Colin Cowherd says Broncos QB Russell Wilson has contacted Sean Payton

The Sean-Payton-to-the-Broncos train seems to gain steam every day.

Denver would have to trade for the former New Orleans Saints head coach, but that possibility feels more and more likely. ESPN’s Adam Schefter says the price wouldn’t be quite as steep as some others are reporting.

And the whole point of bringing Payton to Denver would be to win football games, followed closely by “fixing” QB Russell Wilson. Those two probably go hand in hand. If Wilson plays better, Denver will have more success.

During his show on Thursday morning, prominent national radio host Colin Cowherd dropped an interesting nugget. He says not only has Wilson spoken with Payton, but he’s aware his game must be fixed.

“They believe in Denver, Sean can fix it,” Cowherd told his audience. “Russell Wilson has contacted Sean, legally, by the way, through channels. He wants Sean Payton, he needs fixing. He knows he needs fixing.”

It’s very interesting that Wilson would go out of his way to talk with Payton. Were Broncos CEO Greg Penner and GM George Paton aware of this? Did they ask him to contact coaching candidates? Has he spoken with David Shaw, Jim Caldwell, Dan Quinn or others? Or did Wilson do this on his own?

It leaves a lot of unanswered questions, and perhaps Cowherd let something slip he shouldn’t have. He did say he and Payton had dinner together, so maybe that was more of an “off the record” chat that Cowherd inadvertently revealed on his radio show.

Regardless, Wilson clearly had his worst season as a pro in 2022. And it didn’t help that at times Wilson felt like more of a celebrity than one of the guys in the locker room. He had his entire own team of people around and in the building, along with folks employed by the Broncos. Cowherd addressed that elephant in the room.

“The reality with Russell Wilson, most people understand the problem with Russell right now. He’s too isolated. He’s got this chiropractor and this throwing coach and his own office. And though it doesn’t bother me… there’s a sense that Russell’s a little isolated from a lot of the young players, young receivers on the team,” Cowherd said.

Hopefully a long offseason after a brutal 5-12 record can help Wilson reflect and realize he needs to get rid of all these people. His best bet moving forward is to just be like everyone else while focusing on football. And Payton could hopefully help him with that transition as well.

You can watch Cowherd’s full discussion about the Broncos below. It starts about four-minutes into the video.

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