Payton points the finger of blame at Hackett, backing Wilson

A year ago, the Broncos had a head coach who was afraid to offend anyone. Nathaniel Hackett wouldn’t call the Chargers, Chiefs or Raiders a rival. He wouldn’t tell his quarterback no. And he hired a bunch of buddies to form a coaching staff that was clearly in way over their heads.

The result was an unmitigated disaster. The Broncos finished the season 5-12, but Hackett wasn’t there to see the end of it. The first-year head coach was fired after an embarrassing 51-14 loss on Christmas Day; his tenure lasted all of 15 games.

Fast forward to this season and things have changed. In almost every way.

Sean Payton is now in charge. And the new head coach has no problem ruffling feathers.

In an article published Thursday by USA Today, Payton went after everyone involved with last year’s debacle. Hackett, the coaching staff, George Paton, everyone.

It was a scathing review. And it was spot on.

The 2022 season was a mess. The only way to begin the clean-up process is to call it out.

Payton did just that. And then some. And in the process, he’s quickly changed the tone in Denver.

“Everything I heard about last season, we’re doing the opposite,” Payton told Jarrett Bell of USA Today.

That’s not a bad place to start. But can it produce the opposite results? Can the new head coach turn 5-12 into 12-5?

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

That’s music to the ears of everyone in Broncos Country. This is a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since winning Super Bowl 50. That was nearly eight years ago. They’ve suffered through six-consecutive losing seasons, unthinkable futility for one of the NFL’s most-successful franchises.

A turnaround is only going to happen if Russell Wilson plays like the quarterback the Broncos thought they were getting when they pulled off a blockbuster trade in March of 2022. That guy went to nine Pro Bowls during his 10 years in Seattle. That player amassed a 104-53-1 record, went to two Super Bowls and hoisted a Lombardi Trophy.

But he was nowhere to be found in 2022. Wilson struggled mightily during his first season in Denver, throwing only 16 touchdowns and posting a 4-11 record. He was sacked 55 times and battled through multiple injuries.

Along the way, he became a punchline. Nationally, Wilson was mocked by commentators, fans and even other players. Locally, the quarterback was written off as a bust, a mistake that would set the franchise back for years because of the four draft picks and three players sent to the Seahawks in the trade, as well as the five-year, $245-million contract extension he inked before ever donning the orange and blue.

His new head coach sees it differently. For the first time since being hired in February, Payton fired back at his QB’s detractors.

“He didn’t just flip,” the head coach said to USA Today. “He still has it. This BS 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.”

While not excusing Wilson entirely for last season’s poor results, Payton largely put the blame on his predecessor. In a business here coaches don’t like to call out other coaches, Denver’s new leader had no problem tossing Hackett and Company under the bus.

“It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL,” Payton said. “That’s how bad it was.”

The new head coach almost seemed shocked at what was allowed before his arrival. He was borderline appalled.

“Oh man, there’s so much dirt,” Payton added. “There’s 20 dirty hands for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. A lot of people had dirt on their hands.”

That includes the fact that Wilson had his own office on the second floor of the team’s headquarters, as well as his own coaches roaming the building. The QB has taken a lot of heat for those decisions, but Payton isn’t one of his critics.

“That wasn’t his fault,” the head coach explained. “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.”

They’re all gone. Or their power has been greatly diminished. Yet Wilson remains, having to take the heat and listen to the naysayers.

“Man, we ran that kid through the car wash a hundred times now,” Payton said about his quarterback. “But that’s a storyline, though. How is this going to look? How’s it going to work? You know what? We’re fixing to find out.”

The head coach seems to know how it’s going to turn out. And Broncos fans are going to like the result.

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