Sanity has finally taken hold in Denver. The Walton family and the Denver Broncos have finally made a wise head coaching hire as they snatched up retired former Saints HC Sean Payton in exchange for a couple of draft picks.
The Broncos should have made this hire in the first place.
Sure, no one could have predicted that Nathainel Hackett would literally go down as one of the worst coaching hires in the last two decades of the NFL as he not only operated one of the league’s worst ever offenses as an “offensive guru”, but he also may have irrevocably damaged Russell Wilson’s Hall of Fame chances. I know I keep going back to this whenever I speak about the Broncos, but it’s true when I say that Russell Wilson’s career reputation is on the line with how bad he looked this year.
Prior to this season, Wilson was almost unanimously considered one of the best QBs in the league, he was one of the architects of the Seahawks 2013 Super Bowl win and preceding years of dominance, and he was going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer when his illustrious playing career was said and done. Yet, under one year of Nathainel Hackett’s horrible leadership, all of those accolades were seriously questioned given how awful he looked.
Wilson had his worst ever season with a career low 60.5% completion percentage, a career low 16 TD passes, 11 INTs, a career low 84.4 rating, 3,524 passing yards, and 277 rushing yards. And these horrible stats don’t even tell you half the story of how bad the Broncos offense looked with Wilson under center and Hackett calling the shots.
In the 17 games the Broncos played, they only won 5 and scored 20 or more points just 5 times, which is shocking in the modern NFL.
Anyway, the reign of Hackett is gladly over for Broncos fans now that Sean Payton has finally been signed as the team’s new head coach. And, clearly, I think this is a brilliant move.
Sure, trading away a 2023 1st round pick and a 2024 2nd round pick is a steep price to pay for a coach, but this isn’t just some ordinary, unproven guy like Hackett was.
Out of all the available head coaching candidates, there wasn’t a better one that could bring out the best of an aging, thought-to-be washed up QB than Sean Payton. The former Saints coach forged his legendary reputation on the back of a partnership with a QB (aka: Drew Brees) that was released by his original team (aka: San Diego Chargers) as they thought he wasn’t good enough.
I mean, Payton was able to win a Super Bowl in 2009, a Coach of the Year award in 2006, 7 NFC South division titles, and earn 10 playoff appearances in 15 seasons, and was able to turn a QB marked down as someone who couldn’t “win the big game” into one of the 15 greatest quarterbacks of all-time. And the Chargers wonder why they are a failed organization.
Anywho, like it or not, that’s pretty impressive for an organization that was once synonymous with failure and losing.
Plus, Payton’s offenses were always at the top of the NFL rankings year in and year out, even when Drew Brees was getting up in age and his arm started wore down. Now, I don’t think Russell Wilson is as washed as Brees was in his last season, but Payton has shown he has the capability to run a successful offense with veteran/older QBs.
As for the rest of the offense, the Broncos have some really good pieces to work with as Jerry Judy, Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick, KJ Hamler make up a strong WR core, while the defense was bordering on elite most games.
At the end of the day, this Broncos team has the capability of challenging divisional rival Chargers and the rest of the AFC Wild Card teams for one of the three Wild Card spots next season. Though, the only thing that will ensure the Broncos end their now 7-year drought is if Payton can revive the Russell Wilson that was tearing it up in Seattle.
If he can’t, then Wilson’s time in Denver is going to be much shorter than anyone expected as the Broncos didn’t give up a 1st, 2nd, and millions of dollars to make Payton the head coach for a few seasons.
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