The Denver Broncos had high expectations last season after the acquisition of Russell Wilson. But under head coach Nathaniel Hackett, the team fell flat, finishing with a 5-12 record and a -72 point differential. Hackett was let go before the conclusion of the season, and the team has brought in Super Bowl winning head coach Sean Payton to try and right the ship.
Sean Payton Has Plenty To Say About Hackett, Jets
“It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”
I’ve never seen coach on coach crime like this, there’s gotta be some sort of unwritten rule — good piece from @JarrettBellhttps://t.co/EgR0qvBUTr
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) July 27, 2023
Payton certainly brings the pedigree to the job. He took a year off in 2022 after spending 15 seasons as the head of the New Orleans Saints, where he was wildly successful. His teams posted a regular season record of 152-89 (.631), qualifying for the postseason nine times and winning the Super Bowl back in 2009.
So there is reason for excitement in Denver, as Payton will do his best to help Russell Wilson recapture the skill that made him one of the game’s elite quarterbacks while playing in Seattle.
But Payton is in the media spotlight on Thursday after some comments he made early on in training camp. He called out Hackett and how the Broncos operated last off-season:
It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed. 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.
Broncos Will Meet Jets In Week 5
#Jets HC Robert Saleh took the high road when asked about Sean Payton’s comments:
“If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t popping. So hate away. Obviously we’re doing something right if you’ve gotta talk about us when we don’t play you until Week 5.”
pic.twitter.com/xZazBAlhwP https://t.co/AS5m3UZyBu
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) July 27, 2023
It didn’t stop there for Sean Payton. He compared last year’s Broncos to this year’s New York Jets, saying that they are the team that has done the off-season parading, and that he can see a failure brewing for them:
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.
It feels like something of an unnecessary shot at a current team and how they operate. Jets head coach Robert Saleh was asked about Payton’s comments in a post-practice press conference on Thursday, and he pointed to the Week 5 matchup between Denver and New York that both teams will most certainly have circled on their calendars.
If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t popping. So hate away. Obviously we’re doing something right if you’ve gotta talk about us when we don’t play you until Week 5.