Sean Payton Believes Declan Doyle Can Succeed In Ways Some Of Former Proteges Have Not

There is a genius that some of the greatest football minds in the game have not been able to impart to their family tree, whether coaching or personnel.

We’ve studied it all offseason, and considered, with the Ravens plucking then-29-year old Declan Doyle out of obscurity to become a rookie offensive coordinator, why and how things so often play out that way. Doyle comes from Sean Payton’s coaching tree, which has not sprouted tremendous branches in terms of play callers and OCs, and we wondered if that is similar to why Bill Belichick’s coaching tree has more misses than hits and why Ozzie Newsome’s personnel tree has more misses than hits.

So when I had the chance to have an in depth discussion with Payton – who is very close to Belichick and comes from the same Bill Parcells family tree as Belichick – on “The Daily Flock Show” of course we were going to explore this dynamic. Knowing how to handle changing calls and adjustments in game with everything happening on the sidelines and on the field of play is not something easily handed down; it’s not readily transferable.

Why Could Doyle Be Different?

And there is also the tendency, when as a young coach around head coaches with resumes as impressive as Payton and Belichick, to take on parts of their demeanor and hard-nosed style that simply don’t fit with the resume and career arc of that first-time head coach or first-time coordinator. I know it’s something Payton has talked with his young coaches about over the years as he sees they are on a trajectory to eventually depart for greener pastures, and I believe it’s part of the reason so many (in Payton’s case guys like Pete Carmichael, Jr. and Joe Lombardi – now on Doyle’s staff - and Johnny Morton) haven’t been able to branch out and succeed on their own.

“No, I agree,” Payton said when I began exploring that dynamic of trying to project a coaching mentor’s style and candor as part of why it hasn’t worked out. “And it’s the same dynamic for a first-time head coach. One of the reasons a young assistant becomes a first-year head coach is because he’s had a room and he’s demonstrated – like you know Ben (Johnson, coach of the Bears where Doyle was in 2025) was in Detroit and he had a top offense there - so it’s easier for owners to say we’ve seen him in front of the room.

“And honestly never having autonomy, it’s a little bit of a combat, if you will, on predicting that he’ll do good. But I know this – his intelligence won’t allow him to be someone different than himself. We’ve always discussed that – he’s going to have his own personality and his way of communicating and I don’t think you’re going to see him try to emulate someone else’s personality.

“I do think you’ll see him emulate practice schedules, work ethic, those things will be apparent. But he’s too smart not to be anything but his authentic self. And that’s one of those superpowers he has. It’s that timing.

And you don’t necessarily have to be someone who is yelling; the way you motivate and communicate can vary and I think that’s one of his strengths.”

Ravens players have clearly embraced having a much younger coach running their offense after Greg Roman and Todd Monken have overseen it during the entire Lamar Jackson era; they are older and perhaps a bit more rigid (especially Roman). Doyle has clearly made great initial inroads with his locker room, and Jackson seemed to embrace it even when Doyle did let him have it some on the practice field.

There’s no way to know for sure how quickly he will learn to master the parts of this job he’s never been asked to do before, and this family tree has been anything but foolproof in making this jump. Doyle comes in with high expectations and team in Super Bowl or bust mode, and it will make for compelling theater every week.

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