Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Broncos coach Sean Payton expresses surprise over NFL afternoon replay error rates

By Olamilekan Ajayi | Last updated Feb 26, 2026 4:18 PM ET

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, a longtime football mind who now sits on the NFL's competition committee, admitted that he did not see a recent bit of news coming.

At the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Payton said he was "a little surprised" to learn that the majority of the league's replay errors last season occurred specifically in 1 p.m. Sunday games.

The disclosure, reported by ESPN's Kalyn Kahler, pulled back the curtain on a corner of NFL officiating that does not always get much attention until something goes wrong.

The data behind the concern came from Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations. Speaking at the combine on Monday, Vincent disclosed that out of 171 replay review or replay assist decisions made during the 2025 regular season, the league identified five it would want back. Four of those five happened during the 1 p.m. ET window.

"There were five after we kind of took a step back and breathed," Vincent said. "Four of them [were] in the one o'clock window. Just volume and you go, 'Ah, if we had to do that one again, just looking at it."

Payton was direct about how he felt hearing that.

"I don't like hearing that," he said. "I want to play in the four o'clock window. I'm glad I'm in Denver. We should never have a work shortage in replay."

Vrabel and Lynch both point to structural problems behind the numbers

New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, also on the competition committee, pushed directly for a staffing fix.

"We need to evaluate staffing at that level. To find out and make sure that every game is treated the same, whether it's the prime-time game on Sunday night or Monday or Thursday, or those one o'clock games that are the lifeblood of our league." Vrabel said on Wednesday.

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch, another committee member, brought a broadcasting background to the conversation. Lynch pointed to camera availability as a root issue.

"I lived in the broadcasting world for nine years," he said, noting that early-window games receive far fewer camera angles compared to prime-time broadcasts.

He said the committee has discussed requiring fixed stadium cameras to standardize what replay officials can actually see regardless of the broadcast crew assigned.

Olamilekan Ajayi

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