Sean Payton’s New Team Embarrasses His Old One, but Is Far From a Finished Product

The Broncos bludgeoned the Saints, 33–10, in a Thursday night snoozer. But Denver didn’t exactly look like a Super Bowl contender despite outclassing New Orleans.

Payton greets Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler after Denver’s 33–10 win. / Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

Drew Brees sharing on Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football broadcast that he’s opening a pickleball facility might have made many viewers look up and say, “huh, that’s interesting.” 

The Denver Broncos’ 33–10 victory over the New Orleans Saints turned into a background game long before Brees joined Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit in the booth during the third quarter of a tough-to-watch game at the Superdome. Instead of hearing humorous lines from Michael Scott—you can’t ever go wrong with playing The Office in the background—those that left the TV on might have heard a few stories from Sean Payton’s first season in New Orleans and many calls from Michaels saying Bo Nix ran for another first down.

There weren’t many moments to look up for during Payton’s return to New Orleans, where he was head coach for 15 seasons. The Broncos (4–3) won in dominant fashion and Nix might have had the best game of his rookie season. But it wasn’t exactly the type of performance that told Payton’s former team he’s doing much better now. Well, in a way Payton is doing better because the Saints (2–5) are a mess. They have lost five consecutive games and were outscored 60–3 over the course of nearly six quarters dating back to last week’s 51–27 rout vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

But on the night many reminisced about Payton’s first season with the Saints, when they won the NFC South and finished 10–6 during the 2006 season, it seems like a good time to assess where the Broncos are in Year 2 of the Payton experience. 

The Broncos are far from a finished product and Payton doesn’t have Brees as his starting quarterback to speed up the rebuilding process. In no way is that a shot at Nix, the No. 12 pick in this year’s draft. But Nix, who went 16-of-26 for 164 yards and no touchdowns against the Saints, still has a long way to go as a passer and that showed throughout Thursday night’s sluggish game. There were many missed throws, including a pass that went in between two open receivers. And Nix caught a break when Tyrann Mathieu dropped an interception.  

Nix could certainly improve his accuracy with better footwork. He was an accurate quarterback in college—he completed 77.4% of his passes last season at Oregon. But he’s struggling with the speed of the game and facing NFL pass rushers. On the other hand, Nix is thriving as a running threat, recording 75 rushing yards on 10 carries against the Saints. 

There’s plenty of room for growth for Nix, but there are also limitations for the sixth quarterback taken in the NFL draft. He doesn’t have the physical skill set of Caleb Williams and Drake Maye and isn’t as athletic or as accurate as Jayden Daniels. But, again, he’s a gamer and he has found a way to guide the Broncos to a 4–3 record when many expected them to be competing for the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft. For the sports bettors, the Broncos’ wins total for the season was set at 5.5 at most sportsbooks. 

So the Broncos are trending in the right direction after a disastrous two-year stint with Russell Wilson. They have a standout defense that’s well coached with Vance Joseph, a strong sign for a unit that doesn’t have much star power outside of Patrick Surtain II. They’re also showing plenty of fight on both sides of the line of scrimmage—the Broncos rushed for 225 rushing yards against the Saints. 

But it’s tough to tell what the Broncos have in Nix. Maybe it’s something similar to Will Levis, who flashed as a mobile rookie quarterback but has struggled to improve as a passer in his second season with the Tennessee Titans. Or maybe Nix is the next Baker Mayfield, whose confidence and playmaking ability turned him into the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft. Mayfield was never called Ferris Bueller by his head coach, but he made many mistakes early in his career with the Cleveland Browns before finding his stride with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Or maybe this game should have been ignored because there’s not anything of substance to be learned from it. It’s going to take time for Payton to turn the Broncos into the 2006 Saints and they might never turn into anything resembling the Super Bowl-winning ’09 Saints. But they’re definitely way ahead of the current Saints.