Bart Scott erases Drew Brees comparisons to Russell Wilson under Sean Payton - “Going to owe Nathaniel Hackett an apology”
Broncos and Russell Wilson fans begged for the football gods to bestow Sean Payton upon them. They believed that Payton could simply rewrite the Drew Brees playbook and Wilson would fit like a tailored glove.
However, NFL analyst Bart Scott took what might be the first shot against that idea in the wake of Week 1 of the preseason. Here's how he put it on First Take:
"Just because it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck don't make it a duck. Just because I'm a short quarterback who won a Super Bowl, I'm not Drew Brees... I think he's going to owe Nathaniel Hackett an apology probably by game five."
He continued, explaining the troubles faced by the team in their preseason debut:
"If you watch what this offense looked like in the first preseason game, it took them like four drives to even put points on the board against the twos of another team. So it doesn't look like that he'll fix the problem and he can with this magic wand and all of a sudden, Russell Wilson is a great player."
Sean Payton starts off Broncos tenure with a loss
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton might have not had his true starters in the contest, but it was a game nonetheless and his team lost. Scott took it as a reason to throw water on the offense, but while it took them well into the second half to score a touchdown, the team did better than it looked on paper.
On multiple drives before the touchdown, Sean Payton's team was able to get in position to kick a field goal. The problem was that the team's kicking situation is far from solidified after Brandon McManus was let go earlier this offseason.
Out of four total field goals taken in the game, former Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher missed both kicks and Elliot Fry missed one of two.
That is nine total points left on the board and, had the kickers made their kicks when the starting offense was on the field, it would have been 13-0 at one point and well on pace to hit 30 total points in the game. Still, leaving nine points on the table per game is a surefire way to tank a record. Had Brandon McManus stuck around, fans assume the missed kicks would not have been an issue.
Broncos fans will hope for the team to fire on all cylinders on Saturday against the San Francisco 49ers, a team that the Broncos somehow defeated in primetime last season.