Sean Payton coins funny analogy for the Broncos coaching staff

Training camp is in full swing for Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos, and the team’s chippy practice on Wednesday showed that the competition is heating up as the offense and defense continue to clash with one another ahead of the first preseason action on Aug. 9 against the San Francisco 49ers.

Payton said that Wednesday’s outing was physical, but his team didn’t let things get out of hand off the grass. He was pleased with the energy from his team but also the maturity they showed to keep their tempers in check.

“The thing I liked about yesterday, it was a physical practice, and yet there was no one really crossing the line. And it’s hard to do when it gets warm, but I thought both sides of the ball handled the pads well. We got a lot better yesterday, and so today was going to be a day where they were a little bit tired, and you just got to be smart with the approach during practice,” Payton said after Thursday’s practice.

However, wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. made sure to get the last laugh when practice was all said and done on Wednesday as he called defensive lineman Malcolm Roach fat.

Asked about the chirping back and forth in Broncos practice today, Marvin Mims Jr. replied, "Yeah, I mean, it's just Malcolm Roach. I mean, I sit next to him in the locker room, guy doesn't shut up. He's talking crap to receivers. It's like, 'Dude, like, you're a fat guy. Like,… pic.twitter.com/GyMRgtEbYa

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) July 30, 2025

That was the furthest that Wednesday’s banter carried on, with a smiling Mims instigating some friendly smack talk. Sean Payton made sure to defend the 290-pound lineman.

“I don’t think of Roach is fat, but, Malcolm, you hear him before you see him, and I like that energy about him … I wouldn’t have picked Mims and Roach, I would have picked so many other combos. But when I read that one, I was like, [that’s] surprising,” Payton said.

Payton was asked what goes into the players’ tempers and scuffles not rolling over from practice to practice, and he had a funny analogy that every single person in the world has experienced, sports fan or not.

“You ever go to the grocery store and you see a five year old just being a terror, and you don’t really look at the five year old, you look at the parent? And so I think it’s up to us as coaches to clearly identify what we’re looking for,” Payton joked.

He credited the great Bill Belichick for showing him how to manage his coaching staff and set the tone with his fellow coaches to not allow tempers to flare out of control.

“One of the things that I enjoyed and appreciated a lot as a young coach is when we had joint practices with New England … Both teams were like, ‘Hey, we’re here to get better, and we’re not going to end up on NFL network with one of these bench clearing [fights], we’re just not going to do it.’ I think that points to, not just the head coach, but the collective group of coaches, no different to that parent on aisle eight,” Payton said.

If anyone knows how to run a tight and orderly ship, it’s Belichick. For 24 years, he kept New England as the most well-run team in the league, and won six Super Bowls as a result. There was never anything flashy with him or his team, there was no drama, they just put their heads down and went to work year in and year out.

Payton has made sure to take a thing or two from the legendary head coach into his own style, as he’s made sure to keep his players in check in Denver before things escalate out of control.

This comes just two days after the Kansas City Chiefs had an in-house scuffle in which punches were thrown between an offensive and defensive player.

Here is a clean shot of the Josh Simmons/Ashton Gillotte fight at Chiefs Training Camp#ChiefsKingdom | @KCTV5 pic.twitter.com/aG02HNMSVe

— Mark Poulose (@MarkPoulose) July 29, 2025

Payton did not mention the Chiefs at all, and this was not a shot at the division rival by any means. The timing is just an interesting coincidence.

He left things off with one final message for the aforementioned parent in aisle eight.

“Get your kid out of the cereal boxes.”

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