ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There are two ways for New Orleans Saints fans to react to Sean Payton coming back with his newest team Thursday night.
One is to appreciate the Super Bowl title and winning seasons and playoff wins and top 10 offenses he brought to a franchise that had just one playoff win and only seven winning seasons in the 39 years before he got there. And at a time when the city and region needed an emotional boost following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Or two, boo him from the Big City all the way back to the Rocky Mountains for what the fans may perceive as bailing on them under the guise of retirement following the 2021 season only to return as head coach with a different team, in his case the Denver Broncos.
Payton has an idea of which of the two reactions he will receive.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of flowers and warm fuzzies for yours truly and I get it,” Payton said Monday in his day-after game media conference call.
It was Payton and quarterback Drew Brees who together lifted the Saints to prominence from 2006 to 2020. Payton stayed one more season after Brees retired, then took a year leave from coaching. And now Payton’s Broncos will play the Saints this Thursday night in a stand alone game at the Caesar’s Superdome.
“It will be unique,’’ Payton said. “One of the things we talked about with the players is trying to handle all the stuff ahead of time. I’ve got a great wife who, tickets are done with, family, my children. I think all of us around us know how challenging the short week is as compared to if it was a full week. Yeah, certainly there will be emotions with players going back there but I do think that comes up quite a bit in our league with players and in this case the amount of time I was there. I understand it.
“And look, we have to deal with the crowd noise. That place is loud. You guys know that. I guess I would say fortunately it’s a short week because I haven’t had a lot of chance to dive into all the other stuff. Drew’s going into their Hall of Fame (during a halftime ceremony). And soon the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I’ve already reached out to him and congratulated him and said, ‘Hey, this is the first of many.’
“But I think still it’s about the game and the win and the significance of us playing our best football on a short week and it’s about our team. I’ll address that with them tomorrow morning. Let’s understand the significance of getting our fourth win. That’s the No. 1 thing. And then go from there.”
The Broncos also have seven players who played for Payton in New Orleans – Michael Burton, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Wil Lutz, Malcolm Roach, Calvin Throckmorton, Adam Trautman and Kwon Alexander – and 11 assistant coaches – Beau Lowery, Pete Carmichael, Joe Vitt, Joe Lombardi, Mike Westhoff, Johnny Morton, Zach Strief, Dan Dalrymple, Michael Wilhoite, Declan Doyle and Chris Banjo. Payton also brought over former Saints’ scout Cody Rager to the Broncos’ personnel department.
There are also a bunch of former Broncos coaches now with the Saints: Head coach Dennis Allen and assistants Klint Kubiak, Clancy Barone, Rick Dennison, Joe Woods and Marcus Robertson.
So it’s a huge bragging rights type of game for many.
“Listen I can’t stand losing,’’ Payton said. “It’s about our team and me as head coach of the Broncos getting ready to play on an early week to try and play one of our better games.”
The Broncos will enter the game Thursday with a 3-3 record after losing at home Sunday, 23-16 to the Los Angeles Chargers. It was a game in which the Chargers led 23-0 after the third quarter, then held on as Broncos’ quarterback Bo Nix got hot during a 16-0 run in the fourth quarter.
Nix was a poor 4 of 14 for 27 yards with an interception while trying to operate at a mostly conventional, huddle up pace through the first three quarters. He was a remarkable 15 of 19 for 189 yards and two touchdowns while running the no-huddle, hurry-up offense – albeit against a prevent defense – in the fourth quarter.
As he was following the game Sunday, Payton was again asked Monday about using the up-tempo offense earlier in the game, given his team’s trend of starting slow.
“I think that’s important,’’ he said. “We had a good start at Tampa Bay. Certainly that’s not out of the question. A lot of it is what are you trying to accomplish when you do that. Sometimes that’s done because you want to reduce the crowd noise. Sometimes that’s done because you can slow down the pass rush. I think that’s something that would be gameplan-driven.”
With the game on Thursday, Payton moved the players' day off up a day to Monday. Although they weren’t really off.
“I think one of the most important things in preparing for a Thursday night game is the recovery process,’’ Payton said. “We had recovery stations even after the game yesterday, all day today. IV recovery. Guys coming in to get a lift, get some film work done. Obviously, the practices get altered greatly. Trying to be as physically and mentally fresh for the game.
“The other thing that stands out when you do some studies, halftime leads on Thursday generally have a higher percentage of wins than on a normal Sunday. So fatigue can obviously take place. And so playing well early is important.”
Payton made a concerted effort to get his two rookie receivers, Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele, more involved in the offense against the Chargers. With Josh Reynolds on injured reserve following finger surgery, Franklin (36) and Vele (34) played considerably more snaps than veteran Lil’Jordan Humphrey (19) as the top backup receivers to Courtland Sutton.
Franklin had two catches for 31 yards and his first career touchdown; Vele had four catches for a game-most 78 yards.
Payton also said after the game Sunday he wanted to see more of rookie running back Audric Estime than his two carries off two snaps of playing time as the No. 3 back behind Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin. Is this time of year when Payton typically starts giving his top rookies more playing time?
“The receiver change is a byproduct of Josh (Reynolds) with the fractured finger and what had happened to him,’’ Payton said. “That plan came into place right away relative to how we were going to utilize Vele and Troy.
“Estime, that’s his first week back off the short-term IR (with an ankle injury). One of the challenges is working with two backs and feeding two backs is easy and what I’m used to and what a lot of teams do. I think it’s hard with three but we did want to get him some work and get him some reps. Obviously we would have liked more had we had more snaps. But I think that’s a bigger challenge than the receiver position based on Josh’s injury.”
