Sean Payton Failed Yet Another Test, Losing Jets Game He Alone Put a Target On

The Broncos are almost assuredly out of the playoff race, and let’s not forget their coach had preseason comments about that, too.

Sean Payton’s transition into full-time Kevin James meme continued Sunday when Nathaniel Hackett, the coach he trashed to USA Today this summer, returned to Denver and helped the Jets sink the Broncos to 1–4.

Hackett received a game ball. Payton wilted like a sour grape in the sun when he was asked about it (and referred to his predecessor only as part of Robert Saleh’s staff).

The Jets’ offense, with Zach Wilson at quarterback, put up more than 400 yards against Denver. Meanwhile, the Broncos’ receiving corps was one 23-yard Jerry Jeudy catch away from being rendered almost completely irrelevant. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport noted after the game that Saleh named Hackett an honorary team captain Friday and the place went haywire. The Broncos are almost assuredly out of the playoff race, after Payton projected the team would be in it during that same preseason rant.

Payton is 1–4 in his return to the NFL after leaving the Saints and taking a year off :: Jamie Sabau/USA TODAY Sports

You all know how television-quality schadenfreude plays itself out. That’s easy. I don’t think I need to provide any more relevant details.

The hard part is understanding what Payton has shown over the first quarter of this season that leads anyone to believe he is any better of a steward for this organization than the man who walked in and beat him on Sunday. I know Payton will get the time if he so desires, because the Broncos’ ownership group isn’t going to pay out that lead bookbag of a coaching contract, entering a third search for the right head coach in three seasons. That, and he is Sean Payton. But his comments, which made this otherwise benign Week 5 home game against a cross-country opponent into a massive story line and placed an unnecessary target on the back of his already-vulnerable defensive players, were one of the great unforced errors of this season so far.

We’re at a point in the NFL season when we should start questioning everything. For example, not questioning whether Bill Belichick was a great coach, but whether he is a great coach for this iteration of the Tom Brady–less Patriots at this moment in time. It is O.K. to both acknowledge Belichick’s greatness and also note that he is now 80–91 without Brady at quarterback. It’s O.K. to wonder whether Belichick being Belichick is as effective without having Brady being Brady in the same orbit.

While we are nowhere near the same sample size with Payton, he is now 10–12 as a coach since the retirement of Drew Brees. While I imagine Payton thought he’d found himself in a plum coaching situation with the Broncos and Russell Wilson, he is more closely aligned to Belichick leading a Cam Newton–quarterbacked Patriots team. In that sense, we have to wonder whether the aura of Payton is as effective without the simultaneous aura of Brees being Brees.

Again, this is not a slight against Payton, Belichick or any coach who has had a majority of their successes with one great passer. I firmly believe that Brady would not have been Brady without Belichick and Brees would not have been Brees without Payton. It is more of a challenge to evolve, because what is happening now doesn’t seem to be working very well.

The hard part about either of these situations is that we don’t have a huge sample size from which to draw. After the Patriots were blown out twice in a row, we’re absolutely going to find out how well Belichick can still work a locker room. After the Broncos’ own head predicted his team would make the playoffs—while ironically accusing the Jets of doing most of the offseason chest thumping—we’ll see how well he holds the entire group together now that they realize a postseason berth would be a minor miracle.

Payton’s bosses can only gamble on what they’ve witnessed so far this season.

Meanwhile, the team he lost to Sunday has a coaching staff full of people who have made the absolute most out of careers without franchise quarterbacks. Saleh has won games with Joe Flacco, Mike White and Zach Wilson. Hackett, while certainly familiar with Aaron Rodgers, has had successes with Kyle Orton and Blake Bortles, too.

Payton’s quest to “do the opposite” of Hackett in Denver, as he told USA Today, has now led him here to this point. Time will tell, but perhaps Payton needs to also do the opposite of classic Payton as well, from time to time.