Payton really buried Hackett. I’m not sure I can remember him being so highly critical of another coach. I mean alluding to it yeah but he was very blunt here.
i think it's very smart for 2 reasons:
- largely put last years failure on the dude tossed out on his ear (and not your ancient QB who you need to be somewhere close to his old self
- puts a shot across the bow to some of the top brass that he doesn't want interference in running the team
-- buys himself a bit of time in both circumstances