Broncos' Sean Payton Ranked as NFL's Fourth-Best Head Coach

High standing among his league counterparts.

Dec 24, 2023; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton in the first quarter against the New England Patriots at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Defying many of his skeptical media counterparts, FOX Sports' Colin Cowherd touted the Denver Broncos' Sean Payton as the NFL's fourth-best head coach in a new ranking released Tuesday.

Only Kansas City's Andy Reid, the Los Angeles Rams' Sean McVay, and Baltimore's John Harbaugh were listed above Payton.

The top 10 NFL head coaches, according to @colincowherd... Agree with his list? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/jTrG92Y5uC

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) July 16, 2024

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Payton, 60, is entering his second season as the Broncos' head man, having arrived in January 2023 after serving 15 years in the same capacity for the New Orleans Saints. Denver finished 8-9 during Payton's maiden voyage, a three-win improvement over his predecessor, Nathaniel Hackett.

Successful, in that sense, to be sure. But not absent of failure. The Broncos endured their eighth-consecutive non-playoff campaign and seventh-straight losing record, culminating in the benching and eventual release of quarterback Russell Wilson.

This — and the apparent rebuild the team is undertaking, highlighted by the first-round selection of QB Bo Nix — has led hordes of prognosticators to conclude that 2024 won't turn out much different for Payton, if not worse. Oddsmakers have the over-under on wins at a lowly 5.5, second-worst behind the New England Patriots (4.5).

Which no doubt would have bothered a younger, less wiser Payton.

Now?

“I think that I have two middle fingers. I’ve gotten better with age [at] not using them," Payton joked last month. "I think it’s more—and I would say this changed for me—it’s more inward focused relative to our own team and what we’re doing. As you get older in this, you don’t waste the calories on certain things that I might’ve back in 2006, ’07, ’08. I don’t play a lot of video games, but you have ‘X’ amount of battery life and energy, and you try to use it where you think it’s best going to help the team. So you learn over time to not spend as much on the things you can’t control, certainly lists. If that concerned me, we wouldn’t have drafted [QB] Bo Nix where we selected him, if I was paying attention to that. That’s that ‘NFL train’ that no one knows who’s driving, and you have to pay attention to it, but you don’t want to hop on it or you just start making decisions… And we still don’t know who’s driving, it’s just going. Really paying attention to your gut, your experience and what you’re seeing. Those are the things that drive me now.”

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