Ryan Clark destroys Broncos head coach Sean Payton in long rant

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton decided to bench his starting QB Russell Wilson earlier this week.

Ever since then, the Broncos are once again the talk of the NFL world. And not necessarily in a good way.

There was the bombshell report that said Denver threatened to make Wilson inactive for the final nine games if he didn’t redo his contract. Another prominent writer tweeted Wilson knows he’s going to get cut. And then the team strongly denied any threats were made.

All of this reached a boiling point with ESPN’s Ryan Clark on Friday morning, as he went on a long 148-second rant absolutely destroying Payton.

Take a look for yourself.

"Let's be honest: Sean Payton has behaved as a thug since he became the coach of the Denver Broncos. Immediately when he gets in the building, he starts to undercut Russell Wilson personally and professionally from his first press conference on." – Ryan Clark on "Get Up" this… pic.twitter.com/u3KxreAaIb

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 29, 2023

Clark points out that it seems like Payton didn’t like Wilson from the start.

He told him to stop kissing babies and acting like a politician. Clark goes on to say this (the benching) was going to happen no matter what and there wasn’t a thing Wilson could do to please Payton.

He closes by saying the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group should hold Payton to some professional accountability.

It’s clear the Broncos are in turmoil, and many don’t feel Payton treated Wilson fairly. Clark has a massive platform, and this clip is sure to go viral.

It certainly doesn’t make Payton, or the team, look very good.

(Update 10:26 a.m.) –

Clark’s colleague, former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky, joined in on dumping on the Broncos.

Dan Orlovsky says the way the Broncos have handled this is "unprofessional and "classless." https://t.co/MOJgUMGGQa pic.twitter.com/TiKJGhya59

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 29, 2023