Sean Payton was not terribly pleased with Broncos practice

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Sean Payton was left cool from a Denver Broncos practice on another warm Colorado day.

Emphasizing red-zone work and the ground game — with a team period devoted almost entirely to run calls on first and second downs — the Broncos head coach did not see what he wanted to from his team for most of the session, which took place in full pads just after the team announced an “unofficial” depth chart that Payton himself downplayed after practice.

“I thought it was OK. It wasn’t one of our better practices,” Payton said.

What made it so?

“I just thought, mentally — I thought we hit a wall a little bit,” Payton said. “We’ll see the film.

“I mean, when you come off the field, there’s times where you feel like, ‘Man, I thought it was just OK,’ you know?”

One area in which the Broncos struggled at times Tuesday was pass protection, with the quarterbacks finding themselves under pressure on multiple occasions.

“I don’t know if you saw it today, I struggled in some of my pass set stuff today,” tight end Lucas Krull said. “Mike [McGlinchey] pulled me across and gave me some pointers.

“It’s awesome to have those kinds of guys in line with you, just being able to help coach you up and give you these pointers to be better every day. Something like that, it’s amazing. All those linemen, they do a great job of their own craft but also being able to reach out and help us tight ends on the line as well.”

And one hopes — and expects — things will be a bit better Wednesday.

“We’ll be sharper tomorrow,” Sean Payton said.

Jarrett Stidham was the No. 1 quarterback Tuesday, followed by Bo Nix and Zach Wilson.

The seven-on-seven red-zone period midway through practice saw Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull and Tim Patrick all catch touchdown passes. Trautman caught a scoring pass from Stidham, while Krull and Patrick grabbed consecutive passes from Nix for scores.

There was some good execution on some runs. Jaleel McLaughlin capitalized on one play, taking advantage of an outside block from Josh Reynolds on Ja’Quan McMillian and following Mike McGlinchey into space to take a toss pitch from Stidham and turn upfield for a solid run.

One of the day’s best runs came from Nix, who took off after Audric Estimé picked up the edge rush from Thomas Incoom, allowing Nix to take off for what could have been a gain of at least 20 yards under game conditions.

Cornerback Tremon Smith recorded an interception during the team red-zone period, catching a Wilson pass that skipped off of the hands of running back Audric Estimé.

Special-teams period were devoted to kickoffs and placekicks. During the placekicking period, Wil Lutz made all but one of his eight attempts, missing from 50 yards. He closed that period by connecting on a 62-yard attempt.

Wide receiver Devaughn Vele made a spectacular catch in a team red-zone period, leaping to pluck a Wilson pass out of the air at the 1-yard line for a 24-yard gain.

“I like his size and hands in traffic. I thought he’s had a couple snaps now this week where we have to keep giving him opportunities because I think he has strong hands in traffic,” Sean Payton said. “There are a few players like him out here, but I think he can take reps inside and then I think he can also play at the ‘X’ (receiver spot). His ability to catch away from his body — when you’re throwing it to him, he has a large catch radius, so you become a more accurate quarterback.”

“It’s easy to push the underlined players (rookies) to the back of the line.” — Sean Payton, on the depth chart that had all rookies listed at the bottom of the depth chart at their respective positions

• Safety Brandon Jones worked out on a side field as he works his way back from a hamstring injury.
• Cornerback Levi Wallace was sidelined due to a hamstring problem.”
• Inside linebacker Alec Mock, an Air Force product, signed with the Broncos on Tuesday morning. He took the roster spot vacated by edge rusher Ronnie Perkins, who was injured last week and placed on the waived/injured list.

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 10 a.m. MDT.