On day Sean Payton goes off, Jerry Rosburg takes some credit

Don’t forget about former Denver Broncos interim coach Jerry Rosburg.

The man who led the team for the last two games of 2022 found a bit of the spotlight on Thursday, a day that will be remembered for new boss Sean Payton going nuclear.

In a bombshell interview with Jarrett Bell of USA Today, Payton ripped Nathaniel Hackett while backing Russell Wilson. He even threw current GM George Paton under the bus.

But how much credit does Rosburg deserve for putting the wheels in motion to get Denver back on track the final two games of last season? He told 9NEWS / 104.3 The Fan Broncos insider Mike Klis he put some of the changes with Wilson in motion.

Rosburg took credit for getting Wilson out of his office and keeping his personal coaches out of the building. Those are two things Payton has vowed to do.

“That all ended when I took over,” Rosburg said to Klis. “After all that, I asked Russell Wilson to make a sacrifice. And he did it. At that point in time, things shifted in my view. You saw teammates come to his support publicly. They saw what Russell was doing, trying to help them, trying to help the team. And he was putting the team ahead of his own comfort, perhaps.”

Rosburg’s Broncos were certainly more respectable than Hackett’s. They battled the Chiefs until the final gun in Week 17 and beat the Chargers in Week 18. Wilson combined for six touchdowns (four passing, two rushing) and looked the best he had all year.

“I asked him to surrender that and to his credit, to his vast credit, he did that for all those around him and the organization. So people can criticize and hold marks against him for whatever it was that set up – that was done in good faith by everyone involved,” Rosburg told Klis.

Rosburg may no longer be here, but if things go better in 2023, he helped get things moving in the right direction. It was clear he was set on undoing the damage that Hackett did, something Payton is focused on as well.

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