The Denver Broncos needed a coach like Sean Payton, and his wealth of experience running a football team has this franchise close to contention. Whether it's his confident statements about how good he thinks this Broncos team can be, his deal with Jordan Brand, or his sheer will to outsmart everyone, Sean Payton has done it his way.
His shocking departure from the New Orleans Saints following the 2021 NFL Season is what got this party started. After a year as a studio analyst in 2022, Payton hit the coaching carousel and had interviews with a few teams.
But from the get-go, you got the sense that Payton and the Denver Broncos were the perfect match. The draft capital the Broncos had to give up to land Payton definitely made things a bit more complicated, but I am not sure a single fan cares about those draft picks at this point. As now, in year three, Sean Payton's vision for the Denver Broncos is about to fully develop, and his confident arrogance is just what this franchise needed.
Sean Payton is an evil genius and has this 2025 Broncos team right where he wants them
The opening week of the 2025 NFL Season was hardly inspiring, as the Denver Broncos struggled to put away the Tennessee Titans, clearly one of the worst teams in the NFL, but Week 1 in the NFL is really just a fourth preseason game, so it wasn't the first time a good team struggled like that.
Weeks 2 and 3 were totally different stories, but you got the sense at the time that the Broncos were up to their old tricks - not being able to close out tight games has been a trend since the start of the 2024 NFL Season, and with the last-second losses against the Indianapolis Colts and LA Chargers, fans were rightfully wondering when things were going to change.
And then, Week 4 rolls around. Denver falls behind to the Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals, and of course, the natural reaction was 'are the Broncos going to make this game a lot harder than it needs to be?'
Fortunately, no, they didn't do that. Denver shaped up after that first drive and blew out the Bengals. Alright. Back to .500. But on the horizon was the Philadelphia Eagles, the defending Super Bowl champions, and many of us really didn't think Denver stood a chance.
The Broncos were staring down a 2-3 start to the 2025 NFL Season, a regression from the 2024 campaign at this time. But in the fourth quarter, something special happened. Denver didn't really do anything all that special, but what we saw during that comeback was truly a manifestation of a Sean Payton-coached team, and how he wants his this team to play.
Denver never quits - and sure, that might be a cookie-cutter thing to say, but Payton himself said that they felt like the Broncos were in a good spot despite being down at halftime and despite the offense looking nonexistent. The players were still celebrating good plays despite trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter, and not one time during that game did the players make it seem like things were out of reach.
The deliberate preparation that Sean Payton puts his team through for games is noticeable - I could even look back to the Broncos' loss at Arrowhead in 2024 - Denver intended to possess the ball last with a chance to win the game, and in most other scenarios, that field goal goes in.
If you take that heartbreaking loss and compare it to the comeback that Denver mounted at Philly in Week 5, you can tell how much things have changed for the better. Denver had a chance to tie the game after their second fourth quarter touchdown, but in typical Sean Payton fashion, tying the game wasn't enough.
He called a successful two-point conversion play and had all of a sudden stolen the lead back from the defending champs at their house. Some pristine late-game coaching and clock management sealed the deal for Denver, and it was Payton's deliberate arrogance that not only kept the Broncos in that game, but also allowed them to come back and win.
Denver's Week 5 win against the Eagles was now over two years in the making. Payton took this team over at the beginning of the 2023 NFL Offseason, and up until Week 5, the Broncos were searching for that win to kickstart the franchise and to thrust them onto the doorstep of contention.