The Denver Broncos committed the second-most penalties in the NFL last season (113), averaging 6.64 fouls per game.
When new head coach Sean Payton arrived this offseason, cleaning up the penalties was undoubtedly high on his to-do list.
It’s a small sample size, but through one game, Payton’s still has a lot of work to do. Denver was penalized 10 times for 97 yards against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, including an unnecessary roughness penalty that helped the Raiders clinch a one-point victory.
Payton was asked about all the yellow flags during his conference call with reporters on Monday.
“Both teams had 10 penalties,” the coach noted. “[That was] too much for our liking, obviously. We had six on defense, and then two and two on special teams and offense. I would say that when you watch them all, there’s two or three that you’re not going to lose sleep over relative to what your players are doing.
“But certainly the pre-snap fouls and then being smart and understanding how the game is being officiated relative to personal fouls or roughing, that falls on us. That’s something we have to be better at.”
Broncos players will have their first opportunity to “be better” when Denver hosts the Washington Commanders in Week 2. That game is set to kick off at 2:25 p.m. local time.
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