Broncos’ Sean Payton clarifies special-teams frustration is with players, not Darren Rizzi’s coaching

No Sean Payton wasn t throwing a stray potshot at his special teams coordinator The Broncos head coach did though continue to express dissatisfaction bordering on disgust with his crew s special teams play After an all-around special teams catastrophe in an - win over the Texans Sunday Payton pointed to late substitutions in the kicking competition and offered a pointed announcement We ll get that cleaned up or we ll find someone else to do it On a Monday conference call though Payton clarified that someone else was referring to his players execution not Darren Rizzi s coaching If you re paying attention I m referring to players that aren t on the field that need to be all right Payton declared Coaching is outstanding We ll get that cleaned up My point is there s on the field and there s supposed to be Payton continued Then that athlete that s supposed to be out there I ll find someone else to do his job That was the genesis of Payton s frustration The tape revealed that players were running out late on kickoffs the head coach reported Couple that with technique that wasn t good on the Texans first-quarter blocked field goal of kicker Wil Lutz and it added up to a head coach who didn t exactly sound sunshine-and-rainbows after another fourth-quarter win Related Articles Parker Gabriel s Thoughts after Denver s walk-off win vs Houston including certain serious special teams issues that must be resolved Keeler Broncos QB Bo Nix demands to run more Broncos Country requirements to doubt him less Rookie RB RJ Harvey emerging as focal point of Broncos passing event He can go Broncos analysis Zach Allen Denver defensive front dominate Houston help cover loss of star CB Pat Surtain II Sean Payton says Broncos need better special-teams execution or we ll find someone else that can do it If you re supposed to be one of the on take any unit and you re on the bench Payton declared speaking on late substitutions then I got a predicament The Broncos have gotten terrific contributions from safety Devon Key who leads the band in special teams tackles and made a couple of plays on kickoffs Sunday They also activated ace specialist J T Gray for the first time against the Texans after signing him in mid-October Still none of it was enough to prevent Rizzi s units from sagging against Houston and the first-year coordinator may be forced to shake up his personnel entering Thursday night s matchup with the Raiders Broncos trying to keep OLBs fresh Star pass-rushers Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper played just a combined snaps on Sunday against the Texans with Cooper in particular playing less than half of Denver s total defensive reps Payton clarified Monday that the Broncos are trying to keep them fresh given a quick turn into Thursday s match Rookie outside linebacker Que Robinson played snaps against the Texans We did have an extra outside linebacker up I think it s worked out well Payton noted We re going to hit a stretch here obviously where the strength of those players are key I think we ve done a good job keeping them fresh Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis