Things obviously did not work out between Russell Wilson and head coach Sean Payton with the Denver Broncos. And reading between the lines of some recent comments from Wilson, it sounds like he might hold some ill will toward Payton.
During a recent interview with Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports, Russell Wilson was discussing his NFL career when he listed two coaches that he called “all-time greats” that he has played for.
However, Sean Payton was not one of the two coaches that Wilson mentioned.
“I’m in a good place here in Pittsburgh. I’m excited about it and happy where my feet are. Just to focus on where you are right now. I look at it as a tremendous honor. I don’t look at it as a bad thing,” Wilson said during the interview. “I get to play for Pete Carroll and I get to play for Mike Tomlin – two all-time greats.”
Given that Payton has just as many Super Bowl championships as both Tomlin and Carroll during his head coaching career and is widely considered an all-time great coach by fans and media, it certainly seems to be a clear and intentional shot from Wilson to specifically exclude him when discussing great coaches.
If Wilson does indeed hold some resentment toward Payton, it would certainly be understandable.
Payton decided to bench Wilson last season and cut him loose during the offseason, seemingly pinning the team’s offensive struggles on the veteran quarterback.
Now with the Steelers, Wilson earned the starting job and had a record-setting debut with the team last week while the Broncos offense has struggled mightily with new rookie starting quarterback Bo Nix.
It seems pretty clear that Wilson was not exactly happy about how things went in Denver.
