Inside Sean Payton’s Defensive Plan to Contain Patrick Mahomes
Denver's coaching staff is drawing up a specific blueprint to slow down Patrick Mahomes in a crucial Week 9 AFC West matchup.
The Ghost of Last October
Sean Payton knows exactly what it takes to frustrate Patrick Mahomes. He has seen it work. When the Denver Broncos beat the Kansas City Chiefs 24-9 late last October, they did not just win a football game. They broke an embarrassing 16-game losing streak against their division rivals. More importantly, they showed the rest of the league that Mahomes is human when you take away his safety valves and force him to play in a muddy pocket.
Now, heading into a pivotal Week 9 divisional matchup, the Broncos are trying to recreate that defensive magic. Denver’s defense under coordinator Vance Joseph has quieted critics this year. They are playing fast, aggressive, and highly disciplined football. But facing Mahomes in Kansas City is a different beast entirely. It requires a flawless game plan, perfect execution, and a bit of defensive cruelty.
Squeezing the Pocket From the Inside Out
The standard way to defend Mahomes is to rush four defenders and drop seven into coverage. But that only works if those four rushers can actually get home. Payton and Joseph have spent the week studying how to disrupt the pocket without giving Mahomes easy running lanes. The key is interior pressure.
Mahomes loves to escape to his right when things break down. He wants to buy time, wait for his receivers to break off their routes, and throw those back-breaking sidearm passes. To stop this, Denver is relying heavily on defensive lineman Zach Allen. Allen has been a force this season, collapsing the pocket from the middle and forcing quarterbacks to step back into the arms of edge rushers Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper.
Denver cannot afford to fly past Mahomes on the edge. If the rushers go too deep, they leave massive running lanes. The instruction from Payton this week has been simple: squeeze the pocket, do not chase the highlight-reel sack, and make Mahomes throw from a crowded, uncomfortable platform.
The Patrick Surtain II Equation
Any defensive plan against Kansas City must account for Travis Kelce. Even when the Chiefs’ wide receiver room is banged up, Kelce remains Mahomes’ ultimate security blanket. This is where cornerback Patrick Surtain II comes in.
Surtain is one of the few cornerbacks in the NFL who can erase an opponent’s best weapon single-handedly. While he usually plays on the outside, Joseph has shown a willingness to move Surtain around to match up with elite pass-catchers. Keeping Surtain in a position to disrupt Kelce at the line of scrimmage, or using safety Brandon Jones to bracket the tight end, will force Mahomes to look elsewhere.
If Denver can take away the easy five-yard throws to Kelce, Mahomes will have to rely on his younger, less experienced wideouts. That is when the mistakes happen. Last year, Denver forced five turnovers in their upset win. They did it by making Mahomes impatient. He wanted the big play, the defense did not give it to him, and he eventually forced throws into coverage.
Bo Nix and the Clock-Eating Strategy
The best defense against Patrick Mahomes is keeping him on the sideline. Sean Payton knows this better than anyone. He did it for years in New Orleans with Drew Brees, and he is trying to build a similar template in Denver with rookie quarterback Bo Nix.
The Broncos’ offense needs to shorten this game. That means running the ball effectively, staying out of third-and-long situations, and chewing up the clock. If Nix can put together sustained, ten-play drives that end in points, it puts immense pressure on Mahomes when he finally does get the ball. He will feel the need to score on every single possession, which often leads to the forced throws and turnovers Denver’s defense is waiting for.
It is a delicate balance. If the offense goes three-and-out early, the defense will wear down. The altitude helps in Denver, but in Kansas City, the noise and the pace of the game can exhaust a defense by the third quarter. Payton’s offensive game plan is just as vital to stopping Mahomes as Joseph’s defensive schemes.
Can the Broncos Replicate the Blueprint?
It is easy to draw up a plan on a whiteboard on Wednesday. Executing it on a cold Sunday afternoon in front of a hostile crowd is another story. Mahomes is still the best quarterback in football, and Andy Reid has a counter for almost every defensive look.
But this Broncos defense feels different. They are playing with a swagger that Denver fans have not seen since the Super Bowl 50 era. They believe they can match up with anyone. If they can stick to Payton’s blueprint—clogging the interior, taking away Kelce, and controlling the clock—they might just shock the NFL again.
