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<\/p>\nEven the most intense football coaches sometimes find themselves going through the motions.<\/p>\n
Sean Payton did at one point deep into a February stuffed full of coaching interviews.<\/p>\n
Call a guy, talk, say you\u2019ll circle back.<\/p>\n
Bring a candidate to town, shake him down and size him up as efficiently as possible, send him on his way.<\/p>\n
Rinse, repeat.<\/p>\n
Then 28-year-old Davis Webb showed up at Denver\u2019s training facility for a meeting with Payton and general manager George Paton about the quarterbacks coach job and the Payton almost caught and released one too many times.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get into this routine after an interview,\u201d Payton said recently. \u201cYou go, \u2018Alright, let\u2019s get him to the airport and on to the next one.\u2019 I\u2019m sitting and talking to George and I\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018Why are we letting him leave? I know better.\u2019 We called him up. Well, I called the driver up and brought him back and hired him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2023 season in Denver, Payton\u2019s first, will be measured in many different ways. Can the Broncos end a seven-year playoff drought? How about the six straight losing seasons? Or the 15 straight Ls against Kansas City and six more against Sunday\u2019s opponent, Las Vegas?<\/p>\n
Long before the calendar turns to 2024, the first snow blankets the Front Range or, heck, the Raiders\u2019 charter flight takes off Sunday night, the football world will start taking stock of the most pressing question facing the Broncos: Can Russell Wilson rebound?<\/p>\n
Wilson, a nine-time Pro Bowler in Seattle, is confident a turnaround is at hand. Payton, long known as one of the best offensive minds in football, thinks his quarterback played well over the second half of camp.<\/p>\n
If Wilson does indeed return to form, it will be for many reasons. His own ability and an offseason spent cutting about 15 pounds. Perhaps better health luck around him. A remade offensive line. A head coach who\u2019s won 152 regular season games, which is 152 more than Nathaniel Hackett at this time last year.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t underestimate Webb\u2019s role in this project, though. He is part translator and part mentor. A sensei and a grasshopper. A career backup quarterback who appeared in just two games over six seasons but nearly universally regarded as a prodigious football mind.<\/p>\n
He is the conduit between a head coach and quarterback who are both football junkies with long track records of success, but otherwise couldn\u2019t be more different.<\/p>\n
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Since Payton stepped off the stage at his introductory news conference and laid down the law regarding Wilson\u2019s personal staffers having access to the Broncos facility, their relationship has been perfect offseason talk-show fodder. Does Payton like him and want to work with him? He\u2019s maintained the answer is yes and grown warmer in the sentiment through training camp.<\/p>\n
Do they think they can win together? Never a doubt for Wilson, who raved about Payton before the coach ever actually met the Broncos ownership group in person.<\/p>\n
Are their personalities alike? Not even a little bit, though Payton said they\u2019ve found a rapport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt works. I think in the very beginning, with all these guys, I\u2019ll be sarcastic with them and have fun with them,\u201d Payton said recently. \u201cWe try to create as much pressure as we can during the week so that when game day comes, you\u2019re reacting and playing. This guy has been in tons of big spots–championship games, Super Bowls\u2014throughout his career. That\u2019s what puts him in that class where he\u2019s at. He\u2019s got a certain expectation of himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the football part, though.<\/p>\n
Wilson had a brand new playbook to learn and Payton a new signal-caller to figure out after 15 years of mind-meld with Drew Brees in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Webb comes in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about understanding the intent of the play-caller,\u201d Webb told The Post. \u201cIf you want to be successful in any offense and the quarterback, the play-caller, the head coach and the front office don\u2019t share a common vision, it\u2019s not going to work. So to be able to see it from the play-caller\u2019s eyes and then having Russell\u2019s library from his Seattle days and his Denver days and combining them, that\u2019s where you get the most explosiveness, the most positive plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge: Webb had never worked for Payton or played with Wilson. Before interviewing for the job, he talked with mutual friends about Wilson \u2013 Webb used to train with Wilson\u2019s private quarterbacks coach, Jake Heaps \u2013 and studied reams of tape. Same with Payton\u2019s Saints offenses.<\/p>\n
Webb set about essentially learning two languages so that he could teach Wilson fluently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of my favorite things about this position is that our offense, for the most part, is West Coast,\u201d Webb said. \u201cI was in the West Coast twice with Ben McAdoo and Jeremy Bates, but I was in the digit system with Pat Shurmur and then four years with (Brian) Daboll, which is the New England tree. So just kind of having different things \u2013 I was in the Air Raid with Kliff (Kingsbury). So when I hear something or see something, how can it hit the guys\u2019 brains so they can react properly and find a completion?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of my favorite things as a player or a coach: How can I make this simpler?\u201d<\/p>\n
If Wilson and Payton team up for several years, they\u2019ll reach the point where Wilson knows what Payton\u2019s going to call before the radio crackles. Where Payton will know what Wilson wants at the top of the red zone menu against Kansas City in December compared to Las Vegas in October.<\/p>\n
