The Broncos are the NFL’s most penalized team, and cornerback Riley Moss has accounted for more penalty yards than any other player in the league.
The former, Sean Payton wants to see corrected on a collective basis. That’s one of two areas for improvement he targeted when he addressed his team Monday upon its return from the bye, the other being a turnover margin that entered Monday night tied for 19th in the NFL at minus-3.
But as for Moss specfcically, the answer is more complex in Payton’s eyes.
“Sometimes it’s technique, sometimes it’s the traffic opposite of a real good corner,” Payton said. “Now Pat [Surtain II] hasn’t been healthy, but there are some things that I’m sure he’ll want to clean up.
“Then there are a few calls where we look at and it’s tough to try to clean up or correct something if you don’t agree with it.”
Including declined penalties, Moss has been called for nine infractions; per NFLPenalties.com, that is more than any other defensive player in the NFL. Only Kansas City offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor has more, with 13.
Overall, the Broncos’ 16 defensive pass-interference penalties — 14 of which were accepted — is the most in the NFL. Per NFLPenalties.com, the league average heading into Monday was 7.03 defensive pass-interference infractions per team.
BRONCOS PLAGUED BY PRE-SNAP INFRACTIONS HEADED INTO BYE
In that department, Denver went into Monday night tied for 20th in the league, with an average of 2.64 pre-snap infractions per game, for a season tally of 29.
Those penalties are the ones that particularly rankle Payton; they are the most preventable and controllable.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, they went into the bye with a spate of such miscues; they committed nine pre-snap penalties in the two games prior to their respite.
“The penalty thing is by far when you look at the totality of it, and you do your homework on it, and you look offensively and defensively, that’s something that we as a collective have to get better at,” Payton said.
Now, there isn’t much of a correlation between leading the NFL in penalties and penalty yardage and success — or a lack thereof. Five of the last 10 teams to lead the league in penalty yardage finished with winning seasons; three of them won 12 games, with one — the 2018 Kansas City Chiefs — earning a No. 1 seed.
Of course, the Broncos’ sorriest team of the last decade — their 2022 edition — also led the NFL in penalty yardage that year. One imagines that Payton doesn’t want a team of his to share a dubious distinction with that Titanic voyage of a season.
