Sean Payton speaks on dinner with Russell Wilson, why no DC Hire yet

Broncos head coach Sean Payton is still a member of the media… for just another couple of days.

Payton is finishing up his duties as an analyst with FOX Sports, so he’s been making the rounds on radio row at the Super Bowl.

On Friday morning, Payton spoke with a handful of folks from the Denver media and touched on a few different topics. He was asked about going to dinner with QB Russell Wilson, his wife Ciara and the legendary Joe Montana on Thursday night. The picture quickly made the rounds on social media.

New Broncos’ HC Sean Payton and QB Russell Wilson met up Thursday night for the first time since Payton took over as Denver’s coach. Payton and Wilson dined together – with Ciara, Joe Montana and Wheels Up CEO Kenny Dichter – at the Wheels Up Raos pop-up restaurant in Scottsdale,… https://t.co/moHzCxFZyx pic.twitter.com/RhNxoYwvFx

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 10, 2023

Wilson looks slimmer and trimmer in that photo, a good sign for Broncos fans. Payton didn’t want to talk much about the meal / meeting, but offered this.

“I saw Russell last night, I saw a number of people. I’ve known Russ, I coached him in the Pro Bowl. Yeah, so it was a good event, it was good to see him,” Payton said.

He then expanded on how Wilson and previous head coach Nathaniel Hackett took a lot of the blame for 2022 going so wrong. Maybe more than two guys deserved the heat.

“When you have a 5-12 season, there’s dirt on a lot of people’s hands. Obviously the attention goes to to head coach, it goes to the quarterback. But the key is making the correct changes, kind of turning this thing around and getting it going in the right direction,” Payton said.

Part of that turnaround will be hiring a staff, something Payton hasn’t done quite yet. With the former Saints head coach in firm control of the offense, fans are most curious about defensive coordinator. It looks like Seahawks assistant Sean Desai is the favorite, but Payton says there are other candidates as well.

“Nope. Not yet,” Payton said on if he’s made a DC hire. “But I’m going to be patient, smart. I’ve interviewed a handful of guys, we’ll continue to do that. Here’s the thing I learned back in ’06: slow to hire and patience to hire. The mistakes over time I would look at is when you’re in a hurry and you feel like you’ve got to get your guy, that’s not the right thing. Slow to hire, fast to fire.”

That last line is very interesting. It sounds like Payton will have no problem making tough decisions about firing people when needed. Let’s hope that’s not after the 2023 season, because it will mean the Broncos finally had a good one for the first time in a long time.

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