Sean Payton and learning how to teach the right lessons

LOS ANGELES — For Sean Payton, it’s not just about taking lessons from defeat. It’s about taking the right ones. And knowing what to emphasize, and what to let go.

“As a young coach, I was poor at this,” Payton said Friday.

The topic was about fixable mistakes compared with the ones that aren’t. This arose from the thoughts of a handful of Broncos players — including right tackle Mike McGlinchey and safety P.J. Locke — who put the burden of improvement on themselves, noting how remedies for the issues that plagued the team in its 22-17 loss at Houston last week were within the team’s control.

“When you’re just getting started, you address everything, always. You don’t realize that when you’re doing that — by addressing everything, always — you’re not really addressing anything, then,” Payton explained.

“With wisdom and experience, you learn what to ignore and what to clean up and correct, so the points you’re making are noticeable.”

This illustrates the difference between Payton and his predecessor, Nathaniel Hackett. In the spring of 2022, Hackett had his players diving into voluminous playbooks immediately, to the point where the study sessions for players stretched deep into the night during the downtime of May and June, as Tim Patrick noted.

“Meetings, meetings, meetings. There’s a lot, trust me,” Patrick said then.

Now, the quarterback remains the same. But the way the Broncos attacked the offseason changed in 2023. Instead, Payton focused on keeping the lessons manageable — and instead of “addressing everything, always,” he offered his players teaching in sensible bites.

And that carries through to this season, where Payton’s efforts to correct focused on things that could make a difference and were fixable — rather than other issues that might not make a dent in the win-loss ledger.

A lesson on teaching from #NFL and #Broncos coach Sean Payton:

“If you hand out a test to your students and two-thirds of them are getting Cs and Ds, then you have to look at yourself.” pic.twitter.com/BQ07kO6Or4

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) December 9, 2023

“Something will happen on a play and the coaches will be talking and they’re over on the sidelines,” Payton said. “And I said, ‘We’re not running that again. Stop. Let’s get onto the next [play]. We’ll clean that up next week.’ Now, if there’s something that is a staple or basic, [we’ll correct].

“[It’s about] learning what to ignore, what to correct, and then examining.”

And that’s where more reflection comes into play.

“I think as a teacher, we always have to examine the why. Did we explain it well enough? Did we cover it well enough? How could we have done a better job ourselves?,” Sean Payton said. “If you hand out a test to your students and two-thirds of them are getting Cs and Ds, then you have to look at yourself.

“So, when we have a game like last week, it starts with looking inward, like, ‘Alright, whether it’s the 1 o’clock start time.’ All of that. We always say this in the staff meeting: ‘If we played the game again, what are some things that we would have done differently?’ That kind of thing. You have to look that way as a teacher.”

So, what can the Broncos correct?

Potentially, it’s their takeaway touch. Because that could be crucial to getting the team’s first-ever win at SoFi Stadium:

21-8

That is the Chargers’ record — including postseason — when Herbert does not turn over the football.

When Herbert accounts for at least one giveaway, the Bolts are 9-24. That includes 6-13 with exactly one turnover and 3-11 with two. Herbert has never turned over the football three times in a single game.

Other comparisons of note:

Los Angeles is 15-5 when Herbert completes at least 70 percent of this passes. When he fails to meet that threshold, the Bolts are 14-27.

The Chargers are also 26-18 when Herbert meets the 60-percent baseline for completion percentage, but are 3-14 when he does not.

8

The Broncos’ wins over the Chargers since Super Bowl 50, including a pair of road wins — both of which took place at Dignity Health Sports Park in nearby Carson, Calif.

Thus the Broncos have more wins over the Chargers in that span covering nearly eight seasons than they do against their other two AFC West rivals combined, as the Broncos have just 5 wins at the expense of the Chiefs and Raiders.

The Broncos have beaten the Chargers at least once in 12-consecutive seasons, and are 17-8 overall (including postseason) in that span in the series — 7-5 on the road (although 2-4 in Los Angeles County) and 10-3 in Denver.

0-22

The record of Payton-coached teams when they have a turnover margin of minus-3 or worse, as was the case last week in the defeat to Houston. And when it’s minus-2 or worse, the record is 6-55 — making Payton-led teams 4-33 when they have exactly a minus-2 turnover margin.

Ledgers like these only underscore the importance Sean Payton places on turnover margin — and how rediscovering the takeaway touch whilst protecting the football on offense could make or break the Broncos’ postseason chances going forward.