponent each week. But that doesn’t mean they can look at the name of every play and tell you exactly what it means or when it’s coming.
Perhaps that’s why Payton doesn’t seem too bothered about the incident.
“I saw it. I don’t worry about it. When everyone sent that to me, it was like, this game is so spontaneous and fast. The language teams can look at — everything is on tape. That idea of signing a practice squad player off the other team right before you play them. The only benefit that would be [is on the] health of the team and in-depth information regarding if guys are healthy. It’s hard to take that information, for instance, and then bring it in the division and look at it and say, ‘Here are the two-minute [calls].’ There are a ton of things we change. Each night we have a new — not audible, but a term we use that we might [change]. Trying to give a defensive player [a heads up], that guy is going to look at you like you’re nuts. He going to say, ‘I have to play.’ I don’t think much of it, but I saw it.”
Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton on his play call sheet becoming visible on TV
One would think any team struggling as much as the Broncos wouldn’t want to give any team any additional insight into what’s coming next. Yet, as Payton admits, no two game plans are the same. Just because a play may be on the call sheet one week, it doesn’t mean it stays the next week.
Besides, it’s not the first time cameras have caught a glimpse of a coach’s game plan, and it’s not going to be the last time either, especially for teams with the privilege of playing in primetime.
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