Inside Sean Payton’s ‘game-day’ alter ego

When Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton appears to be like throughout the sphere on the Caesars Superdome on Thursday evening, he’ll be confronted with 16 years of recollections as the previous coach of the New Orleans Saints.

There was Steve Gleason’s blocked punt in the course of the Saints’ first recreation again in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2006 and Garrett Hartley’s kick to send the 2009 squad to the Tremendous Bowl. Payton watched Drew Brees break data from a set whereas serving a Bountygate suspension in 2012 and witnessed the “No-Call” heartbreak in the NFC Championship Game from the 2018 season.

Payton’s meticulous consideration to element, motivational techniques and domineering persona helped construct a profitable tradition in New Orleans. He turned a franchise that had one playoff win into an offensive powerhouse, with 9 postseason appearances and a Tremendous Bowl victory.

Virtually three years faraway from the place the place he gained 152 video games, Payton would be the man standing in the way in which of the Saints (2-4) on “Thursday Evening Soccer” (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video) as he tries to proceed to determine a tradition in Denver and get the Broncos (3-3) again to the playoffs for the primary time since 2015.

“I do not suppose there’s going to be numerous flowers and heat fuzzies for yours actually, and I get it. … I am unable to stand shedding,” Payton stated. “It is about our group and me as the pinnacle coach of the Broncos on the brink of play on an early week and attempting to play one among our higher video games.”

It is the primary time Payton will face the Saints and coach Dennis Allen, who coached beneath Payton for 12 seasons in two separate stints. The Saints traded Payton’s contract to the Broncos final yr after he spent the 2022 season as an NFL analyst. New Orleans acquired the twenty ninth decide within the 2023 draft and a 2024 second-round decide whereas Denver received Payton and a 2024 third-round decide.

ESPN spoke to greater than a dozen gamers and coaches about enjoying for a person one participant described as an “offensive savant.” They shared tales of what it was prefer to play for Payton’s “Sport-day Sean” alter ego, how he approached the follow week and what it would appear to be when Payton performs his previous group Thursday.

“He is definitely a demanding coach … and he does a very good job of figuring out areas of weak point that he needs to attempt to assault,” Allen stated. “And so definitely that’ll be one thing we’ll need to take care of.”

PAYTON’S GLARE IS the very first thing many former gamers recall about their coach. Gamers had a number of names for it: “the dying stare,” “the look” and the “imply face,” amongst them.

“If you happen to mess up, you do not even wish to have a look at him. You do not even wish to be in his eye distance,” stated Saints tight finish Juwan Johnson, who performed for Payton from 2020 to 2021.

Gamers described Payton’s alter ego as “Sport-day Sean” — alluding to the change in his persona throughout video games.

The tales have been quite a few: He destroyed a fire alarm within the visiting locker room previous to a 51-14 win towards the Cincinnati Bengals in 2018 as a result of he “wanted the noise to cease.” He snapped at an equipment manager for handing him the unsuitable stick of gum in the course of the NFC Championship Sport from the 2009 season. He as soon as mocked Minnesota Vikings followers by doing the SKOL clap in a playoff game.

Saints particular groups coordinator Darren Rizzi, who coached for Payton from 2019 to 2021, stated Payton’s former assistants lately joked about what number of occasions he fired them throughout a recreation. One coach estimated it was at the very least 20 occasions.

“I believe everybody has a type of game-day tales about him, however, to his credit score, he is received amnesia, when it is over, it is over,” Rizzi stated. Former Saints vast receiver Lance Moore, who performed for him from 2006 to 2013, stated Payton’s routine used to begin with Spark power drinks. Gamers would guess what number of he had by recreation time based mostly on his degree of depth.

“We’re like, what number of Sparks has Sean had at the moment?” Moore stated. “I assure you that was a part of his game-day persona. He will get his power drinks in and that helps him get his degree of focus and depth able to go.”

The biting remarks come subsequent. Moore nonetheless remembers Payton’s tirade after he dropped a cross towards the Green Bay Packers in Week 2 of the 2006 season. Payton walked over and requested if the sport was “too huge for him.”

It was a pivotal second in Moore’s profession as a result of he by no means wished to disappoint Payton once more. Saints defensive finish Cameron Jordan, who performed for Payton from 2011 to 2021, stated “Dancin’ Lance” confirmed up after that, ending ninth in profession receiving yards for the franchise.

“He brings out the perfect of you in the event you can reply to the way in which he coaches,” Jordan stated.

