INDIANAPOLIS — Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton said Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine that he’s not going to spend much time on all of the turmoil that surrounded quarterback Russell Wilson in the past year.
Roughly 90 minutes later, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Payton is the right coach to get Wilson back on track.
Payton, who had dinner with Wilson and others — including Hall of Famer Joe Montana — in Arizona during Super Bowl week, said he has exchanged some texts with Wilson and that the two will talk more in the weeks ahead before the Broncos open their offseason program in April.
Payton said Wilson had also been in contact with former New Orleans Saints quarterback Dree Brees, who had five 5,000-yard passing seasons and 12 4,000-yard passing seasons in Payton’s time as the Saints’ head coach and offensive playcaller.
As far as Wilson’s office space on the second floor of the team’s complex that the quarterback had used throughout the year, Wilson’s personal coaches being around the team and all the items that have drawn criticism since Wilson threw for a career-low 16 touchdown passes in the Broncos’ five-win season, Payton said he won’t expend much effort with all of that other than to make it clear how he wants things done.
“Me and this team … I’m going to park the car with no rearview mirrors,” Payton said. “… We’ve got to get past all those difficult things … If they have success last [year], I don’t think the upstairs meeting room means anything. I don’t think it matters. I didn’t see any articles from any of you prior to Week 1, Week 2, when that was happening. That’s what happens when you lose — everything gets looked at closely.
“We’ll have a way of doing business and it will be what I’m familiar with and good for the players,” Payton added.
Carroll said of Payton’s arrival in Denver: “I don’t think you can come up with a guy better coaching quarterbacks than Sean,” Carroll said. “He’s proven that. He’s had such tremendous success … he’s got a great playcaller mentality to him … they’re very fortunate to have him.”
Carroll also briefly addressed last week’s report that, before Wilson was traded, he had asked Seahawks executives to fire Carroll and Seattle general manager John Schneider. Wilson waived a no-trade clause for the Seahawks and the Broncos to make the deal.
“My response to that is a similar response to what it’s always been with guys I’ve coached,” Carroll said. “I’m always going to hang with them, I’m never going to leave them and I’m going to be there at the end. All of the good stuff, all of the bad stuff, I’m still going to be there. So, that’s it, I’m hanging. Doesn’t matter who the guy is … regardless of what had happened, what has taken place, things that have been said. [If] you hang with them, it all comes back around. I’d like to demonstrate that faith in the relationship and the depth of what we did together, and the growth challenges it brings to us along the way.”
The Broncos traded five draft picks, including two first-round selections and two second-round picks, as well as three players to the Seahawks in the deal to acquire Wilson. Because the Broncos missed the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, with just five wins, the first-round pick the Broncos sent to Seattle is the No. 5 pick of this year’s draft.