Wait, is training camp too early for NFL trash talking? Robert Saleh, the Jets head coach, didn’t take kindly to Sean Payton’s criticism of his team and new offense. It’s late July, but we’re so looking forward to early October.
Seriously, who would appreciate such comments coming from two time zones away?
First, let’s set the football table. Earlier Thursday, USA Today published a story on Payton and his makeover of the Denver Broncos. He takes over for Nathaniel Hackett, who the Broncos fired 15 games in his first year as head coach. The Jets then hired Hackett as their offensive coordinator, knowing he worked with Aaron Rodgers while both were with the Packers. Payton also likely needs to rebuild the confidence of quarterback Russell Wilson, who struggled mightily after he switched from the Seahawks to the Broncos.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said in the interview. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much (expletive) time trying to win the offseason – the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.
“We’re not doing any of that,” he said. “The Jets did that this year. You watch. ‘Hard Knocks,’ all of it. I can see it coming.”
And Sean Payton continued to troll Robert Saleh‘s new offensive coordinator. and what happened with the Broncos in 2022.
“Oh, man, there’s so much dirt around that,” Payton said. “There’s 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. The offense. I don’t know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.”
“Everything I heard about last season, we’re doing the opposite,” Payton said.
So how did Robert Saleh respond to Sean Payton? He started out on the high road then did a U-turn.
“I’m not going acknowledge Sean on that,” Saleh told reporters. “He’s been in the league a while, he can say whatever the hell he wants. But as far as what we have going on here, I kind of live by a saying, ‘If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t popping. So hate away.’ Obviously, we’re doing something right if you gotta talk about us when we don’t play you until Week 4.”
And it didn’t stop there. Jets offensive lineman Billy Turner, who played for the Broncos last year, also took aim at Payton with an Instagram clapback. “Seems like someone started training camp and is trying to soften the blow after realizing what he’s in for this season. F------ bum.”
The two teams play Oct. 8 in Denver. It should be fun.
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