Until then, though, Webb sees his job as understanding every corner of the the matrix both men are working on and ensuring that nothing gets lost in translation.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust kind of combine all (my experience), learning from Sean, and mix it all in,\u201d he said. \u201cThen it\u2019s trying to help Russ in communicating his (football) life \u2013 he\u2019s been in a lot of different meeting rooms \u2013 and mine and trying to find the common ground there where we can elevate everyone around us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Webb lights up when a reporter starts to ask about a third-down run for 17 yards in the preseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a top five dual-threat quarterback of all time,\u201d Webb said of Wilson. \u201c… He\u2019s done it for so long, consistently, where if it\u2019s not ‘one to two to three’ and the house is burning down, either find the check down or take off and use your athletic ability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, though, Wilson got pushed hard in camp by Webb, Payton and a host of others.<\/p>\n
One camp observer told The Post that the coaching Wilson is receiving this year is \u201ca complete 180\u201d from last year.<\/p>\n
Webb, as one example, has impressed upon Wilson the importance of climbing in the pocket rather than defaulting to escaping out the back door. Wilson\u2019s made so many plays in his career using a well-timed reverse spin to get to the perimeter and create off-schedule, but in Payton\u2019s offense that cannot be the first option.<\/p>\n
\u201cPirouetting and getting out this way out of the pocket is the easiest way,\u201d Webb explained. \u201cHowever, when you escape 10 yards back, those 10 yard routes become 20. Then in coverage, the reaction time is not ideal. Stepping up to press the line of scrimmage is almost like a two-on-one, three-on-one fast break where (defenders have to) come to you and you\u2019re able to play basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb likes metaphors. He’ll use music references, too, because, “it hits their brain quickly. … So if you can find some sort of phrase or acronym that they can remember, then when the play gets sent in, they sort of chuckle because of something that was said in the meeting room by somebody.”<\/p>\n
That ability to connect complicated schemes in simple ways is the reason coaches have been trying to convince Webb to give up playing and get into coaching for years. He was offered Buffalo\u2019s quarterbacks coaching job last offseason but decided to play another year. Even then, he had duties with the New York Giants that included meeting twice weekly with the team\u2019s receivers and three times a week with the rookies.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was half-player, half-coach,\u201d said Broncos practice squad receiver David Sills V, who spent the past three years with the Giants. \u201cHe was preparing every week like he was a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, \u201cYou can tell it wasn\u2019t a lark for him to just say, ‘oh, let me see if I like coaching.’ He\u2019s been committed and dedicated and it\u2019s very impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Webb, though, is hardly the only one involved in coaching Wilson and the Broncos quarterbacks.<\/p>\n
Payton, naturally, sets the course.<\/p>\n
Lombardi has 10 years as a quarterbacks coach for Payton on his resume.<\/p>\n
Pass game coordinator John Morton is heavily involved, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a unique chemistry in there,\u201d Payton said. “Obviously, Davis is day-to-day with those guys, and then the other group of us, when you look at Joe and Johnny, there\u2019s so much that goes into these plays and the pictures, that the room flows fine. It\u2019s not noisy or busy. There\u2019s quite a bit of experience there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we kind of set up intentionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lombardi and Morton aren\u2019t in every meeting with the quarterbacks, but they\u2019re around a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we\u2019re talking and, oh, here\u2019s a point that hasn\u2019t been made that I think is important,\u201d Lombardi told The Post. \u201cYou just chirp in. It\u2019s not a noisy room or people vying to try to get the floor. It\u2019s just, the install\u2019s going on, the film\u2019s getting watched.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just like a bunch of friends sitting in the living room watching a football game together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bet is the group\u2019s organization and history together will mean the collective output will help Russ get back to cooking rather than crowding the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got great coaches. It\u2019s a tremendous staff,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cReally have done some great things in this league if you think about what they\u2019ve all done. \u2026 I think the best thing about it, too, is they\u2019re all great competitors and we all want to be great every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Payton knows exactly what he wants the Broncos\u2019 offense to look like and how he wants Wilson to play this fall.<\/p>\n
The offseason, he said, provided plenty of time to get, \u201ca pretty good grasp as to his strengths, the things that he does well.\u201d He\u2019s described the quarterback as \u201ca tireless worker\u201d committed to Payton\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n
Webb has to see the vision precisely the way Payton does. Any variance, and this isn\u2019t going to work.<\/p>\n
The first-time QB coach has a quiet confidence in his veteran pupil. It\u2019s rooted not in the flash plays of camp, but in the minutiae.<\/p>\n
Since mid-August, Webb said, \u201cI feel like he\u2019s really been consistently good. And for a quarterback, that means great. If you\u2019re consistently good at finding completions, doing the right thing in the run game and the pass game when it comes to protection or in the run game with \u2018Mike\u2019 points, (you\u2019re in good shape).\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday, everybody gets a first look at Payton\u2019s vision, Webb\u2019s influence and the collective\u2019s combined power. Everybody gets a first look at Wilson\u2019s quest to prove himself again.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it going to look like? Was 2022 really an aberration?<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I know is the way Russell has got better each and every day since I met him on FaceTime and just his comfortability with myself, Joe Lombardi, Johnny Morton, Sean Payton and his teammates,\u201d Webb said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really good sight to see, everybody meshing together at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n