Feb. 28, 2026, 5:01 a.m. MT<\/p>\n
Colin Cowherd has a saying: “Don\u2019t try to be right; get it right.” And in the NFL, front offices get it wrong more often than they get it right with head coaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ESPN recently ran a story ranking the best coaching hires since 2021<\/a>, and Broncos<\/a> head coach Sean Payton ranked sixth on the list, behind with DeMeco Ryan, Mike Vrabel, Mike Macdonald, Nick Sirianni and Dan Campbell (first)<\/p>\n Check out what the writer of the piece, Bill Barnwell<\/a>, said about why he ranked Payton as the sixth-best hire:<\/p>\n While Payton and Broncos fans might be ruing their loss in the\u00a0AFC Championship Game, there’s no doubting that the Broncos have made major strides since trading a first-round pick to hire Payton in 2023. The longtime Saints<\/a> coach has improved Denver’s record by an average of three wins each season, leading to a division title in 2025. Payton wasn’t able to turn\u00a0Russell Wilson<\/a>\u00a0around. Still, he has managed to build a solid offense around an inconsistent young quarterback in\u00a0Bo Nix<\/a>, creating open receivers on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n Payton is in good company, fulfilling his promise to turn the Denver Broncos<\/a> around. While the injury bug bit the Broncos at the wrong time, Payton appears to be reloading his coaching staff and roster for another chance at another deep run in 2026. One could argue that he’s ranked too low on Barnwell’s list.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Social: Follow\u00a0Broncos Wire<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter\/X<\/a>!\u00a0Did you know:\u00a0These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 28, 2026, 5:01 a.m. MT Colin Cowherd has a saying: “Don\u2019t try to be right; get it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[95878,232,231,258,2426,7,6,95879,95880,95882,97108,95886,95892,96853,95896,96129,95888,95895,95899,95884,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-782197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-broncos","12":"tag-denverbroncos","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbroncos","16":"tag-sstsnbroncos","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbo-nix","19":"tag-tagdenver-broncos","20":"tag-tagespn-inc","21":"tag-tagmike-vrabel","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","24":"tag-tagnfl","25":"tag-tagnfl-hub","26":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","27":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116148429488956130","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}