Well isn’t this interesting. Sean Payton might be the biggest domino set to fall on the upcoming NFL offseason, and everyone has a take on where the former New Orleans Saints head coach will be landing. What’s interesting is that one of the team’s popularly linked to him, the Dallas Cowboys, have one of their biggest supporters imploring Payton to look elsewhere for work.
ESPN color commentator Troy Aikman won a couple of Super Bowl rings about 30 years ago while quarterbacking the Cowboys, and he obviously still feels a lot of warmth for the franchise that got him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So it’s curious that Aikman has been advocating for Payton to take center stage in the Denver Broncos head coach search.
“The Broncos can’t take a chance on anybody,” Aikman said during Monday night’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers, reflecting on Denver’s botched experiment with first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett. The Broncos own a 2023 first round pick from the San Francisco 49ers (via their Bradley Chubb trade with the Miami Dolphins) plus multiple early-round selections in the 2024 draft, so they can match almost any trade offer from other teams. Aikman added, “Sean Payton is in the driver’s seat.”
Well, that last part is Aikman’s opinion — probably. All reports on Payton’s own interest in opportunities around the league have him focused on the Los Angeles Chargers (and franchise quarterback Justin Herbert) or a long-awaited teamup with Tom Brady (possibly happening in New Orleans, though the Saints have backed Dennis Allen). The Broncos have made it known that they like Payton a lot, but so do many other teams. What’s unclear is whether the feeling is mutual.
But why is Aikman keeping attention focused on the Broncos when his old Cowboys team has been linked to Payton on-and-off for much of the last decade? Veteran head coach Mike McCarthy has built a good staff and a competitive roster to surround quarterback Dak Prescott with a talented supporting cast, but it still feels like another one-and-done playoff journey would coax Jerry Jones into giving Payton a call. Wouldn’t that be an upgrade?
Maybe hypothetically. It’s easy to see why Aikman wants Payton in Denver, not Dallas. His Cowboys have spiraled over the years since his retirement, pivoting from one head coach to the next: going from Dave Campo (15-33 as Dallas’ head coach) to Bill Parcells (34-30) to Wade Phillips (34-22) to Jason Garrett (55-60) and now, Mike McCarthy (29-19, and counting). McCarthy has won at least 11 games in each of the last two seasons and kept the Cowboys in the middle of the playoff picture, while none of his predecessors ever achieved back-to-back seasons with 10 or more wins. From where Aikman seems to be standing, Dallas finally has its coach, and they don’t need to rock the boat just because of bad luck in the playoffs.
There could be a simpler solution here. For one thing, the Broncos gig is actually available, and Payton is said to be on their watch list. For another, McCarthy is very much active as the Cowboys head coach, and Aikman isn’t about to publicly (and prematurely) call for his dismissal with a replacement in mind. That’s bad business and wouldn’t exactly help his relationship with the Jones family.
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