After a whirlwind few weeks that featured all kinds of rumors about Sean Payton, the head coach has landed with the Denver Broncos, where he’s set to coach Russell Wilson in 2023 and beyond.
At the outset of the offseason, there were a total of five NFL head coaching vacancies, with Arizona, Carolina, Denver, Houston, and Indianapolis as options if Payton was deadset on returning to NFL sidelines in 2023.
While Payton could have just as easily sat out for another year while returning to his post with the FOX Sports NFL crew, the option to coach the Broncos was obviously much more enticing for the former Super Bowl-winning head coach.
Yet, as Terry Bradshaw, Payton’s co-worker for the past year at FOX tells it, Payton may not have been too thrilled about the task of ‘fixing’ Wilson and the Broncos after a disastrous season in 2022.
Here’s a clip from Bradshaw, speaking about his conversations with Payton regarding the former New Orleans Saints head coach’s future. Bradshaw hints at the idea that not only was Payton hesitant to join the Cardinals due to their tenuous QB situation with Kyler Murray set to spend at least a portion of next season rehabbing a torn ACL suffered back in December but that he maybe wasn’t so keen on coaching Wilson either.
Bradshaw was asked if he or Payton would rather work with Wilson, as opposed to Murray, and as seen above, Bradshaw didn’t necessarily seem excited about trying to get the most out of the former Seattle Seahawks QB either.
Does Payton feel the same way about his new starting quarterback? If he does, good luck getting him to say anything negative about the Broncos QB on record. We know Payton won’t be allowing Wilson’s personal coach at the facility, but aside from that, the comments have been all positive, touting the QB’s work ethic while also hyping up his ability to impact the win column. Now Payton will look to tune out the noise and find out how to get Russ back in the kitchen, cooking at a Pro Bowl level in 2023.