While the Denver Broncos have officially parted ways with Russell Wilson, some football personalities like Roddy White berated Sean Payton.
Former NFL wide receiver shared his thoughts about Broncos head coach on his March 14 post on X (formerly Twitter), “Dude, that Broncos roster was really good, probably too five or two years ago, now it’s dismantled by a man that time has passed him by.”
While the quarterback had more Super Bowl stints, he and Payton have hoisted the same number of Vince Lombardi Trophies. Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl 48 in dominating fashion against Peyton Manning and the Broncos.
Meanwhile, Payton won Super Bowl 44 with the New Orleans Saints. Wilson lost Super Bowl 49 to the New England Patriots when Malcolm Butler intercepted his pass intended for Ricardo Lockette in the end zone.
However, White’s claim about Wilson’s better winning percentage is inaccurate. Wilson won 124 of 204 games played (including playoffs) for a 60.78 percent rate, while Payton won 169 of 275 games coached for 61.45 percent.
White Claims Sean Payton Won Because Drew Brees ‘Carried’ Him
GettyRoddy White Played His Entire NFL Career with the Atlanta Falcons.
Payton had 9 seasons of at least 10 wins during his 15-year tenure with the Saints, coinciding with their playoff berths. New Orleans reached the NFC Championship Game thrice, including the 2009 season, when they won it all.
But the 2010 First Team All-Pro wideout refuted Payton’s success by tweeting on March 14, “Sean (Payton) time has passed him by don’t matter who he gets in the draft. Drew (Brees) carried that man, and he ain’t done nothing since.”
Brees retired after the 2020 season as a two-time Offensive Player of the Year awardee and a 13-time Pro Bowler. The quarterback from Purdue is a 5-time All-Pro and has the most 5,000-yard seasons with 5.
To White’s point, Payton has a 17-17 coaching record after parting ways with the Super Bowl 44 Most Valuable Player. He had 6 starting quarterbacks in his last 2 seasons, including Wilson, Jarrett Stidham, Jameis Winston, and Taysom Hill.
Yet even with Brees at the helm, the Saints finished with a 7-9 record in 2012 when Payton served a 1-year suspension for “Bountygate.”
Resentment could be a factor in Roddy White’s critique of Sean Payton because the Atlanta Falcons won only 7 out of 22 encounters against New Orleans during his tenure. However, the wide receiver who played his entire 11-season career with Atlanta claimed he criticizes the coach as a football fan, not a former NFC South rival.
White concluded one of his March 14 tweets with, “Your job as a coach is to put the players in the best position to make plays, and he didn’t do that.”
The numbers indicate that Wilson played better under Payton than with Nathaniel Hackett. From 2022 to 2023, he had a higher completion percentage (60.5 to 66.4), threw for more touchdowns (16 to 26), and committed fewer interceptions (11 to 8).
Denver’s record improved from 5-12 in 2022 to 8-9 last season.
Roddy White Criticized Mark Schlereth For His Pro-Broncos Takes
GettyFox Sports NFL Analyst and Former Broncos Offensive Guard Mark Schlereth
White’s tirade continued by including two-time Pro Bowl guard Mark Schlereth, saying, “(Then) I got to hear Mark (Schlereth) come on live TV and lie to the world to protect someone who (gonna) be fired in 3 years. He (gonna) blame it on the cap and the roster, which he tore apart.”
Schlereth praised Sean Payton’s offseason decisions during the March 7 episode of “The Pat McAfee Show.” The two-time Super Bowl champion with the Broncos said, “So ultimately, it is time to quit putting Band-Aids on gaping wounds, and it’s time to perform some surgery. I think that’s exactly what Sean Payton’s doing.”
Likewise, the current Fox Sports NFL analyst swiftly responded to one of White’s tweets with, “Good roster? They averaged 6 wins a year over those years! Get out of here with that garbage!”
The spat between White and Schlereth goes beyond Sean Payton. On March 10, the former NFL offensive lineman said about Jerry Jeudy getting traded to the Cleveland Browns, “I’ve been telling you for the last two years is what a bust Jerry Jeudy is at the wide receiver position. … As far as a football player, he’s just not a good football player. Doesn’t run secondary routes well to attract coverage, drops the football, doesn’t block, good riddance.”
White responded on March 14, “Mark Schlereth (you) don’t be watching film cause running (Jeudy) on choice routes is not good coaching. Russ throws the ball outside the numbers. Everybody knows that, and he didn’t do that because his offense is more throw the ball over the middle of the field.”
This feud has no end in sight, and another chapter awaits once Schlereth shares his opinion on the Broncos’ latest offseason transactions.
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