ESPN’s Seth Wickersham embedded himself with Denver Broncos HC Sean Payton for the team’s playoff run in January.

It was an all-consuming experience, with Wickersham following the sixteen-hour days, capturing every moment of the hyper‑detailed quest for a Super Bowl. It was driven by Payton’s volatile personality, deep obsession with play design, and belief that coaching edges could still overcome the loss of Bo Nix.

Before Payton even knew about Nix’s season-ending ankle injury. Before he even reached the AFC Championship Game, the Broncos had to overcome mutiny to get that far. Payton’s players overruled a playcall at the line of scrimmage, in a move that might have saved Denver’s season.

Sean Payton’s fixation on gaining an edge against the Bills’ QB Josh Allen in the playoffs

In his preparation for the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Round, Sean Payton was fixated on gaining an edge over quarterback Josh Allen. He didn’t look for ways to stop Allen, but ways to potentially steal a possession with the game on the line. He became obsessed with a particular fake punt, deemed the “Rutgers Special.”

Payton prepares for Josh Allen not by watching film of him, or of defenses that have faced him, but of a 2019 play from Detroit against the Raiders. The Raiders are lined up for a punt, but it’s a fake. The ball goes to the upback, who hands it off to a tight end. A guard pulls left and clears the way for 27 yards.

“Rutgers Special,” Payton says.

Wickersham says that Payton watched 71 fake punts, looking for one to adopt and adapt. Rutgers Special was simple. With a certain number of Bills players in the box and WR Tyrell Shavers prone to playing the punt return rather than the fake, they’d hit Shavers with a wall of blockers to clear an easy path to a first down. He even found the exact look that he needed from the Buffalo to go out and win the game. In the Bills’ Week 1 game against Baltimore, the Ravens faced fourth-and-3 with 1:33 left, up 40-38. Baltimore punted and lost, but Denver wouldn’t suffer the same fate if Payton had anything to do with it.

Broncos players revolted against Sean Payton when he finally called ‘Rutgers Special’

The opportunity to run Rutgers Special didn’t come until overtime. With just over 13 minutes left in the game, the Broncos’ offense faced fourth-and-11 at the 38-yard line. Jeremy Crawshaw uncorked a punt to the Bills for 55 yards, down to the Buffalo seven-yard line. That wasn’t the way the play was supposed to go, though.

The Super Bowl is now real, and it took everything they had, plans executed and scrapped — everything, I note to him after his press conference, except Rutgers Special.

“We called it,” he says.

When?

“Fourth-and-11.”

Wait — what? Payton called Rutgers Special — in overtime?
On fourth-and-11?

“We had the right look.”

Payton’s players overruled his play call at the line of scrimmage. It was mutiny. His players gave the ball back to Josh Allen, setting him up to win the game in overtime. Were the Broncos about to become just like the Ravens in Week 1? No, but that still didn’t stop Payton from being sour about the outcome on that play.

“I was so pissed,” Payton told Wickersham. “It was perfect.”

Wickersham seemed to side with the players, stunned by the decision to go for it on fourth down in that situation. “Imagine his offseason if they’d lost in overtime because of a failed fake punt,” Wickersham wrote.

Moments later, Payton would learn Bo Nix’s fate. “Rugters Special” and the mutiny that stopped it from happening would be forgotten. With just over six minutes left in the game, on a rather mundane-looking play, Nix would fracture his ankle. They might’ve saved Payton from himself in a moment where everything was on the line. However, what would’ve happened had they converted on fourth-and-11 with the “Rutgers Special” play call? Would Nix not have injured his ankle later in the game? We’ll never know the answer, but at least, temporarily, those special teamers were heroes.