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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Consider Sunday a gathering of old acquaintances.
No, the Washington Commanders are not very high on the heated rivals list for the Denver Broncos, but when it comes to the guys with the headsets this weekend — Sean Payton and Ron Rivera — that’s another matter entirely.
“It was always difficult because you know, Sean’s one of those guys that has a lot of answers, he really does,’’ the Commanders coach said. “Just because he knows how he wants to attack you and if you counter it, he has something prepared, ready to go.’’
Payton and Rivera overlapped in the NFC South for nine years during Payton’s extended run as New Orleans Saints coach and Rivera’s nine years with the Carolina Panthers until he was fired after Week 13 in 2019. But the two arrived at their jobs from opposite sides of the ball, Rivera with his career as an NFL linebacker as well as a longtime defensive coach, while Payton built a long career as a talented offensive playcaller.
Over those nine years, Payton was 9-8 against Rivera in the regular season, with 10 of those games decided by eight or fewer points. Payton was 1-0 in the only postseason game between the two. The Saints also defeated Washington, 33-22, in 2021, Payton’s last year with the Saints and Rivera’s second year with the Commanders.
Payton’s Saints offense scored at least 30 points — 40 points three times — in 10 games against Rivera’s Panthers. The flip side came when Rivera’s teams went 4-0 if they held the Saints to under 20 points.
What any of that will mean on Sunday likely depends on how each adjusts to the new scenario in front of them. And how the Broncos, fresh off their 12th game in the last 18 when the offense has scored 16 or fewer points, carve out room against Washington’s physical defensive front, similar to Rivera’s Panthers teams when they were at their best.
“They create a lot of minus plays,’’ Payton said. “Just looking at the [game video], you’ll see second-and-12s. I’m not even talking about rushing the passer. Just within the framework of the run game, they’re really active, and they’re athletic. All of those guys have had great college careers. A lot of them are first-round draft picks that are playing well. The defense kind of feeds off that. They’re a handful.”
“Great defensive line … they’re real forces,” Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson said. “They move really well.’’
Rivera and Washington defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, who was the Broncos’ defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2014, work out of a 4-3 look with defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne often dictating how the Commanders approach things along the line of scrimmage. In the Commanders’ Week 1 win over the Arizona Cardinals, both of Payne’s tackles in the game were for losses while Allen’s four tackles in the game included a sack with two tackles for loss.
Allen also had three of Washington’s six quarterback hits in the game. And that kind of interior mayhem resulted in defensive end Montez Sweat’s 1.5 sacks.
“You see a lot more discipline in their play, I think they play with a lot of confidence because they understand it,’’ Rivera said. “They know where they’re going. They understand how the fronts are being married to the coverages and why even more so now. They know each other very well. … So, it’s kind of interesting that you’ve heard people say, ‘hey, I just knew what he was going to do and we just had to look at each other and we knew what we wanted to do.’ You get a little bit of sense of that.’’
The Broncos don’t have that luxury on the offensive front with last Sunday’s 17-16 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders being the first regular-season game the group had started together. The Broncos did grind out three drives of at least 10 plays and had three scoring drives of at least nine plays, but they didn’t have a play longer than 21 yards.
The Raiders played a variety of zone coverages to limit the Broncos’ ability to push the ball down the field in the passing game and the Broncos didn’t consistently run the ball at the Raiders to force them out of that look to create more room to work. It’s something Rivera and Del Rio will certainly have taken note of before Sunday’s game.
For his part, Payton said it starts with how the Broncos deal with the Washington defense’s power at the point of attack.
“It’s hard to deal with elite players,’’ Payton said when asked about Payne and Allen. “If there’s an elite corner, you can say, ‘We’re going to throw over here.’ When you deal with elite ends, you might be able to nudge one of them. To your question — when it’s inside, which way is the center turning? If I’m the guards, I’d like the center to come to me. I think, to your point, there are some different challenges in protection that maybe are a little different with an end.’’
ESPN Commanders reporter John Keim contributed to this story.
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