The Broncos will play the New Orleans Saints on the road Thursday night marking coach Sean Payton’s return to the city he coached in for 16 years.
It will be a night at the Caesars Superdome honoring Payton’s longtime quarterback, Drew Brees, who will be officially inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame. The coach believes that’s where most of the celebratory energy will be spent.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of flowers and warm fuzzies for yours truly,” Payton said, “and I get it.”
There figures to be recognition of Payton on Thursday, at least in some form, by the franchise he helped lift to its first Super Bowl in 2009. There will be emotion for not only Payton but also for the roughly dozen other coaches, players and staff members who previously worked for the Saints as they return. When Amazon ran promotions last week for Thursday’s game, it featured a superimposed photo of Payton representing the Broncos (3-3) next to defensive end Cameron Jordan of the Saints (2-4). It’s a rare editorial choice for a broadcast, but one that underscores the obvious subplot of a critical game for both teams.
“Look, it will be unique,” Payton said. “One of the things we talk about with our players is trying to handle all the stuff ahead of time. I’ve got a great wife who (has the) tickets done with, my family and children. People around us know how challenging a short week is compared to if it was a full week. Certainly, there will be emotions going back there with players. But I do think that comes up quite a bit in our league with players and, in this case, certainly the amount of time I was there, I understand it.”
Payton said one benefit of the short week is that he doesn’t have time to focus on the extracurriculars surrounding Thursday’s game. The Broncos suffered a 23-16 loss Sunday to the Los Angeles Chargers in which Denver was scoreless at halftime for the third time this season. He is focused on resurrecting an offense that has too rarely found consistent rhythm through the first six weeks of the season.
Payton said he has already contacted and congratulated Brees, telling him his honor Thursday night will be “the first of many.” The duo was instrumental in creating some of the NFL’s best offenses from 2006 through Brees’ retirement following the 2020 season. Now, though, Payton is faced with the challenge of resurrecting his current offense in Denver, which ranks 28th in offensive points scored per game (16.8), 29th in yards per game (278.2) and 26th in yards per play (4.7).
That has made it easy for Payton, who spent a year out of coaching after stepping away from the Saints at the end of the 2021 season, to avoid prolonged thoughts about what the moment leading up to kickoff will feel like Thursday night.
“Man, it’s about the game. It’s about the win,” Payton said. “It’s about the significance of us playing our best football on a short week. It’s about our team. I’ll address that with them (Tuesday) morning. ‘Hey, let’s understand the significance of getting our fourth win. That’s the No. 1 thing. Then, go from there.”
The game will feature the first matchup of rookie quarterbacks in the NFL this season: Bo Nix versus Spencer Rattler, the fifth-round pick who made his first NFL start in the Saints’ 51-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Rattler went 22-of-40 for 243 yards and threw his first touchdown pass to fellow fifth-round rookie Bub Means in the second quarter. But Rattler was also intercepted twice and was sacked five times.
Nix has a five-game edge in experience on Rattler, but he has been largely unable to create a consistent rhythm within Denver’s offense in the first halves of games. In Sunday’s loss to the Chargers, Nix was 4-of-14 for 27 yards through the first three quarters before finally finding a rhythm against prevent coverage in the final period. Payton noted that teams that lead at halftime of Thursday night games are more likely to hold on and win those games than those that hold halftime leads in Sunday contests, crystallizing the importance of creating early offense.
“It’s good that we get to play in four days,” Nix said after Sunday’s loss. “It’s going to be tough on us, but we have a quick turnaround. I think we’re going to handle it well, and we don’t have a choice. We have to get back moving forward, and we have to grow and get better.”
Payton allowed that incorporating more of the up-tempo offense that led to some fourth-quarter success Sunday could be on the table.
“With each team you play, you meet as a staff and you talk about how we want the game to unfold,” Payton said. “Then, you plan accordingly. But that’s certainly not out of the question. A lot of it is, ‘What are you trying to accomplish when you do that?’ Sometimes that’s done to reduce the crowd noise. Sometimes that’s done because you can slow down the pass rush. I think it would be something that would be game-plan driven.”
Payton will be in an unfamiliar position battling the noise inside the Caesars Superdome instead of riding behind it. He has no doubt the environment will be charged. Dealing with it will be another challenge for the Broncos as they try to head into a long weekend with a winning record.
“Listen, I can’t stand losing,” Payton said. “So it’s about our team and me, as the head coach of the Broncos, getting ready to play on an early week and try to play one of our better games.”
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(Top photo: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
