Sean Payton: ‘Everything I heard about last season, we’re doing the opposite’

At a press conference Wednesday, Sean Payton held back when asked to address his comments about the NFL’s adjudication of its gambling policy. He said he’d already addressed that — doing so in a conversation with USA Today‘s Jarrett Bell.

But there was more.

In a USA Today story published Thursday morning, Payton went further, blistering how the team and coaches handled things last season.

“… Everybody’s got a little stink on their hands. It’s not just Russell. It was a (poor) offensive line,” he told USA Today. It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”

The result? This year, Payton is channeling George Costanza.

“Everything I heard about last season, we’re doing the opposite,” Payton said.

It’s evident even when you walk near the practice fields at Centura Health Training Center. For the last seven years, the fields had an east-west orientation. This year, the fields run north to south.

While Payton didn’t specifically mention Hackett, he made it clear how much he loathed the approach to practice that included having one “jog-through” day every three sessions. He noted to Bell that in camp, the team would play “tackle football.”

He didn’t spare others, either.

“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much (expletive) time trying to win the offseason – the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.”

But Russell Wilson was.

When the subject of Wilson’s team — including his personal QB coach, Jake Heaps — having the run of the building arose, Payton pointed the finger of blame at those who gave the green light to such unfettered access.

“That wasn’t his fault,” Payton said. “That was the parents who allowed it. That’s not an incrimination on him, but an incrimination on the head coach, the GM, the president and everybody else who watched it all happen.”

The on-site office wasn’t a big deal in Payton’s eyes.

“Now, a quarterback having an office and a place to watch film is normal. But all those things get magnified when you’re losing. And that other stuff, I’ve never heard of it. We’re not doing that.”

Of Wilson himself, Payton said, “He’s still got gas in the tank.”

What happened last year with Wilson? Payton expounded.

“Oh, man. There’s so much dirt around that. There’s 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. The offense. I don’t know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.”

And by doing the opposite, Payton expects the opposite result.

“I’m going to be pissed off if this is not a playoff team,” he said.

And to underscore that message, he had his assistant, Paul Kelly, prepare a video screened to players Tuesday after they arrived. It features baby iguanas running from snakes.

“When these baby iguanas are hatched, they pop their heads out of the sand and they’ve got to get to the cliffs,” Payton said. “There are runner snakes all around, and they feed off the babies.

“So, the message is, ‘We’ve got to hit the ground running. There’s a sense of urgency. Let’s hit the ground running.’”

Which is something the Broncos didn’t do last year.

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