the Saturday, ESPN‘s Adam Schefter broke the news that the New Orleans Saints had granted the Denver Broncos‘ asks to interview former head coach Sean Payton. as current FOX Sports analyst Payton confirmed that report on Sunday, revealing he had already spoken with the Denver “owner.”
“Denver is the first team,” Payton said live on TV. “I was able to have a conversation with their owner. It’s kind of protocol… The interview process can’t officially start until the 17th of this month.”
Whether Payton is referring to Broncos majority owner Rob Walton or team co-owner and CEO Greg Penner is unclear. But I would hazard a guess that Payton spoke with the latter, since Penner himself revealed after Nathaniel Hackett was fired that he would be in charge of the team’s head coaching search.
It was interesting to hear Payton discuss his candidacy for head coach on television. He was asked about the situation of a given team’s quarterback and whether that would be the deciding factor in where he would ultimately land.
“I think it’s really about the triangular relationship – ownership, front office, head coach,” Payton said. “When we went to New Orleans – and I say ‘we’ because there were a lot of people involved – the quarterback was unstable at that time. So I think the ownership and functionality of the front office are the most important.”
Indeed, when Payton first got the head coaching job at New Orleans, he didn’t have an understanding starting quarterback. Drew Brees had been cleared from San Diego in free agency due to the career-threatening injury he suffered late in the season and the Chargers’ first-round investment in Philip Rivers in the NFL Draft. in 2004.
Brees hit the free agent market in 2006 as a quarterback, and many teams viewed him as damaged merchandise. He met Miami and New Orleans as the only two serious suitors, and the first went with Daunte Culpepper. When Payton put Brees in his clutches in New Orleans, shortly after the nightmare of Hurricane Katrina, he never let go, and the rest is history.
Payton is considered the top candidate of the 2023 head coaching hiring round, so you’d think his phone would already be exploding with potential suitors. That’s not the case, as we learned on Sunday, along with Payton’s realization of the NFL’s priority for a traded head coach.
“No, there’s absolutely no team I’m leaning towards. And Denver was the only team,” Payton said. “I’m a little picky… Protocol is just permission right now. It’s happened before. It’s happened maybe half a dozen times. And then the process of interview can start on the 17th, so we will see what happens.”
Payton is a veteran NFL coach and he understands the odds are that wherever he might pique interest, those teams are likely to be in a state of varying disrepair. With that in mind, he doesn’t seem desperate to throw himself headlong into whatever job comes his way, regardless of the money.
“There is no utopia,” Payton said. “All these teams that we’ve just seen go through Jay, they’re all moving forward for reasons. And some of them, you have to be careful. If it’s not just the coach, if there’s a other deeper issues. So for me it would be ownership and the front office.”
The Broncos have their warts, no doubt. Seven long years of missing the playoffs since Super Bowl 50 have tarnished the luster of a once-proud franchise.
How Payton views the Broncos vacancy likely hinges a lot on his view of Russell Wilson and whether he can be fixed the way the team thinks. If Payton has any doubts about Wilson, Denver’s job would be untenable, as his contract would be an albatross around the next head coach for the foreseeable future.
It’s interesting to hear the most coveted candidate of this cycle of head coaches discuss these issues openly. Maybe we’ll hear more about that in the week to come, but in all likelihood, since the NFL decided the Broncos couldn’t visit Payton in person until Jan. 17, there’s a good chance that we don’t know more until then. .
Payton has gone out of his way to give the impression that he is perfectly content to stay in the media business at FOX. Classic leverage.
In the meantime, there are other head coaching candidates, including Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, who the Broncos have been linked with in the rumor mill all week. Stay tuned.
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