The New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos are working out a compensation deal to allow Sean Payton to be hired as the next head coach in Denver. The long-time, Super Bowl-winning New Orleans head coach retired from coaching following the 2022 regular season.
Payton, 59, served as the New Orleans Saints' head coach from 2006 through the 2022 season, earning them nine playoff appearances along with a Super Bowl victory for the 2009 season. The former Saints head coach went 152–89 and led the team to win the NFC South title six times before his retirement.
In his time with New Orleans, Payton was suspended for the 2012 season because of the "Bountygate" scandal. The "Bountygate" scandal was a case where the Saints, along with individuals within the organization, were found guilty of giving players incentives to hurt the opposing team’s players to send them out of the game. Payton was suspended with no compensation for one season.
With all of this in the past, the focus now shifts to the struggling Denver Broncos organization, which is in desperate need of a major turnaround. The Broncos have gone 39-70 since winning Super Bowl 50, eight years ago. While the struggle has been divided amongst the entire organization, it is no secret that John Elway was known to bring in veteran quarterbacks to lead the team.
Now, Elway's role is more of an outsider position after many troubling years of trying to draught a rookie quarterback and sign veterans past their primes such as Brock Osweiler and Joe Flacco. However, the team made one recent big push to solve the mystery struggles they have had at the quarterback position by trading for quarterback Russel Wilson.
With Wilson at quarterback, the team had one of its worst years in franchise history, firing their head coach Nathaniel Hackett before the conclusion and missing the playoffs for a seventh straight season. thus proving that the team understands they need to find the right person to coach the team now and not play for it. Will Sean Payton turn the ship around in Denver? Only time will tell.