(Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Mike Sando’s Pick Six of 18 December 2023.)
Sean Payton shooting quarterback Russell Wilson on the sidelines, hinting that he was simply upset with the officials invited all sorts of speculation.
It’s hard to blame Payton for losing his mind when officials a Broncos landing with an offside call that looked indefensible. As one former head coach put it, officials “lost their minds” looking for penalties to go along with it Philadelphia’s push-push play.
It’s just hard to understand why Payton would direct any of that anger toward his quarterback.
GO DEEPER
Sean Payton plays down sideline flare-up with Russell Wilson
The nature of Payton’s relationship with Wilson faded into the background during a five-game winning streak fueled by opponent turnovers. With Denver losing two of its past three, including 42-17 at Detroit On Saturday, tensions seem to be flaring up again. The topic is compelling because the Broncos must decide after the season whether to fully guarantee another $37 million in Wilson’s contract.
A search through Payton’s offseason media sessions turned up a few mildly positive sentences about the quarterback he inherited, but not much. That doesn’t necessarily mean coach and quarterback are headed for a divorce, but Payton seems to be making the public wonder, a departure from how he treated Drew Brees during his New Orleans tenure.
Some of this may simply be an old-school approach to motivation and control. But the disdain Payton showed Wilson early in the season and again on the sidelines Saturday striker appeared.
While it’s possible that Wilson suggested that Payton should have initiated a replay challenge or gone for it on fourth down instead of attempting a field goal, inviting an angry response from Payton, two coaches familiar with the was presented with another possibility during Wilson’s tenure in Seattle. They noted that Wilson changed plays in Seattle to get himself into a rhythm, and that if he changed Payton’s plays during the drive in question, the coach could make a powerful statement.
“I don’t think Sean is despised by anybody there,” another coach said, “so he’s going to let everybody know when he’s pissed off. He just wasn’t very pissed off in New Orleans all the time. They were winning.”
(Photo: RJ Sangosti / MediaNews Group / The Denver Post via Getty Images)
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