Don’t care if Sean Payton was the Broncos’ third choice. Or the first. Or the sixth.
Fix Russ.
If Payton can manage that, it was worth it. Every last draft pick. Every last penny.
The trade that’s sending the 29th slot in this spring’s NFL Draft to the Saints, along with a second-rounder in 2024? Worth it. The handwringing? Worth it. The waiting? Worth it.
The “mystery candidates?” The chapped lips from having to kiss Jim Harbaugh’s ring in person? The inevitable, uncomfortable questions about that Bountygate scandal?
Worth it, worth it, worth it.
Don’t care if Payton was Plan C. Or Plan A. Or B. Or F.
Fix Russell Wilson, coach, and it all washes away. Like castles made of sand.
Did the Penners overpay? Darn straight they did.
So what? Big Russ is too big a project — and too big a contract — to trust in the mitts of a first-time head coach.
DeMeco Ryans, who snatched the Houston Texans’ vacancy Tuesday after reportedly blowing the Broncos’ minds, might well be the second coming of Mike Tomlin.
He could also be another Mike Singletary, and we’ve already seen that movie here. And the two sequels. Names change. The final scene doesn’t. The good guys get run off a cliff by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. Andy Reid eats a cheeseburger and waddles to the Super Bowl. Finis. Fade to black.
It was time.
Time to change the script. Time to pony up for the diamond instead of digging through the rough. Time to hand this Rubik’s Cube to a grown-up and let him try and solve it.
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. Man’s a QB savant.
The naysayers will whisper 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.
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 wring every last, precious drop of the latter.
Convincing Wilson to think less about aging like Brees. And more about the scoreboard.
Convincing him that the guy in Weeks 17 and 18 — in which the Broncos averaged 29 points per game and Wilson produced six total touchdowns, throwing and improvising splendidly 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. For landing one of the two candidates — Harbaugh being the other — that would’ve possibly justified the long game.
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: A leader at the top of the football pyramid who’s actually 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, too.
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 to do the same on just six occasions — none since the fall of ’16.
If you’re gnashing teeth over the first-round pick, don’t. 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. Yes, the cover-up of Bountygate, 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. Found his mojo, too: After serving his suspension and penance during the 2012 season, the Saints won four more division titles from 2013-2020, nabbed three playoff victories and reached another NFC title game.
Don’t care if he was the fallback. Or the contingency. Or the last resort. One of the NFL’s big boy jobs finally has an honest-to-goodness big boy sitting in that chair again.
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 Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Fix Russ, and it’ll be forgiven. Because if No. 3 somehow gets his mug bronzed on a Ring of Fame pillar, they’ll be chiseling Payton’s next.
