Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has made some extremely aggressive moves since being named head coach of the team, and he just does not care what the outside noise says. From his time with Russell Wilson to drafting Bo Nix and everything in between, Payton doesn't care what people think about it.
At least, to an extent. He's a rugged, old-school coach from the Bill Parcells tree, and the success he's had in the NFL is obvious. Payton is precisely what the Denver Broncos have needed for years, and the team now has a clear path to take, for better or worse. That all hinges on Bo Nix working out, and honestly, I'd be shocked if he didn't.
Anyway, Sean Payton doesn't listen to the outside and just does not seem to care what other people think of how he runs his football team. We kind of got a glimpse of this with this fiery quote:
"Will you f---ing stop kissing all the babies? You're not running for public office."Sean Payton to Russell Wilson
In a pretty clear indictment of Russell Wilson, Payton didn't hold back. This quote came out last offseason. And then you have Payton apparently chewing Russell Wilson out on the sidelines during the Broncos' blowout loss to the Detroit Lions. He was crushed by the media for it, but again, he didn't seem to care.
And before that, there was the controversial USA Today interview he did, where he laid into what went on with the Broncos before he got there:
"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.Sean Payton
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."
And again, he was crushed by the media for it. Two other notable events were the Broncos cutting Russell Wilson earlier this offseason, taking on an NFL record $85 million in dead cap, and to build on that, taking Bo Nix with pick 12 in the 2024 NFL Draft. Nix seemed, at least in the NFL Draft world, to be a late-first or early-second round pick.
Many said that the Broncos overdrafted Nix, but he was third on the team's own board. Do you think Payton was listening to those people who said that Nix was a second-round pick? Do you think he gave a rip what they were going to think taking him at 12?
He doesn't care. He cares about building a winning football organization, and it's been refreshing to see.