Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton took aim at the team’s embarrassing performance last season, most notably the coaching it received under Nathaniel Hackett and his staff.
Payton went so far as to tell USA Today that the 2022 Broncos received “one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.” He also defended Russell Wilson after the veteran quarterback endured his worst season of his career and added that “everything I heard about last season, we’re doing the opposite.”
Wilson, 34, threw for 3,524 yards, 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while taking a league-high 55 sacks in 15 games last season. The disappointing year led to the firing of Hackett after 15 games, with Payton being hired out of a brief retirement to take over the job.
“That wasn’t his fault,” Payton said of Wilson, a Super Bowl champion and nine-time Pro Bowl selection. “That was the parents who allowed it. That’s not an incrimination on him, but an incrimination on the head coach, the GM, the president and everybody else who watched it all happen.”
Added Payton: “But everybody’s got a little stink on their hands. It’s not just Russell. It was a (poor) offensive line. It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”
Payton didn’t stop there, noting that the New York Jets — Hackett’s new employer — acquired a decorated quarterback in the offseason (Aaron Rodgers) just like the Broncos did in the previous year.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much (expletive) time trying to win the offseason — the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.
“We’re not doing any of that. The Jets did that this year. You watch. ‘Hard Knocks,’ all of it. I can see it coming. Remember when (former Washington Commanders owner) Dan Snyder put that Dream Team together? I was at the Giants (in 2000). I was a young coach. I thought, ‘How are we going to compete with them? Deion’s (Sanders) there now.’ That team won eight games or whatever. So, listen … just put the work in.”
Jets coach Robert Saleh was asked about Payton’s comments during his Thursday press conference.
“I kind of live by a saying, ‘If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t popping.’ So hate away,” Saleh said. “Obviously we’re doing something right if you’ve gotta talk about us when we don’t play you until Week 4.”
Actually, the teams play in Week 5 on Oct. 8 when the Broncos host the Jets.
Payton, 59, coached the New Orleans Saints to one Super Bowl victory and will try to work similar magic in Denver.
–Field Level Media
