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Report: Sean Payton Can Coach Russell Wilson 'With a Heavy Hand'

The Denver Broncos landed the right head coach in Sean Payton.

Depending on what insiders one listens to, the  Denver Broncos either got the guy they wanted all along in trading for the team’s new head coach Sean Payton from the New Orleans Saints, or the team landed the head coach as a 'fallback' option after first pursuing Jim Harbaugh, and then DeMeco Ryans.

Whether Adam Schefter or Ian Rapoport is correct on the Walton-Penner ownership group's path to bringing Payton to Denver, the results are the same. The Broncos landed one of the best offensive minds in the NFL over the last quarter-century to take over the team’s power vacuum in the coaching staff.

Whether Payton was Denver’s first choice or not really doesn’t matter because, according to NFL Network’s Bucky Brooks, Payton “might be exactly what (the Denver Broncos) need at this time.” 

"He’s an experienced coach, he’s won a Super Bowl, he walks in the door, and he has instant credibility with the players there. He has the ability to coach Russell Wilson with a heavy hand because he has pelts on the wall, having coached Drew Brees. Russell Wilson has kind of talked about being a Drew Brees-like player. So who better to coach Russell Wilson than someone who coached Drew Brees.

"This team needed a real head coach, an experienced head coach, to help this team get out of the rut. We will see if Sean Payton can work some of his magic in the Mile High City as he did in New Orleans."

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There is no doubt Russell Wilson needs football rehab. By nearly every imaginable metric, Wilson had one of the worst seasons of his NFL career in his first season in Denver. He was holding onto the ball too long, running into sacks, missing reads, and playing in an offense that did not seem to suit his skill set or how he succeeded during his tenure in Seattle.

Is that all on former head coach Nathaniel Hackett or, like many have indicated, was the scheme, personnel packages, and style of offense heavily influenced by what Wilson ‘wanted’ to run (10/11 personnel, empty sets, and shotgun)? Like the pathway to the Broncos’ new head coach, it likely depends on who you trust as an insider.

After the beatdown suffered on Christmas Day, the Broncos fired Hackett and placed Jerry Rosberg in charge as the interim head coach. Under Rosberg, with offensive coordinator Justin Outten promoted to calling plays, the Broncos played a higher rate of heavy personnel, ran the ball more, used Wilson under center, and leaned into the play-action game. In this style of offense, Wilson once again appeared to flash glimpses of the quarterback the Broncos thought they were getting when they traded for him last offseason.

Given how adaptive Payton has been in his career as an offensive play-caller, crafting his offense around how he believes the quarterback wins, perhaps he can salvage Wilson’s career. As Brooks stated, Payton “has enough pelts on the wall” to tell Wilson that this is the offense he will run and execute, as opposed to the quarterback telling the coaching staff. And with reports that Wilson wanted Payton in Denver, one would assume the buy-in from the quarterback in what the coach wants to run will be quite high following a rather humbling season.

Was the price the Broncos paid too much? Since most teams acquire coaches with no draft capital, trading anything for a coach could be perceived as foolish. Brooks disagrees, though, stating that for the Broncos, “there was no price that would have been too expensive for (the Broncos) to land a five-star head coach.”

"The consistency that he’s been able to coach his teams in terms of winning games and always being in the conversation as a title contender. It’s a different challenge, though, because now he has to take an aging quarterback in Russell Wilson, quickly identify what he can do, see the pieces around him, make sure those pieces are up to par, find a running game, while also making sure the defense can continue to perform at a high level."

Without a doubt, Payton will have his hands full in turning around the ship that has been the off-course franchise in the Broncos since Super Bowl 50. The Broncos may not have gotten their first choice at head coach (or maybe they did), but regardless of conflicting information, they landed the head coach the quarterback, organization, and city needed.


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