Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Sean Payton Extension Confirms Denver Broncos Super Bowl Window

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sean Peyton has got a five-year contract extension from the Denver Broncos confirming this team is in a Super Bowl window. You are locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Sean Payton is proving that he's more than worth what the Broncos paid to get him and not just financially. But remember back in 2023, the Broncos traded a first round pick and a second round pick to the New Orleans Saints to get. get Sean Payton as their next head coach and to do exactly what he's done over the last three years. Change the culture of the franchise. We saw earlier this offseason. Broncos general manager, George Payton, got himself a contract extension and now head coach Sean Payton with a five-year deal. And the Walton-Penner ownership group has said it was an impressive turnaround. What we've seen from

Starting point is 00:00:58 Sean Payton over the last three years is borderline unprecedented in the NFL. And that's why the Denver Broncos are keeping him in the mix for the long-term Broncos country. Welcome into today's episode of the show. We're going to talk about obviously the big news of the day, which is that Sean Payton was given a contract extension by the Denver Broncos. But we're also going to break down sort of how this went down in the first place, why we believed Sean Payton could always be this type of impact coach and what this means for his legacy going forward.

Starting point is 00:01:29 My name is Sarah Bedinger, co-host here of Lockdown Broncos, site expert predominantly orange.com. I'm so appreciative to all of you every dayers who rock with us here every single day, locked on Broncos. And this is exciting Broncos country, a head coach being extended. I mean, when is the last time that happened for the Denver Broncos? It feels like this team, since Mike Shanahan was fired all the way back after the 2008 season, it feels like this franchise has really been looking for any semblance of stability. And yes, for a brief period, they got that from John Fox.

Starting point is 00:02:02 but then ultimately we saw that maybe it was John Fox hindering that team when they hired Gary Kubiak to come in. He was sort of the catalyst for getting them over that proverbial hump in the 2015 season. But really, it has been a difficult handful of years for the Denver Broncos. And I say handful of years, I mean, we're talking more than a decade since the Broncos have had true long-term stability in that head coach position. And now Sean Payton has provided that. And there was a lot of doubt of whether or not that could happen because Sean Payton inherited a bit of a mess, didn't he? Back after the 2002 season, the Broncos were the laughing stock of the NFL. I mean, the Nathaniel Hackett, you know, season that was in 2022 being one of the only head coaches in NFL history to be fired before the end of his first year with the team.

Starting point is 00:02:51 The whole Russell Wilson, let's ride fiasco, it really just was an embarrassment for the Denver Broncos that year. and it sort of kind of came to a head on Christmas Day in that 22 season when the Broncos got absolutely smoked by Baker Mayfield and the Rams. We all remember it. And not only did they get smoked, they got embarrassed and they were fighting. There was fighting on the sideline. Remember Dalton Reisner and Brett Rippin. I mean, the team was turning against each other. And that was where the ownership group stepped in and said, all right, you know what?

Starting point is 00:03:23 It's time for us to make a change. And so they did. They let go of Nathaniel Hackett. and they opened up a coaching search, which culminated in Sean Payton being traded to the Denver Broncos. And there was so much going on with that whole saga that it just, it's funny to think back on now because knowing what we know now, we would never hesitate to even think of trading a first or second round pick or both to get Sean Payton in orange and blue. He's been that valuable to this team. And there are two areas of an NFL franchise that you simply.

Starting point is 00:03:57 cannot go bargain basement shopping you cannot look in the clearance section you can't look in the on sale section you have to go after the best it's quarterback and it's head coach the denver broncos and their ownership group understood in order for us to turn things around as a franchise to become a perennial contender once again we need the right head coach in the building and sean peyton he's more than proven to be exactly that hasn't he there's only two teams in the nfl over the last three years with more victories than the Denver Broncos. And the Broncos have seen their win total increase every year that Sean Payton has been the head coach.

Starting point is 00:04:36 Now, we all love to see them go 17 and no. Winning more than 14 games is going to be very tough. But what we know and what we believe they can build on going forward is more than just regular season win totals. This team went to the AFC championship game last year. They hosted the AFC championship game. and they've pretty much been crossing off everything on Sean Payton's checklist one after the other. When it comes to, we need to find ways to get back to the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:05:04 They get back to the playoffs in the 2024 season, winning 10 games. He says after that lost the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs that year, we got to find out a way to be hosting these games. So the very next season, they're the number one seed in the AFC overall. And then they go ahead and they win in the divisional round against Buffalo hosting the AFC title game. And most people out there would say, I think a lot of Broncos country would say, hey, we probably would have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl, if not for Bow Nix's fractured ankle at the end of that divisional round victory.

Starting point is 00:05:34 So what Sean Payton has done is turn around the culture of the team, where players are on the field saying, you know, Cancun on three to now this Broncos team is planning on playing into January and February every single year. They have the foundation on the roster. They've found a franchise course. quarterback and Sean Payton has really defied a lot of odds to get there. He's proven a lot of people wrong in this process. And it's to that that I want to speak as we continue on today's episode of the show. And we're going to talk about why Sean Payton was not just the right person for this job,

Starting point is 00:06:10 but exactly the type of person to flip the, you know what, to everybody who doubted the Denver Broncos along the way. We're going to break that down coming up on today's episode of the show. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Workplace chaos can show up fast. The problem is finding the right candidate that it can take a lot more time than most businesses can afford. And that's where Indeed, sponsored jobs comes in. Indeed, sponsored jobs helps you reach candidates who actually fit what you're looking

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Starting point is 00:07:41 Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire this a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. The Denver Broncos needed somebody to prove the doubter. wrong and Sean Payton was the right man for the job. Broncos country. It's exciting to know. Sean Peyton is here for the long haul, a five-year extension from the Denver Broncos. And it hasn't just been an impressive turnaround. The Denver Broncos have really done something unprecedented in the Sean Payton era. And let's just talk about it. I mean, getting out of the dead cap from

Starting point is 00:08:16 Russell Wilson, which at the time was the biggest dead cap hit for an individual player in NFL history, is nothing short of a modern NFL miracle for the salary cap era to already be a hindrance like it is with NFL teams having to scrape and claw to get under the salary cap seemingly every single year and teams being really careful about what percentage of the salary cap pie goes to certain players. The Broncos had to deal with 85 million in dead cap money over a two-year span after cutting Russell Wilson, leaning on young players and leaning on the mentality that young and hungry can sometimes, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:58 be an advantage for an NFL roster because you don't know what you don't know. And that was something that Sean Payton sold to his roster, that he sold to his locker room, that you could absolutely see this team doing something special, even though nobody expected it. Remember, all those roster rankings that had the Broncos near the bottom

Starting point is 00:09:18 or at the very bottom of every list. All those quarterback rankings where the Broncos were the laughing stock of the league, not just with Russell Wilson, but it almost got worse after Sean Payton decided to go and draft Bo Nix where that move, that decision was borderline looked at as an act of hubris by Sean Payton as opposed to a genius idea. And for him, he went into that whole draft process saying, I think we're going to be better at this than everybody else. And he does have a little bit of that, you know, that peacock sort of mentality.

Starting point is 00:09:52 He believes in himself. He believes in his eye for talent. He believes in his ability to get the most out of players, not just because he can talk the talk, but because he can walk the walk. Player development in Denver has been sensational. That's the only way that you claw your way out of that $85 million dead cap hole is to have outstanding player development to hit on guys in the NFL dress. at every turn and after the draft.

Starting point is 00:10:18 And we've seen that. We've seen the Broncos hit on a quarterback selection. We've seen them hit on big time free agent signings. We've seen them hit home runs and trades. I mean, there's been so many different aspects of the way this team has built the roster over the last couple of years that Sean Payton deserves a ton of credit for his eye over everything. The way that he's been able to work with George Payton once again, define the odds where a lot

Starting point is 00:10:44 of people felt like, hey, because Sean has final say over the roster, he's probably not going to let George Payton be the type of general manager he expected to be when the Broncos pulled him in from the Minnesota Vikings. That's been debunked. He's not only done what people said he couldn't in terms of developing a young quarterback because remember, the narrative, when Sean was having to draft a quarterback in 2024, well, he's never drafted and developed a quarterback. He had Drew Brees, right? All of Sean Payton's success is on the of Drew Brees and his individual performance. These are the things and the narratives that Sean has had to battle.

Starting point is 00:11:21 And the idea of trading for a head coach seems so far-fetched and ridiculous to people, especially in the Broncos context, right? Because remember back in that time, they were not in a position to give up a first-round pick for anybody, much less a head coach. They needed to build that roster, right? And then you go ahead in that first year, after you've traded a first and a second round pick to get that head coach.

Starting point is 00:11:45 Remember, the Broncos went to Miami and they give up 70 points. Sean Payton made a hugely controversial decision to hire Vance Joseph in the first place. Then you give up 70 to the Miami Dolphins. And we have a show on that episode where we're just kind of reacting in the moment, like what in the heck is going on? Is this going to work? But you buy into the process. And the Broncos ownership group absolutely bought into the right guy for the job.

Starting point is 00:12:11 and now we've seen this team is a Super Bowl contender and the move to extend both Sean Peyton and George Payton. Those two moves really indicate that this team, the franchise from the top down, believes that it is in a Super Bowl window of time. Not just that, hey, we've got to fire this arrow right now because if we don't hit the bull's eye, we're going to miss out. I believe that this franchise thinks that they are just now entering what could be the next best era of Denver Broncos football.

Starting point is 00:12:41 because again, I'll bring it up. When's the last time a Broncos head coach was extended by the team? When's the last time the Broncos had stability from the top down of the organization? When's the last time the Broncos had their brain trust figured out to the degree that they do? With Sean and George both having extensions, when's the last time the Broncos drafted a franchise quarterback and had a long-term future in place at that position? It's been a long time, Broncos country. And so what Sean Payton has done for this franchise is he's not just coming back because he was itching to get back to the game of football, right?

Starting point is 00:13:17 Back in 2023, that was what everyone was talking about. Sean took a year off. He worked in the media. He's itching to get back into football. The Broncos weren't just a team for him to come scratch the itch. He wants to do what no other NFL head coach has ever done before. And that is win a Super Bowl with two different franchises. Back in 2009, he wins one with the new.

Starting point is 00:13:39 Orleans Saints. Could 2026 be the year that he ends up winning one with the Denver Broncos? It's going to be a lot of fun to find out Broncos Country. And of course, the team is continuing its on-field work at OTAs here week two. We'll have plenty of coverage from that for you. Sean Payton's reaction to obviously getting an extension. But man, we're just so excited. The season, this era of Broncos football, it's exactly that. It's so exciting. And so embrace it, Broncos country. Let's have some fun together and we'll catch you on the next episode of the show.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Sean Payton Extension Confirms Denver Broncos Super Bowl Window

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