Sean Payton tries his best to stoke fires of Broncos-Chiefs rivalry

Sean Payton tried his best to stoke the fires of any rivalry with the Chiefs.

There is a window, at this point, open to a leader affiliated with the Denver Broncos in which that person is afforded the opportunity to speak with confidence, to take shots at the rest of the division, and even to pretend that some level of glory is coming back to the Broncos. After that, they’re required to shut up.

Sean Payton is currently in that window.

The Broncos introduced Payton as their head coach on Monday at his opening presser, where he took photos, answered questions from reporters, and laid out some sort of vague plan for his approach. He was affable, told plenty of anecdotes, and spoke about his attention to detail. More than that, however, he spoke about bringing back a championship to the Mile High City and acknowledged that, to do so, he’ll have to get the best of the Kansas City Chiefs (and the rest of the AFC West).

A bit later, when he was pressed for a pick for Super Bowl LVII, Payton went the only way he could go—given his window.

"“I’m picking the Eagles,” Payton said. “We never want anyone in our division to win anything. The perfect weekend for a Broncos fan is we get a win and the other three lose.”"

It’s important for Payton to get these things in now and, as a veteran head coach, he’s well aware of this. After all, once the season begins, a coach can only credibly talk about success if he’s experiencing it and the Broncos have had so little in the last few years that Payton might not have much room to talk at all in about six months.

This is especially true of any sort of perfect weekend. Payton defined the Broncos’ “perfect weekend” as a week in which they win and three other teams—the Chiefs, the Chargers, and the Raiders—all lose. What Payton might not realize is that the Broncos really never get to enjoy a perfect weekend all that often. In fact, the last time the Broncos won while their rivals all lost was back in Week 5 of the 2015 NFL season.

The last time the Broncos had a perfect weekend, Van Halen had just made their final live appearance, James Bond was promoting the upcoming Spectre film, Adele released “Hello”, and Joe Biden stated he wasn’t going to run for President in 2016. As for the Chiefs, a perfect weekend is a rare occasion for any team but they most recently celebrated it in Week 10 of this year when they bested the Jacksonville Jaguars while everyone else in the AFC West lost.

For now, Piyton has the rest of this month and several more during this spring and summer to make bold predictions, talk a big game, poke at his rivals, and peacock around. Come September, however, we’re pretty sure it’s safe to bet on Payton remaining as silent as the coaches who came before him—a long line of miserable coaches who’ve been forced to suffer steadily under the boot of the Chiefs.