Sean Payton is slated to be the next coach of the Denver Broncos. You can see the news in a lot of different ways, but from my perspective, as a life long Broncos fan I have mixed emotions.
The Negative Slant On Sean Payton
Over the past two seasons, you have essentially traded away 2 years of draft future for a coach QB combo.
That’s great if it works, if it turns you into a Super Bowl contender. We saw last year though, this roster is nowhere near competing for Lombardis, specifically due to the regression of Russell Wilson. Not only that, but the roster has holes at almost every level.
Sean Payton is not a guarantee to come in and fix all of those holes. Coaching can fix a lot sure, but fundamentally the Broncos have a middling NFL roster. The offensive line is suspect, the offensive weapons are either aging or coming off huge injuries, and the defense last year benefited from great coaching.
Now Ejiro Evero is likely out of the picture, one of the most talented young DC’s in the game is out the door just like that. I shudder at the prospect of brining back Vic Fangio, towards the end the reporting was that by and large the locker room hated him.
Bringing Fangio back as a DC seems like a disaster waiting to happen. The Bronco’s roster is not Super Bowl ready, and now the team has traded away mass amounts of roster filling assets for a head coach.
The facts are the facts, teams that build through the draft almost always have better success than those who build through free agency. Now the Broncos will be forced to be big spenders this off-season and shore up a roster, that despite adding Sean Payton isn’t anywhere near Super Bowl ready.
We also don’t know what Sean Payton has to offer as a head coach. I know that may sound a little silly but look at his entire career in New Orleans, he always had Drew Brees.
Payton never developed a QB, and Brees was never as far beyond repair as Russell Wilson seems to be right now. Without Brees, the Saints were remarkably average in Payton’s one year at the helm.
The Positive Slant On Sean Payton
He has curated some of the statistically best NFL offenses of the generation. He’s well respected in coaching circles and he might be able to fix Russell Wilson.
That’s a big maybe at this stage is Russ’s career. If Payton can simplify things for Russ though and somehow even coach around him the Bronco’s offense has a chance to be watchable.
God, that is really sad to type out, it has basically been eight years since the Bronco’s offense was last watchable. They’ve had one of the worst offensive stretches in NFL history over the past decade.
The bar is so low for Payton, make the offense watchable, provide an attack that can consistently score more than one touchdown per game.
The Broncos still have their first rounder next year, so if the floor falls out and they end up with a top five pick again, at least this time they’ll own it.
They have a chance to be in the Caleb Williams sweepstakes, that’s more than what they have this year as they traded their first-round pick to Seattle for Russell Wilson.
In the End
The Broncos probably won’t be anything more than a middle of the road team next year. 7-9 wins would be a massive improvement on the last three years though.
Survive, survive one more year with Russ, then if you want, cut him. Take the cap hit and do what honestly this Franchise should have done 8 years ago when Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl, scrap the roster, accumulate picks, suck on purpose for once and try to find a QB that can compete with the likes of Patrick Mahomes.
Because the sad truth is, even at his best, Russell Wilson can’t.