Four teams pursued Sean Payton this year, and the former Super Bowl-winning HC would have been a coveted option next year. Rather than stay at FOX and wait out potential openings of jobs he was previously connected to, Payton decided to become the Broncos’ next head coach.
Addressing the decision to relocate to Denver — in a transaction that probably doubles as the highest-profile coaching hire in Broncos history — Payton broached a few topics. Among them, the team’s new owners.
“I tried to put ownership at the top from the beginning, and I was impressed with how much they want to be successful,” Payton said, during an interview with NOLA.com’s Jeff Duncan, of the Broncos’ Walton-Penner ownership group. “We had great support in New Orleans. I can’t recall Mr. or Mrs. B [Tom and Gayle Benson] ever saying no to something. … This was the opportunity I was looking for.”
Payton, 59, also interviewed with the Cardinals, Panthers and Texans. He made the Broncos his first meeting, and Duncan adds the former Saints coach spoke with Rob and Carrie Walton Penner via Zoom this past weekend. Rob Walton was not part of the Broncos’ contingent to initially meet with Payton in Los Angeles more than two weeks ago. Denver’s ownership did not announce interviews this year and made a surprise trip to Ann Arbor to meet with Jim Harbaugh, who had previously announced he was staying at Michigan. The winding HC search still led back to Payton, who was believed to be the franchise’s top choice throughout.
Waiting out the prospect of the Cowboys or Chargers’ jobs becoming available next year would have included opportunities to coach Dak Prescott or Justin Herbert. Not long ago, Russell Wilson would have resided as an asset for coaching candidates. Thanks to a stunningly woeful season that came shortly after the Broncos’ new ownership group authorized a five-year, $245MM extension, Wilson can be viewed as a liability. Reports had indicated Payton was onboard with coaching the former Seahawks great, however, and his Tuesday decision will greenlight this pairing as one of the more interesting in recent memory.
“Russell is a hard worker and has played at a high level and won a lot of games in this league,” Payton said. “The pressure is on us to put a good run game together and reduce the degree of difficulty on his position. I’m excited about him.”
Wilson, 34, reached out to Payton about coming to Denver and will have one of this era’s top play-callers overseeing his bounce-back opportunity. The Saints were on Wilson’s initial 2021 trade-destination list; he added the Broncos later that year. The Broncos traded an eight-asset package for Wilson, including two first-round picks and two seconds, to land the nine-time Pro Bowler in March 2022. The early returns were alarming, but Wilson going from an overmatched Nathaniel Hackett to Payton should represent a strong spot to re-emerge as an upper-echelon starter. If Wilson cannot resemble his Seattle form this season, the Broncos will need to look at other options. Of course, Wilson’s contract will make such a move more difficult — even by 2024.
The Wilson situation heightens the importance of the Broncos’ Payton hire. Payton unleashed Drew Brees in New Orleans. The former Charger morphed from a player the team obtained Philip Rivers to replace into one that totaled a record-shattering five 5,000-yard passing seasons. Payton guided the Saints to seven NFC South titles and nine playoff wins. The team ranked in the top 10 offensively 11 times during Payton’s 15 years on the sideline; it also did so during Payton’s 2012 Bountygate ban. After the Broncos gave Wilson considerable autonomy to co-design an offense last year, Payton should be expected to hold the reins tightly.
Mickey Loomis and Broncos GM George Paton spent the past three days hammering out a compensation package for Payton, Duncan adds. Payton has been rumored to wanting to bring some personnel people with him to Denver, which could certainly cause a conflict with the Paton-led front office. The high-profile coach should have the opportunity to structure things as he sees fit, given his pedigree and the leverage he possessed. For now, however, Paton remains in place.
Both Payton and Paton — that will make for some confusing conversations as long as this partnership lasts — will report to Broncos CEO Greg Penner. That marks a change from 2021 and ’22, but the Walton-Penner group only arrived in Denver late last summer. Payton and Paton also spoke privately often ahead of this hire, Albert Breer of SI.com tweets.
