37 days seems like a long time to wait,
but the Broncos hope good things come
to those who wait like a new coach.
Yeah, and the good news is 37 days gave a
lot of time for speculation and rumour.
That's all over now, though.
Our Broncos insider Mike Klis has the story.
Sean Payton is the man.
He will be the next head
coach for your Denver Broncos.
Now, technically,
the process began after week 16 with
the Nathaniel Hackett's firing the
day after Christmas and the day after
that 5114 shellacking by the Rams.
Said Jack. It's firing.
Greg Penner and Company have
interviewed 8 different coaches,
but in the end it was the former Saints
head coach and Super Bowl 44 champion
who will be charged with turning
around a team that has missed the
playoffs for seven straight seasons.
When he was with New Orleans,
they thrived offensively and now the
hope is he can work with Russell
Wilson to help the Broncos reach
expectations that so many fans had when
they traded to get the QB a year ago.
Now, of course, Peyton was still
under contract with the Saints,
so they had to finalize.
Trade.
In order to land him to get him,
they had to send this year's first round
pick as well as a second rounder next year.
They do get a third rounder back from
the Saints next year from the Saints,
but in less than 12 months they've
dealt 3 first round picks away to
get Russell Wilson and Sean Payton.
So let's get to our Broncos
insider Mike Klis and Mike.
The deal had been in the
offing for quite some time.
How did they close it today?
Basically by getting the Saints
to come down off their price.
You know, there was a reported that
they were asking the Saints were
for two first round draft picks.
And more and you know,
and some some extra draft picks.
And the Broncos after giving up two
first round picks and two second round
picks last year for Russell Wilson,
just weren't in that position
to keep giving up some high
multiple high round draft
picks. So they wound up
getting the deal done.
They they had this contract
with Sean Payton worked out.
I think it's going to be a
little bit less than 20 million.
It might be 20 million a year,
tops, about 5-6 years.
We'll have to see.
Where it comes in,
the parameters are agreed to,
but the big thing was the Saints
compensation with the draft picks.
They got it down to the #29 overall
pick in the first round this year.
The Broncos got that from the 49ers earlier
this year in the Bradley Chubb trade.
And then in 2024 the Broncos
also are giving up a second
round pick to the Saints,
but they're
getting a third round pick back,
so that second round pick is diluted.
It really comes out to the Broncos
if you kind of mix and match.
About a #2425 overall pick to the
Saints in exchange for Sean Payton.
Go back and look at the other trades
made for New England when they
traded The Jets for Bill Belichick
and the Cowboys for Bill Parcells
and some of these other trades,
John Gruden and in the in the Raiders.
All those trades worked out for
the team that got the coach.
There's very few people in NFL who are
more important than the head coach.
It's the head coach.
And it's the quarterback,
the quarterback the Broncos have to work on.
But that's the other beautiful
thing about Sean Payton.
He's a quarterback whisperer.
He calls the plays.
He, of course,
helped lift Drew Brees to what's
going to be a first ballot Hall of
Fame election at five years from now.
And so Sean Payton with Russell Wilson,
if they can get that straightened out,
the Broncos,
there's there is reason for
optimism and Broncos country today,
if you can whisper to the quarterback,
it's nice if the quarterback can hear you.
But we'll see how that relationship,
that's gonna be the relationship
people are gonna be watching
for the next several months.
So I did a little math in my head.
Five years, 20 million,
that's that's almost like $100 million.
That's, that's a pretty nice piece of
change right there that Sean Payton
will be collecting over his time here.
Here's the deal. Culture.
I mean, Nathaniel Hackett really
struggled to get his team's attention
and to get them ready to go day one.
I don't think anybody's gonna
be worried about Sean Payton's
team being ready to go, at least.
With the roster he has come day one,
he's not soft.
No, that's that's a big reason.
You know, Greg Penner went into
this where Sean Payton and
Jim Harbaugh were his top two.
You know those are the two to beat.
And both of those guys,
they have a real edge.
I mean they they're they're
they're they coach hard.
They coach tough and you know the bro hugs.
I I think Sean Payton's got a
little bro hog and he celebrates
as much as any head coach does,
but he gets after guys,
and that's what they wanted, they thought.
Getting the thaniel Hackett was
just a little too player friendly.
They wanted someone to
keep these players on edge.
Sean Payton knows how to
set a a winning culture.
Now he's been accused in the
past of stepping over a line or
two for that winning culture,
bounty gate being being part of it.
But that's what the football
culture is really.
In the NFL,
you have to straddle that line
to where there there's not,
you know,
there's not all a bunch of
choir boys in the NFL.
Nothing against choirboys.
They can be tough, too.
But Sean Payton is going to lay the law down.
And you were talking about Russell Wilson.
You know, he kind of had
the run of the place.
He had authority over the the game plan.
He had authority at the line of scrimmage.
You know, he has the office upstairs.
He had his own personal coaching
staff that was around the building
and on the practice field.
I'm not sure how Sean Payton
is going to handle that,
but I know one thing he's going to do.
He's going to integrate.
Uh, Russell Wilson with the team.
He's Russell Wilson isn't going to be
isolated or feel like he's the number one
superstar and there's 52 other players.
It's going to be Russell
Wilson as one of the guys,
and that's the type of culture that the
Broncos need going forward here in 2023.
I think Russell Wilson and
Ciara remain the power couple,
but the most interesting couple
going forward will be Sean Payton,
and Russell Wilson will be talking
about that for the next few months,
and we'll be talking with you more about it.
