Last night, after an offensive offside penalty wiped out a touchdown that would have given the Broncos a puncher’s chance against the Lions, Denver coach Sean Payton threw a few verbal haymakers at quarterback Russell Wilson.
Watch the video. Although we can’t hear what Payton is saying — and Payton shut down the most basic questions about it after the game — it looks like the kind of tongue-lashing a player gets when he has done, or not done, something that he has been told on multiple prior occasions to not do, or to do.
To his credit, Wilson stood there and took it. Maybe he was stunned. Maybe he knew Payton had a point. Maybe, if it happens again, Wilson will give a little of it back. Regardless, I can’t remember Payton ever going after Drew Brees like that in all their years together with the Saints. (Maybe Payton did; I just can’t remember it.)
After the game, Wilson was asked whether he believes Payton still has faith in his quarterback, given the animated nature of the display.
“Yeah, I mean, of course,” Wilson told reporters. “I think the biggest thing is we’re trying to score a touchdown there. I think we all want to score there. I think that’s our focus and that’s — you want a coach that’s passionate. We want players that are too, and everything else. And so, we wanted to score a touchdown. I think my biggest thing is always trying to focus on the next play and unfortunately, those few plays, we didn’t get the touchdowns there, so that was the only unfortunate part about that part.”
The situation came up earlier, when Wilson was asked what Payton’s message was during his rant.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, we wanted to score that drive,” Wilson said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t. I think, more than anything else, we’re just frustrated we didn’t score there, because we were going to make that 28-14. Obviously, they end up stopping us, and that was the really, honestly, the disappointing part, because of that play where [fullback Michael] Burton got in. I think that’s just we’re a little frustrated.”
Even if the conversation was sparked by frustrations specific to the failure to score in that moment, the non-verbal evidence tends to suggest that Payton was upset about something more broad than that. Whether Russ had failed to take past coaching in that moment or whether Payton felt the team’s playoff chances evaporating or whether it was just a culmination of Payton’s frustrations while trying to get the most out of Wilson, that video feels bigger than one play and one drive and one game.
Which brings us back to the fact that, in March, Wilson has another $37 million in injury guarantees that become fully vested. If Payton’s purple-faced point to his quarterback does indeed speak to deeper issues about Payton’s long-term faith in the player, questions about Wilson’s future could in Denver could move back to the front burner after the regular season ends.
