DENVER — Fix Russ.
If Sean Payton can manage that, hiring him was worth it. The trade that’s sending pick No. 29 in the 2023 NFL draft and a second-rounder in 2024 to the Saints. The hand-wringing. The waiting. The speculation. The false hopes.
The doubts. The “mystery candidates.” The chapped lips after having to kiss Jim Harbaugh’s ring in person. The inevitable, uncomfortable questions about that Bountygate scandal.
Fix Russell Wilson, coach, and it all washes away. Like castles made of sand.
Payton, who led the Saints to their only Super Bowl victory and was acquired by the Broncos for two draft picks Tuesday, isn’t a quarterback whisperer. He’s a QB savant.
The naysayers will tell you that Payton’s 152 regular-season wins over 15 seasons in the Big Easy was a product of trotting out Drew Brees, a Hall of Fame quarterback, to run his stuff.
That’s baloney. Payton posted a 17-12 record with the Saints in games that featured someone other than Brees as his starter — a winning percentage of 58.6%. Big or small, mobile or stiff, the new Broncos coach found a way. The man went 7-2 with Taysom Hill behind center. He was 5-1 with old friend Teddy Bridgewater calling the shots.
Even if Russ has five times Steady Teddy’s ego, he’s also blessed with twice Bridgewater’s talent.
Payton’s challenge? Breaking through the former to get every last drop of what’s left of the latter.
Convincing Wilson to think less about aging like Brees and more about the scoreboard. That the guy in Weeks 17 and 18 — in which the Broncos averaged 29 points per game and Wilson produced six total touchdowns, when he was throwing and improvising brilliantly on the move — is the guy No. 3’s gotta be.
A tip of the cap to the Penners, a rookie ownership group, for getting their man. And for landing only one of two candidates — Harbaugh being the other — that would’ve justified the long game.
And yes, as a coach, Payton was no Saint. Yet from Day 1, he gives the Broncos something they haven’t had at UCHealth Training Center since Gary Kubiak hung up his whistle in January 2017: A coach who’s actually, honestly done this before.
For six years, from Vance Joseph to Vic Fangio to Huggy Bear Hackett, the Broncos tried to sell one of the best fan bases in the country on Hail Mary candidates who loved to talk. Tuesday, they finally landed a guy who’s walked it first.
Payton is a high floor. He’s a pedigree. He’s a proven commodity instead of a Power Point king.
Since 2006, he’s coached NFL teams that won nine or more games 10 times. Over that same span, the Broncos have managed the same on just six occasions — and none since the fall of ’16.
If you’re gnashing your teeth over losing pick No. 29, the one going to New Orleans in the deal, don’t. The last decade has shown the impact of the first-rounder taken in that slot to be a coin flip. Since 2013, the 29th selection in the draft’s averaged just 4.2 starts per season over the length of their careers.
If you’re raging over the rap sheet, chill. Bountygate proved a blight to the league on multiple fronts. The cover-up, the height of NFL hubris, was worse than the crime. Once Payton started flying too close to the sun, his wings melted.
But instead of plummeting, he managed to stay aloft. Payton even found some of that old altitude again. After serving his suspension during the 2012 season, the Saints won four more division titles from 2013-2020, nabbed three more playoff victories and reached another NFC title game.
Over the past 36 months, the Broncos have shipped away Von Miller, Bradley Chubb, three first-round picks and three second-round picks, only to drift further and further away from Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Fix Russ, coach, and it’ll be forgiven. Because if No. 3 somehow gets his mug on a Ring of Fame pillar, they’ll be chiseling yours next, Coach Payton.
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