Sean Payton is Not on Russell Wilson's 'All-Time Great' List of HCs

I doubt Sean Payton is losing any sleep over it.

Oct 20, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson (3) warms up before the game against the New York Jets at Acrisure Stadium. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

In Russell Wilson's debut start with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the veteran quarterback had himself a day. The Steelers destroyed Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets, and Wilson finished with 264 yards and two touchdowns, with zero interceptions.

Wilson also rushed for a touchdown en route to the Steelers' 37-15 victory over the Jets. After watching the Steelers offense mostly struggle all season with Justin Fields at the helm — the victories notwithstanding — Wilson's debut was impressive.

Denver Broncos fans aren't trying too hard to keep up with the Wilsons, so to speak, with Bo Nix turning in some impressive performances this season himself and leading the team to a 5-3 start. But for those Broncos fans who wish their former quarterback well, it was good to see Wilson have some success in his first start of 2024.

After the Week 7 game, though, Wilson touched on the topic of the "all-time great" coaches he's played for, and Broncos head coach Sean Payton was conspicuously absent.

"I'm in a good place here in Pittsburgh. I'm excited about it and happy where my feet are. Just to focus on where you are right now. I look at it as a tremendous honor. I don't look at it as a bad thing," Wilson said via Yahoo Sports' Jori Epstein. “I get to play for Pete Carroll and I get to play for Mike Tomlin—two all-time greats.”

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The irony of Wilson's omission of his head coach in Denver is that he reportedly campaigned to have Carroll fired in Seattle and replaced by Payton. How much of that one is inclined to believe, I'm not sure, but it's out there in the NFL zeitgeist.

It's possible that it's true and that Wilson's one-year experience with Payton disabused him of the adoration and respect he once held for the venerated head coach. The Wilson-Payton experiment ended with a whimper when the Broncos benched Wilson late last season with two games left go, which came shortly on the heels of the head coach giving the quarterback a verbal lambasting on the sideline in Detroit.

Wilson claimed that Denver benched him because he wouldn't accept a contract restructure. The Broncos have vehemently denied those accusations, and when the new league year rolled around, Wilson was promptly released.

The Broncos took on an all-time NFL record $85 million dead-money hit to the salary cap because the five-year, nearly quarter-billion-dollar extension Wilson signed shortly after being traded to Denver wasn't set to begin until 2024. The Broncos are essentially paying Wilson north of $30M to play for the Steelers this season.

If the level of production Wilson displayed in Week 7 continues, the Steelers will be thrilled with the financial arrangement of signing a former nine-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion for what amounts to the veteran minimum. The Steelers' next matchup is on Monday night at the 2-5 New York Giants.

Based on reporting closer to the Mile High City, Payton couldn't wait to end the Wilson experiment — a trade that cost the Broncos dearly both in the draft capital and personnel relinquished to the Seattle Seahawks, and the massive extension given to him, which is very much impacting this team in 2024. The $81M in dead cap that Denver is carrying this year is the most in the NFL, followed by the Minnesota Vikings at $67.7M.

More than half of that $81M in dead cap is on account of Wilson's contract. The ramifications forced the Broncos to go lean at certain positions this past offseason, and mostly stay out of the free-agent feeding frenzy.

But every dark cloud has a silver lining, as the Broncos have been forced to rely on the youth of the roster. That youth is developing quickly as a collective, with Nix leading the way as the team's future franchise quarterback.

For now, Wilson doesn't seem to consider Payton on the list of all-time great head coaches he's played for. I doubt Payton is losing any sleep over it.

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