Few minutes. Thanks for joining us, Mike.
There's a live look right now at
empower Field and it's probably
gonna be a little different with
Sean Payton in charge next year,
and that's the idea.
I think Bronco fans as well as the team
were very much in need of a culture change.
And certainly for the first time
in several years they have a coach
who's been a coach and a head coach
in the National Football League
with Sean Payton coming to town.
Of course, he's well known around the NFL,
a long,
successful and also controversial career.
He's had it all Super Bowl too,
and and we needed.
More than just a new big
screen on the South End zone.
OK, they're getting that too.
Scotty Gaines is joining us now
to talk a little bit more about
his resume because, you know,
not everybody's the Saints fan.
Maybe they haven't
followed Sean Payton. Yeah,
maybe they haven't.
But, you know, you mentioned controversial.
Whether you like it or not,
Sean Payton is the biggest name head
coach coming to the Broncos since
they fired Mike Shanahan in 2008.
I mean, he's been around the block.
It's really going to be an exciting
time to have him come into town.
He comes in a Super Bowl champion.
So now the Broncos head
coach and quarterback.
Have reached the very top of the NFL.
You just heard Mike Klis say it's all
about the quarterback and the coach.
Both of them are former champions.
He's a former NFL coach of the Year 2.
He's coached in places like Philadelphia,
New York, Dallas.
In no way is he inexperienced.
The Broncos have had a couple
rookie head coaches come into town.
Now they say let's get a guy that
has some experience 59 years old.
He's coming off his Fox Sports analyst gig,
so he's not totally been away from the game.
He really can't stay away from
football when he was suspended.
Back in 2012, due to the Bounty gate scandal,
he actually coached his sons
6th grade football team.
They made a Netflix movie
about it with Kevin James.
It was just awful.
Anyways, he's a former NFL quarterback.
Nothing crazy in terms of his play.
79 total yards in his career,
one interception, no touchdowns,
but pretty cool.
He played quarterback at
Eastern Illinois University.
That is the exact same school that Mike
Shanahan played ball at and the last time
the Panthers sent a head man to the Broncos.
You guys things.
Things worked out pretty well for Denver,
so it's gonna be really exciting.
I mean,
the guy with so much experience
and legacy to him too.
I mean,
the champion we talked about Drew Brees,
a quarterback whisperer,
he really could help get
Russell Wilson right.
I can't tell you how different
that vibe is going to be when
he walks through the locker room
as opposed to Nathaniel Hackett
walking through the locker room.
It is going to be
a very mindful, very respectful group.
They understand who he is,
what he's done a been there. Done.
That guy who's been to the top of the heap.
Yeah, there's not gonna be any messing
around to any hey, can this guy do it?
We saw him in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers,
maybe. I mean, this is Sean Payton.
He's coming in.
He led the New Orleans Saints, I mean,
and think of back to when they had the
hurricane they were years and years ago.
That was a hard team to run.
It was brought them back.
And I mean and did some great team
bonding through that whole thing
and had some stars there that.
I mean, he was resurgent to
Drew Brees's career.
Yeah, down and out.
He comes to New Orleans,
works with Sean Payton.
And he becomes a Hall of
Fame or Super Bowl champ.
One of the caveats for me though
is that that coach quarterback
thing that we're we've gone through the
whole discussion with Belichick and Brady.
Yeah Brady succeeded Post Belichick.
Belichick has struggled and I wondered
about Breeze and and and Sean Payton.
I mean obviously Sean Payton helped Drew
Brees but Drew Brees helped Sean Payton too.
Absolutely. There wasn't exactly
like Sean was doing all the lifting.
You've got to be great.
You also have to have a little bit of luck
out there and I think Sean Payton having
Drew Brees having a great quarterback and
getting some extra guys coming in too.
He had a little bit of luck.
You have to have that and the Broncos
have good players on their team.
Their defense was spectacular at
least the first half of the season.
Russell Wilson has proven he
can do it before.
They've got a strong running game.
A couple wide receivers will be coming
back next year off of injury. Yeah
one of those pieces are there was
talking about with us a few minutes ago
when we broke in with it was whether
is euro ever was gonna stay so we'll
get a chance to talk more about that.
So I was wondering who who possibly stay.
He might be in line for a raise
too if he they want him to
stay but think of the fact he stays.
Sean Payton's gotta know
some guys out there in the.
Well, like, like I said,
he's been with four different
teams for many, many years.
There'll be, there'll be assistants who
want to work with and probably they'll
play all the starters.
Maybe at times during the preseason
should be a different maybe.
It's possible. I'm just thinking
Scotty will talk about it a little bit more.
Thanks for joining us. You were alluding
to Sean Payton and Mike Shanahan.
Well, Sean Payton comes to a town
where Shanahan is certainly revered.
The two men have quite a bit in common when
it comes to how they got into coaching.
The two of them went to high school only
about 25 miles apart from each other,
about 10 years apart.
As well in Illinois, just outside of Chicago.
And then both of them went from those
high schools down to normal, IL.
They both played quarterback at Eastern
Illinois University 12 years apart.
Of course.
Now Sean Payton will follow Shanahan's
footsteps once again as the head
coach of the Denver Broncos.
We hope that works out because
Mike Shanahan was very good
to the Denver Broncos and to
get some footsteps.
Those are good ones to get into.
Sure, much more reaction as far as
the hiring of Sean Payton today,
the trade to get him as well.
Former Bronco Chad Brown's
gonna join us for more.
That's coming up at about 4:30.