“George and Mickey were great,” Payton said. “It took a minute, but they worked through it hard and got a deal done. … It works out great in Denver because we’re in the AFC.”
The Saints were believed to have asked for two first-round picks from teams for Payton, and while the price undoubtedly would have been higher had the Panthers made the hire, the Broncos collected a 2024 third-rounder in the deal. Still, Denver will go into this draft without first- or second-round picks and will not have a 2024 second-rounder. That will make matters difficult for the Payton-Paton tandem, but this will be the power structure in place in charge of helping the Broncos crawl out of their biggest slump in 50 years.
Lower expectations but he thinks he can fix Russ, and come out looking like a genius. If he fails to do anything with him then it’s Russell’s fault. Bigger letdown and legacy crusher if he fails with Herbert or Dak.
Marty Byrde should’ve never taken the deal
LMAO!!
I can’t think of a worse situation than Denver & then Denver threw more logs into the fire. It’s an inferno burning out of control. This does not end well.
The next 2 years will probably be a restructuring – of the roster, the FO, and the coaching staff.
That’s the way these things usually work.
Smart of the owners to bring in an experienced NFL HC.
The fact that the GM was only involved in a part of the interview process speaks volumes….although after last years hire there’s no way ownership wasn’t going to take the lead.
I completely disagree. There was only one coach left at this point who could have done anything to “fix” Wilson, and that’s Payton. Denver has hired three-three-first time coaches in a row prior to this. What should have been the direction? Hire another inexperienced option and hope that you hit the jackpot? Granted, I believe that Fangio should have been retained, but Denver has tried and failed with first time leaders. And of all the experienced options, it’d be extremely tough to find one more accomplished than Payton.
Denver has a talented roster that was completely mismanaged by an inept coaching staff-Hackett chief amongst them, but not solely responsible. Almost none of his staff had extensive prior experience, and it showed at a positional level on offense-with sloppy mistakes-and overall in strategy and accountability. That dysfunction is what allowed Wilson to attempt and fail to freely run the offense with little oversight.
Fixing that, and creating an accountable culture, takes a strong head coach who has the resume to be able to demand such standards from veteran players. People balk are the compensation by saying that it’s too much for “just a coach”, but coaches don’t have injury concerns and have far fewer age questions. They control more overall team functions. I would rather give up a high pick for five or more years of a good coach than three or so years of a single player.
AK, I largely agree with everything you said. The only part I differ a little on is your last because that would depend on the player for me. If I’m acquiring a top 5 player at QB, WR or an edge rusher, I’d personally rather deal the pick for a player.
This trade was a must for Denver, though. They have a good defense and a lot of pieces on offense. But they have to try and fix Russ. They’re tied to him. This is an investment in that. If Payton can, the pick is a small price to pay because they don’t need much else. If Payton can’t, the pick still doesn’t mean much because there’s nothing they could do with it to become more competitive.
I agree, coaching and having a respected head coach goes a long way in helping the rest of the position players, and creates a stabilizing environment that Denver has lacked for quite a while now. I also agree with outlaw in the fact that it depends on the player but that’s just what the broncos did. They sold their draft capital to aquire Wilson who they thought was that type of player and they missed(whether that was the player or coaching is debatable) and know this is the only way to fix the team due to Wilson’s contract and no salary cap for coaching. I would assume that Walton will pay whoever Payton wants to hire.
“I tried to put the richest ownership at the top from the beginning, and I was impressed with how much money they had to give me” is what Payton actually meant.
As an NFL HC he’s making the same amount of money as a slightly above average ML player in free agency…although they’ll probably get more years and higher raises as the contract goes on….
….and he’s been an NFL HC for 9 years.
9 years? He was head coach from 2006- through the 2021 season with the one year suspension in between. That’s 15 years.
Denver will improve next season with payton calling the offense for sure
Doubt all you want. Payton won’t be worse than Hackett. If anything, hopefully Hackett was a blessing in disguise. If not Payton, I don’t know who’s really make sense to hire to be honest.
