Like everyone else who talks and writes about sports for a living, we get plenty wrong. But we also get some right. And we are proud to say that, after three weeks, we have nailed Sean Payton’s tenure with the Broncos.
As we wrote in July (and tweeted as much back in January):
Payton will be a disaster in Denver. It will be Mike Ditka with the Saints 2.0. Celebrity head coach with possibly impatient and definitely loaded owners and a mercurial quarterback on the decline and with an immovable contract. We give it two years.
Well look at this. Denver is now 0-3 after a historic 70-20 loss to the Dolphins. Russell Wilson continues to look washed up. And Payton is snapping at local reporters.
Awkward exchange between Sean Payton and a reporter, who asked how the #Broncos coach feels about the historically bad loss.
"What's the question? What's the question? I just finished telling you. Next question," Payton said. pic.twitter.com/EwE55LvvLh
— Henry McKenna (@henrycmckenna) September 24, 2023
Hey, maybe Payton is just playing more 10-dimensional chess like all of his national media buddies told us following the Nathaniel Hackett comments debacle? All part of the plan. Just like that bong video and Bountygate and allowing the Dolphins to tamper with him.
Payton is a good coach. But a great coach would have more than one Super Bowl trip (he can only hang his hat on the botched NFC title game call against the Rams so much). And a great coach would not have had three straight 7-9 seasons, or survived them (hat tip to the Saints’ ownership drama helping him stay put). And a great coach would have never taken the messy Broncos job, no matter how much they paid him.
It’s mind-boggling Payton did not just spend one more season in television. Imagine what is going to feel like for him when he’s breaking down the film after a 5-11 season (or worse) and watches Jim Harbaugh do his introductory press conference with the Chargers. Or when Jerry Jones finally throws Mike McCarthy overboard in Dallas. Or when Sean McVay bags it with the Rams or the Jets can Robert Saleh or any other vastly superior situation opens.
James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.
