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Culture is everything, not just picking the right players . . .
I was watching Sean Payton’s introductory press conference in Denver yesterday.
By the way, he wasn’t the second choice to DeMeco Ryans as some in the media reported. The reason they kept talking to Ryans was that they there were still negotiating with New Orleans to get Payton’s rights, and the demands were too high in their minds, so they wanted to have a backup plan just in case. They always wanted Payton.
Throughout his press conference, Payton talked about changing the culture in Denver.
You hear this talk from teams all around the league, but changing a culture is easier said than done.
What I’ve written about over and over is that what some teams need to realize is that culture encompasses everything that goes on, and it’s more than just getting players that are wired the right way. Payton repeatedly emphasized on Monday during his presser in Denver – “Everything matters.”
“If we are maniacal with the details on the field, then we have to be that way in every other element—the training room, the weight room, how we approach ticket sales,” Payton said. “Everything matters. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, it’s only this that’s important.’ Everything matters.”
Payton is a Bill Parcells disciple.
“I was fortunate to spend my last three years as an assistant for Bill Parcells,” Payton said. “For me, those three years were like law school. He said this to me. ‘When you’re going to New Orleans, you have to figure out what’s kept them from winning for the last 30 years. You’re going to have three or four years, or else there’s going to be another young coach. Evaluate the people and go by what you see. Don’t predispose yourself to any belief or thought. Just pay attention to what you’re seeing in every area of the building.”
So everything matters that is going on in the building. If you want to have a great culture, everyone needs to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
“Every year in our league, there have been great plans with noble thoughts and a lot of enthusiasm that don’t have success,” Payton said. “That happens.”
Joe Douglas has done a nice job of improving the roster with not just a lot of talented players, but guys that are wired the right way.
Perhaps he missed on Zach Wilson, that remains to be seen, but if that is the case, how many other teams have missed on high picks quarterbacks? I don’t have enough space here, and based on some of the players being mentioned as first-round quarterbacks this year, like Will Levis and Anthony Richardson, I suspect there will be a lot more misses in the coming years.
Mekhi Becton isn’t a bust yet. It looks like the lightbulb has finally come on about getting in better shape.
But for the most part, with players like Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall and Alijah Vera-Tucker, you can see that Douglas has a good feeling for the talent/character construct that you need in good cultures.
However, perhaps, he’s not involved enough with other things going on, and maybe doesn’t take the “everything matters” approach to culture rebuilding.
It’s possible, he feels he just needs to stay in his lane, and his job is to bring in the right players.
But unless certain other things change, it might be hard for Douglas to just turn the culture around by just getting the right players.
Zach Wilson was sitting in the back of me during Robert Saleh’s press conference in New England, while the coach was being peppered with negative questions about the quarterbacks’ poor performance, and then Wilson took the podium pissed off, and said something foolish. Why was he in the room for Saleh’s presser?
“Everything matters,” Payton said.
February 7, 2023
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