N/S Payton critiques old Broncos staff, says Jets are setting themselves up for a hard fall, etc.

N/S Payton critiques old Broncos staff, says Jets are setting themselves up for a hard fall, etc.

I know he's no longer a Saint but we’d be lying if we weren’t somewhat interested in casually following around how Payton is doing. And this article was very good and peak Sean Payton. He really pulled no punches. I’m glad he’s in the AFC so we don’t have to actively root against him (though I know some fans will still because they feel he ditched us)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...l-wilson-blame-nathaniel-hackett/70470187007/

“Can I say this to you?” Payton said, shuffling stuff on his desk.

Of course, you can. Let it rip.

“I’m going to be pissed off if this is not a playoff team,” Payton told USA TODAY Sports.

The Broncos, who haven’t had a winning campaign since 2016, surely need this culture change. The franchise with eight Super Bowl appearances in its history (and now six coaches in 10 years) became a laughingstock last season as it paired rookie coach Nathaniel Hackett (who lasted 15 games) with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson and produced an unmitigated disaster underscored by the NFL’s worst offense.

“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 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.”

The hunch here is that Payton could care less about making the Jets' – or anybody’s – bulletin board.

“Oh, man,” Payton began. “There’s so much dirt around that. There’s 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. The offense. I don’t know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.”

Wilson, a 12th-year pro, has employed a support staff for years that includes a personal athletic trainer, a strength and conditioning coach and massage therapist. Yet boundaries were apparently blurred by the presence of Wilson’s personal quarterback coach, Jake Heaps.

Not anymore. When Payton was hired in February, he made it clear that Heaps would not have access to the team’s facility.

“That wasn’t his fault,” Payton said of Wilson. “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.

“Now, a quarterback having an office and a place to watch film is normal. But all those things get magnified when you’re losing. And that other stuff, I’ve never heard of it. We’re not doing that.”