Sean Payton – Russell Wilson’s QB coach will not be at the facility

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Sean Payton’s formal introduction as coach of the Denver Broncos on Monday touched on the importance of keeping an open mind to players, a promise of discipline, an eye for detail and a single-minded pursuit of winning that “isn’t for everyone.” ‘

And perhaps nothing underscored all of that more than Payton’s firm belief in the improvement that quarterback Russell Wilson can make, and how Payton expects Wilson, as well as the rest of the Broncos, to make that improvement.

Asked if Wilson could continue to have a personal quarterback coach — Jake Heaps — as well as other support staff to work with the quarterback in the building, Payton was clear about his position.

“I’m not very familiar with it,” Payton said when asked if Wilson had Heaps in the building with access this past season. “It’s foreign to me – it’s not going to happen. I’m not familiar with that. Our staff will be here, our players will be here and that will be it.”

For a team that has lost at least 10 games in five of the last six years, Payton has quite the to-do list with Wilson at or near the top.

Wilson, for whom the Broncos sent five draft picks and three players to the Seattle Seahawks last March, finished the season with a career-low 16 touchdown passes and a career-high 55 sacks. The Broncos were the league’s lowest scoring team (16.9 points per game) and had 11 games this season in which they scored 16 or fewer points.

But with Justin Auten on pay-per-view from the coaches’ box and quarterbacks coach Clint Kubiak sidelined for the final two games of the season while Jerry Rosberg was acting head coach, Wilson had six total touchdowns in the two games — four passes and two hurries. Wilson threw three touchdown passes in the season-ending win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Payton said Monday that he believes those two games are the first glimpses of how things can be better for Wilson.

“[The] the last few weeks [of the season] we saw a little bit more than what we expected, what we were used to,” Peyton said. “… The No. 1 job for us as coaches in evaluating players is what are the things they do well, and then let’s try to put them in those positions… Emphasize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.”

Matching the insult to what Wilson does well, Peyton later added, “None of us want to be in a karaoke bar with a song we don’t know the words to.”

But overall, for a franchise that has missed the playoffs in each of the past seven seasons — a Super Bowl 50 victory was the team’s most recent playoff appearance — owner and CEO Greg Penner said the new coach will have to bring discipline and accountability.

Payton made those promises both in his interviews with the Broncos and on Monday when he returned to his arrival as coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2006 and working with Hall of Famer Bill Parcells.

“You have law and order, like Bill [Parcells] would say,” Peyton said. “… You go in with how we’re going to teach, how we’re going to meet, how we’re going to practice… Every year in our league there’s been great plans with noble thoughts and a lot of enthusiasm that don’t work out… Discipline, endurance and football makeup will be very important to who the Denver Broncos are. There’s an element of discipline, there’s an element of toughness and, look, it’s not for everybody.”

Peyton later added, “I know what it looks like and I know what it doesn’t look like. And sometimes we don’t ask; sometimes it’s non-negotiable.’

Penner and general manager George Payton said Monday they considered Payton the team’s top prospect earlier in the hiring process than most believed. Penner said it took “five or six days” after the Broncos decided Payton would be the next head coach to actually work out a deal with the Saints for compensation.

Payton, who last coached the Saints in 2021, was under contract in New Orleans through the 2024 season. The Broncos sent their first-round pick in April (29th overall) and the second pick in 2024 to the Saints, for to sign Peyton to a five-year contract. Denver also received a 2024 third-round pick from New Orleans.

Penner, specifically, was asked if the Broncos were still in pursuit of San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans last week before Ryans accepted the Houston Texans head coaching job.

“That wasn’t the case,” Penner said. “… After we locked in Sean about five or six days before we got the deal done with the Saints, our focus was all on him and closing it.”

“We would have done Sean sooner if we didn’t have that other layer with the trade,” Payton said.

For his part, Payton said, “What I was looking for, I felt was there in one place, based on my performance with the other teams. … It was the opportunity I was interested in and I know being the coach they were interested in.”