Sean Payton’s obsession with a player most football fans haven’t even heard of tells us a lot we didn’t know about the Broncos coach
Denver Broncos fans — and football fans in general — got an even better look at who Sean Payton is as a coach this week thanks to ESPN.
Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos survived a wild AFC Divisional Round game in January against the Buffalo Bills, winning 33-30 in overtime after a fourth-quarter comeback by Buffalo.
Most coaches would have been thrilled just to advance and they would have turned the page immediately to the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots.
Payton did neither.
Six days before the biggest game of Denver’s season, the Broncos’ head coach was furious about a practice squad defensive tackle.
Jordan Jackson, a journeyman who has bounced around the league since landing on the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad in 2022, was activated for the divisional round matchup but never saw a single snap.
NFL teams can activate 48 players on game day, and Payton viewed the unused roster spot as an inexcusable waste.
Payton believed Jackson, a player with 17 career tackles, could have helped stop the run, and the fact that his defensive coaches never put Jackson on the field did not sit well with him.
ESPN’s Seth Wickersham shared the interesting story about Payton and Jackson this week in an in-depth story centered on the Broncos head coach.
From ESPN:
He hated that the Broncos couldn't run the ball, which ultimately falls on him, or stop it, which ultimately falls on him, too. But what's really set him off is invisible: that a practice squad lineman named Jordan Jackson didn't see the field against the Bills on defense. Not one play — after the defensive coaches had fought for him to be active, arguing that Jackson could help against the run….Payton takes his usual seat at the head of a conference table in the main meeting room for the Broncos coaches, a large and windowless space on the second floor of the building. Screens for watching game tape fill two walls; a whiteboard covers the third; portraits of Hall of Famers John Elway, Terrell Davis, and Shannon Sharpe playing in a Super Bowl win is the fourth. Payton sets the room temperature to 68 degrees, which he read somewhere is the ideal temperature to keep people alert. Coordinators, position coaches, and general manager George Paton sit alongside him at the table. Scouts, trainers, and operations staffers grab folding chairs around the perimeter. Seats aren't assigned, but everyone sits in the same ones each day. It snowed a few inches overnight; the room has a foxhole feel. "Zero snaps," Payton says. "F—ing criminal. This kid sits on the sideline….Did we stop the run? We didn't do that. We got our a– kicked in the first half."
Why a small detail reveals a massive competitive edge for Sean Payton
Practice squad elevations rarely move the needle. In most weeks, a player gets called up for depth because of an injury. Every now and then a guy breaks through with a couple of plays, and on rare occasions it changes the trajectory of a career. But 99% of the time, the elevated player is an afterthought.
That’s why Payton’s reaction is so interesting. What most people, including his own coaching staff, completely ignored, Payton treated as a massive failure.
The worst teams in the league can beat the best teams on any given Sunday (even the Cleveland Browns win some big games from time to time). Payton understands as well as anyone that one play can alter the entire outcome of a game.
Maybe Jackson stuffs a first-down run, forces a punt, and the Broncos never trail in the fourth quarter. Maybe the game never goes to overtime. That’s how Payton’s mind works, and it’s the same obsessive attention to detail that defined Bill Belichick’s dynasty in New England.
Payton holds people accountable for every tiny detail. It’s why he’s a Super Bowl-winning head coach, and it’s why the Broncos are considered one of the favorites to win it all heading into the 2026 season after being one of the worst teams in the league just four years ago.
There are plenty of revealing stories in ESPN’s feature on Payton. But I believe the story about a practice squad defensive tackle who never played a snap in a win against the Bills says more about Payton than almost any of them.
The coaches who win Super Bowls are the ones who refuse to overlook the small details that other coaches don’t even know exist. That’s Sean Payton.