There is a long-and-storied tradition in the NFL of defensive coordinators spending sleepless nights dissecting an opponent’s tendencies — every formation, every down-and-distance preference, every red-zone drive. It’s the chess match within the chess match.
But what happens when 31 other teams open the file on Denver’s new play caller and find almost nothing inside?
On a Friday edition of “Dover and Cecil” on 104.3 The Fan, Josh Dover and Cecil Lammey examined one of the more-intriguing storylines of the Broncos’ offseason — the elevation of Davis Webb to the role of offensive play caller. Webb steps into a position that carries enormous visibility and pressure, inheriting an offense loaded with talent coming off of a season that took Denver to the AFC Championship Game.
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But what caught Dover and Cecil’s eye wasn’t Webb’s scheme or his philosophy. It was the simple fact that nobody outside the building has any idea what either of those things will look like on Sundays.
Dover begged the question.
“How long does the great unknown remain an advantage for the Broncos — and is it an advantage?” he asked.
Lammey didn’t hesitate.
“I think it’s a distinct advantage because you don’t know how he’s gonna call plays during a game,” he said.
It is a compelling argument. NFL defensive game planning is built almost entirely on pattern recognition — identifying what an offense likes to do and building a strategy to take it away. When the play caller is a known commodity, that process begins with a substantial head start. When the play caller is someone with no meaningful track record of in-game decisions at the NFL level, coordinators are essentially working blind.
Lammey drew a comparison to the man Webb is succeeding in the role.
“They know what Sean Payton likes to do. Can you stop it? A lot of the time, the answer’s no,” Lammey said. “You have no idea what Davis Webb wants to do!”
The distinction matters. Payton’s tendencies were well documented across decades of NFL coaching — and he was still difficult to stop. Webb enters with a blank slate, which means opposing defenses will be reacting rather than anticipating, at least in the early weeks of the season.
The question, as Dover rightly noted, is how long that advantage lasts. Tendencies emerge, film accumulates, coordinators adapt. Webb’s true test won’t be the first few weeks — it will be what happens once the rest of the league believes it has him figured out.