Some gamers responded by matching Payton’s depth and yelling proper again. Former Saints tight finish Jimmy Graham, who performed for Payton from 2010 till he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2015, stated they typically butted heads in-game as a result of they each cared about profitable a lot.

Graham and Payton received into a shouting match on the sideline of a 2014 preseason recreation after Graham was flagged twice for extreme celebration for dunking over the purpose posts. The NFL banned dunking after Graham induced a recreation delay in 2013 by knocking the crossbar askew.

He stated Payton advised him earlier than the sport that he may dunk to “get that s— out of your system,” however by the point the sport began, he’d forgotten about it. An indignant Payton known as him “egocentric” on the sideline after the second dunk.

“He will get so into the sport, that no matter he advised you earlier than, if it was one thing like that, he is not going to recollect,” Graham stated.

Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix has already taken some licks after Payton barked at him on the sideline throughout a Week 5 win towards the Las Vegas Raiders. Payton yelled at Nix for not operating a play — an incomplete cross to Troy Franklin — the way in which Payton meant. Nix yelled again, prompting former Saints deal with Terron Armstead to put in writing on X: “Bo simply grew to become Sean’s favourite participant!”

Bo simply grew to become Sean’s favourite participant! https://t.co/DswevQt6fk

— T. Stead 🎤🎧 (@T_Armstead72) October 6, 2024

And no Broncos participant will neglect how Payton reacted after their 70-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 24, 2023. They surrendered a franchise record in factors and yardage complete (726) — the best level complete any NFL group had given up since 1966 and the best yardage complete since 1951.

Many who have been within the postgame locker room have recounted a boiling cauldron of soccer disgrace, dread, anger and embarrassment.

In a cascade of phrases, many profane, that rattled concrete, a volcanic Payton screamed: “This, this, this can by no means occur once more. You perceive? Ne-ver once more.”

As one former Broncos participant put it, “He misplaced his f—ing s—, like he could not imagine it occurred … he was part of one thing he could not imagine. I doubt he’ll ever be that mad on the group about something greater than that — ever. I do not suppose he may see, he was so pissed, however he was letting individuals know if you are going to be round, you higher repair that.”

THE “GAME-DAY SEAN” persona does not final past the competitors window.

“I’ve the utmost respect for him as a coach, however he’s a Jekyll-Hyde sort of particular person,” Rizzi stated.

Payton is calm and meticulous in the course of the week, ensuring each angle is roofed. He appears to be like for any edge he can get within the upcoming recreation, together with determining techniques to encourage each the group and particular person gamers.

He’d place gas cans by the lockers of older gamers to ask them if they’ve sufficient fuel left to get by the season and put mouse traps across the facility as a warning to gamers to not “eat the cheese” — falling into the entice of believing the media hype — whereas on win streaks.

Graham was a favourite goal, saying Payton appreciated to push his buttons as a result of he knew he performed properly when he was “pissed.”

Payton spent every week needling Graham about how he’d fare towards Arizona Cardinals security Tyrann Mathieu in a 2013 matchup.

“Sean had some DB play me one-on-one all follow. Holding me, scratching, clawing, speaking shit. … I used to be pissed,” Graham recalled.

Graham stated he was so amped by recreation time that he dominated the matchup towards Mathieu and the group’s prime cornerback, ending with 9 catches for 134 yards. He stated such techniques have been “very motivating.”

“I by no means shied away from the second,” Graham stated. “The larger the second, the higher I performed.”

However not each participant adjusts to Payton’s bluntness. Broncos defensive deal with Malcolm Roach, who spent 4 seasons with the Saints, stated some gamers have been stunned by their coach’s direct suggestions.

“However I believe the fellows who succeed with him know you all the time need to have someone in your nook, who’s going to inform you what you might want to hear, not what they wish to hear,” Roach stated. “And he may suppose you want it rather a lot.”

Payton has a widely known distaste for consolation and entitlement, one thing that surfaced after the Broncos chosen Nix with the twelfth decide of the 2024 draft. Nix was not instantly named the starter. Payton believed it was “one thing earned” in an open competitors throughout coaching camp.

“There was no manner — no manner — he would have named Bo the starter proper after the draft,” a former Payton assistant stated, “That might go towards the whole lot he believes, he would by no means let that younger man know that. He may suppose it, may imagine it, may even need it and have deliberate for it, however he by no means would have advised that child instantly, ‘You are the starter.”’

When the primary depth chart of the preseason was launched, Nix was listed on the backside of his place with the remainder of the rookies. And Aug. 21, when Payton advised Nix he would start the season opener, he known as every of the group’s three quarterbacks over to him simply earlier than a follow, one after the other, to inform them of his choice.

“We did not have cake and candles,” he stated.

Nix has appeared to reply properly to Payton’s techniques. Payton stated after the sideline tiff that Nix “had slightly Ferris Bueller” in him, explaining Bueller was quirky and appreciated to do his personal factor.

The quarterback referenced the second on his Instagram and responded by calling Payton “Dennis,” a nod to the “Dennis the Menace” nickname given to Payton by his mentor Invoice Parcells.

“[The arguing] that is like a time period of endearment for him,” Jordan stated. “It is a type of final remnants of that brimstone and fire-type coach. Now it is 2024 … individuals get their emotions harm faster now.”

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SAINTS PLAYERS AND coaches received used to Payton’s intense consideration to element.

He’d discover if a participant was even one inch off his mark in follow.

“Sean actually walked over to [a receiver] in follow and stated, ‘Not proper right here,'” Jordan stated, demonstrating how Payton moved the receiver. “And I might name it perhaps an inch and a half.”

In line with Johnson, Payton was, “for lack of a greater time period, anal. In a great way.”

Payton made a presentation to the Broncos final yr previous to a midseason win towards the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Evening Soccer” that included the elevation of the Payments’ stadium relative to sea degree.

He additionally pays shut consideration to the science of sleep research. This was notably necessary to him in Denver, as hours are misplaced when the group travels west to east. Broncos coaches have all the time caught to the established order by flying in Saturday for a Sunday recreation and arriving again in Denver within the wee hours of the morning after a prime-time recreation.

As a substitute, Payton had the Broncos go to Buffalo on Saturday and are available dwelling Tuesday for the Monday evening recreation, a visit longer than the Kansas City Chiefs‘ stint in Germany the prior week.

“Each element issues on the sphere, then each element issues across the discipline, within the facility, within the locker room, within the parking zone,” Payton stated. “You simply develop into maniacal with preparation.”

This yr, Payton took the Broncos to Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the place the Saints held coaching camp from 2014 to 2016. He wished to maintain the group within the Japanese time zone for Weeks 3 and 4 towards the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets. At a price of roughly $2 million for the week, in line with group sources, the Broncos spent 5 rain-soaked days on the Greenbrier.

The Broncos entered the highway journey 0-2 and got here dwelling with two wins.

“[To] determine what our identification is and are available again dwelling with two highway wins, it was superior,” Broncos security P.J. Locke stated.

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IT’S TOO EARLY to know if the qualities that made Payton profitable in New Orleans will translate to Denver, the place he’s at present 11-12. When Payton joined the Saints, he realized which gamers had these qualities by placing them by a coaching camp within the warmth at Millsaps Faculty in Jackson, Mississippi.

The camp included two-a-day practices in full pads, a follow banned by the NFL within the 2012 collective bargaining settlement. Saints assistant offensive line coach Jahri Evans, a current finalist for the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, stated Payton began him instantly as a rookie as a result of that camp proved “his make-up.”

Now Payton has to determine alternative ways of discovering which gamers match his tradition.

“It is not straightforward,” Evans stated. “… It’s possible you’ll suppose it could by no means occur once more however it does not imply you do not strive.”

Payton’s Denver workers, which incorporates 14 workers with Saints ties, understands what it takes. Payton additionally made main personnel strikes just like his early New Orleans days, releasing beginning quarterback Russell Wilson though it value the group $53 million in salary cap house over the following two seasons. All-Professional security Justin Simmons was additionally launched this offseason.

“Sean was like, ‘Nobody participant goes to be larger than what we’re attempting to do right here,'” Moore stated of Payton’s Saints days.

Thursday’s recreation may foreshadow how the remainder of the season goes for each Payton and his former assistant, Allen.

A Saints win would snap a four-game shedding streak and assist Allen take a step away from Payton’s shadow, whereas a Broncos win may assist put them on the highway towards their first profitable season since 2016.

“All people on this constructing is aware of who Sean Payton is and if he sees blood in water, he will go try to take benefit,” Jordan stated. “That is all the time been his M.O.”

Jordan stated he expects Payton to embrace any detrimental reception Thursday and use it as motivation. Regardless, Thursday’s recreation will probably be one other chapter within the “Sport-day Sean” lore.

“He needs to achieve success, he needs to dominate,” former Saints operating again Mark Ingram II stated. “… There’s nothing like Sean Payton. He is one-of-one. That is what makes him so nice. That is why he was nice in New Orleans all these years and that is why he is been challenged with the duty to deliver Denver Broncos again to prominence. As a result of he can do it and that is what he is about.”