Former Saints LB Dishes on How Sean Payton Can 'See the Future'

Former New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Shanle has plenty of experience sharing a locker room with his Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton.

After following Payton from the Dallas Cowboys to the Big Easy, Shanle went on to register record-breaking tackle totals with the Saints, and he won a Super Bowl ring in the process. Payton's methods often struck his players as coming out of left field, but it kept them on their toes.

For Shanle, how Payton held the room was all about doubling down on the details, and in equal measure, offering up some pure inspiration.

“When he gets up in front of the room and tells you what the game plan is for that week and how you’re going to beat the opponent in front of you that week, you believe every single word,” Shanle recently told Parker Gabriel The Denver Post. “And it’s crazy the way he stands in front of you and it plays out the way he says it’s going to, you’re like, ‘Man, how can this guy see the future?’ He knows what you need to do exactly and then it plays out that way. He just has a way of motivating guys.”

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Under failed head coach Nathaniel Hackett, the Broncos looked woefully unprepared and uninspired most of the time, so Payton's approach to detailing his team’s preparations at a forensic level could provide an immediate upgrade next season. Grinding through a challenging 17-game NFL campaign also requires a head coach to keep things fresh and exciting, especially if he's going to keep his players completely engaged and bought in.

Having borne witness to some of Payton’s more unique motivational curveballs over the years in New Orleans, Shanle saw many weird and wonderful things within the Saints' tight-knit locker room.

“He hung mouse traps from the ceiling one time when we had a big game and he said, ‘Don’t take the cheese. The media’s going to be dangling cheese in front of you, don’t take the cheese,’” Shanle said via Gabriel. “Or old guys he’d put gas cans in their lockers late in the season and ask, ‘Do you have any gas left in the tank? Are you too old?’”

The world of professional sports often includes indulging in siege mentality-type tactics. Sir Alex Ferguson, the famous Scottish soccer coach, arguably mastered the deployment of such devious stratagems the best and to such an extent that it became an essential part of his coaching artillery.

Mischievous mind games also worked for Payton during the time he spent in New Orleans — largely because trusted veterans like Shanle bought in with such high levels of dedication. The early indications are that most veterans on the current Broncos roster appear willing to imbibe whatever magic potions Payton might ply them with.

Further down the road, we can expect Payton's approach to become even more inventive and exciting, especially if Denver is going to position itself as a legitimate playoff contender.

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