I’m surprised he didn’t wait until next year, honestly.
maxj;
Can’t tell what will happen in a year.
A bird in the hand…..
I get the feeling Payton’s not the kind of guy from the gun wants control of the draft. He wants the trust of people he works with to “hear him” when he says what he needs and develop culture from there.
Insert: Hackett face…done deal.
No further comment.
Re: “first NFL coaching trade in 17 years” – should be first in 4 years, no? Arians was traded from Cardinals to the Bucs in 2019.
link to profootballrumors.com
I’d rather have the draft picks.
I’m assuming you’re meaning from the Denver side? My question for you would then be this: who are you drafting #29 overall that improves Denver’s chances of winning more than potentially fixing Russ?
That’s playing under the assumption that Denver makes it to the AFC championship game.
The fans probably said the same thing at the time of the Russ trade. And now the Seahawks have a top 5 pick
Denver is dealing what would’ve been the 49ers 1st selection in this year’s draft for Payton, making it a late first. What Denver does moving forward only impacts the 2nd rounder they’re dealing in the ’24 draft.
So basically they have no 1st or 2nd this year & no 2nd next year and god knows what they gave up for a coach.
The draft is basically out for the next few years, which tells me that Wal Mart is going to buy every free agent possible in a few weeks.
I wonder if that’s why Walmart is trying to gather extra money by charging people $1 to use their shopping carts, lmao
Sacked more than any QB in the league…constant injuries to playmakers…head coach trying to force him into a system that didn’t work for him…but Russ is the one that needs “fixed”. Lol
What’s your excuse for his last few years in Seattle?
I have dogged Russ as much or more than anyone on here but he wasn’t horrible his last few years in Seattle. What was bad was his attitude. It just got to be too much. People had too much of it and the canned after game speeches.
He was a bigger primma Donna than an WR. I also didn’t know Hackett let him design his own O last year. That is interesting. Rookie coach with a guy as full of himself as Russ would be hard. Maybe it wasn’t the play calling but the guy getting the ball snapped to him.
How often did he audible out of the play? Easy to blame the coach but the QB has to run the play and the players have to run it as well.
Russ always has had a WR that knew the plays and they knew what each other were doing. It will be interesting to see how it all goes. I bet Payton doesn’t allow him to make his own O. He has a bit more pull than Hackett.
I think Pete’s success with Geno proved Russ was very much a product of coaching and system. Payton is smart enough to duplicate that system with his own twist, and he already alluded to it in my opinion with this quote:
“The pressure is on us to put a good run game together and reduce the degree of difficulty on his position. I’m excited about him.”
Russ isn’t the QB you let design an offense. Russ isn’t the guy you want slinging the rock 40+ times a game. I agree with you that he has some primma Donna in him, Compass. Payton, like Pete, has enough credentials that he can demand Russ run HIS system. And if he won’t, Payton has the credentials to make Russ the league’s highest paid backup QB for a game or two to drive that point home. That’s important. Hackett couldn’t make that move.
jpenglish
first coach trade in 17 years? Wasn’t Arians just traded a few years ago to Tampa Bay?
You are correct. Bucs had to give up a 6th round. At first NFL said no compensation needed but Cards fought it and won that pick in a minor trade.
Lol for a football rumors site, these guys sure are very late to the party on reporting things. Brady just announced his retirement, which is HUGE news, yet nothing posted. Smh lol
You’re saying a person can post up-to-the-minute information while in another tab watching the degradation of humankind?
???
I just wish he’d had been here a month or so ago so the Bronco’s wouldn’t have let QB Nathan Rourke sign for peanuts with Jags.
Best part is we have the Saints 1st round pick at 10 and we in the super bowl lol fly eagles fly lol glad they got one back lol
I don’t think Sean Peyton is a good head coach hire for todays NFL
I don’t think Sean Payton was worth the 1st round pick the broncos had to give up for him.