Sean Payton just injected some #juice into that Broncos-Jets game in Week 5.
Some pertinent passages from the Denver coach’s free-wheeling chat with USA Today:
“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.”
(…)
“Oh, man,” Payton began. “There’s so much dirt around [Russell Wilson’s miserable 2022 season]. There’s 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. The offense. I don’t know (former Broncos coach/current Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel) 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.”
(…)
“Everything I heard about last season, we’re doing the opposite,” Payton said.
(…)
“[I]t might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”
Just our take: Payton has clearly become a celebrity head coach. And a combustible one with Wilson tied around his neck at that. Our gut tells us this is going to be Mike Ditka in New Orleans 2.0. And the Jets are going to smoke the Broncos this fall.
James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.
