Sean Payton hasn’t ‘stood up there with the Lombardi Trophy’ in front of 2026 Broncos

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton wasn’t shy last summer talking about the Super Bowl.

And coming off a 10-7 campaign in 2024, that caught some people off guard.

But Payton and the Broncos backed it up with a marvelous 14-3 season that fell one game short of playing for the Lombardi Trophy. Denver lost to New England at home in the AFC Championship, having to start backup QB Jarrett Stidham and battling a blizzard.

After the Broncos first training camp practice on Wednesday, Sean Payton was asked by 104.3 The Fan’s Zach Bye about openly discussing the Super Bowl last year and if the message is still the same.

“Certainly, this is a team that understands or has expectations of playing in the postseason. And yet there’s still that journey that starts again,” Payton said.

Payton loves to talk about how everyone must start over. It’s flipping over the game-board and heading back to the beginning. Each NFL team is 0-0 right now.

“Look, this messaging it’s not every day, it could come every four days,” Sean Payton said. “Yesterday, with the initial team meeting, it was hitting some of those bullet points… where are the areas we’ve got to look at ourselves and say we can improve here.”

So, clearly Payton isn’t talking about the Super Bowl at this moment. It’s almost unspoken, each player is aware that’s a realistic goal this season. The head coach doesn’t need to make it a point of emphasis every day.

“I haven’t stood up there with the Lombardi Trophy yet and said ‘hey’… not yet,” Payton finished.

That doesn’t mean Sean Payton won’t eventually show his squad the ultimate prize in football. But for now, it hasn’t happened.

And that’s the mark of a good team — one that realizes a championship parade is a distinct possibility without the head coach mentioning it over and over again.

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