Sean Payton hilariously called himself out for awful Jaylen Waddle play call

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton was in absolute disbelief after his team's 30-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Not because of the result of the game, but because he couldn't believe nobody in the media asked him about the "awful" play call late in the 4th quarter when he called a reverse play to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle out of the backfield.

The play was a disaster in every possible sense. The Broncos had been driving down the field with a more "traditional" running game, and the play to Waddle resulted in a fumble, a huge loss of yards, and an injury to Waddle who left the game.

Payton's decision to call himself out in the postgame press conference was absolutely priceless.

Sean Payton calls himself out for bad play call where Jaylen Waddle got hurt

"Why didn't anybody ask me about the dumb reverse call? It was awful. I'm sorry."

- Broncos HC Sean Payton

Payton then referenced a play that he called for the Saints back in 2008, a similar call that ended up leading to a loss against the Buccaneers.

As he admitted, "Sometimes, you fall in love with a play..."

Nobody in all of Broncos Country could understand quite what was going on when Payton pulled a trick play out of his hat at that point. He was feeling it, and in basketball, I believe they call that a "heat check".

It was an otherwise well-called game by Payton, whose offense has steadily made strides since he took over play-calling. The Broncos had some actual first-half production against both the Seahawks and Cardinals, and the offense did well in all four quarters against Arizona, at least to a degree.

There have still been some issues with execution, penalties, and things generally looking "easy" for the offense, but there's a reason why Payton was willing to bring it up after the game and joke about it. He's feeling good.

So what about Jaylen Waddle's injury on the play?

And the more you think about it, what does his willingness to bring it up (and even make himself the butt of the joke) say about the injury Waddle suffered on the play? Hopefully, it was just a stinger or something, but Waddle was clearly in a lot of pain on the field and wasn't doing much to move his left arm as he walked off.

He was on the injury report with a chest injury ahead of the game against the Cardinals, so it's unclear whether or not he aggravated something with that or if it was unrelated.

As funny as Payton thinks it is, it's good to hear him say he realizes it was a "dumb" play call in the moment. One thing the Broncos have struggled with this season is getting consistency with their running game. Right before that play to Waddle, the Broncos were actually running the ball well in the more traditional sense.

They got a nice drive starter from Jonah Coleman for 6 yards. Bo Nix picked up a first down two plays later after runs of 3 and 2 yards. After picking up the first down, Coleman busted off another 15-yard run for a first down. It was four straight successful run plays leading to a first down, and Payton was feeling it...a little too much.

It didn't feel like the right time to call that particular play, especially because it didn't work and ended in disaster. But with a huge lead, maybe it was the right time to see if it would work. Either way, I'm not sure we'll see Payton call it again anytime soon.

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