Sean Payton ranked 18th among 32 NFL head coaches

Sean Payton is set to enter his second season at the helm with the Denver Broncos this fall and according to Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports, Payton’s impact as a coach may do less good than they would like.

Benjamin has Payton ranked as the 18th-best coach in the NFL — pretty low for a perennial winner and Super Bowl champion during his time with the New Orleans Saints. Payton aims to get the Broncos back to the playoffs in 2024, but with an 18th out of 32 ranking, Benjamin isn’t holding his breath.

“There might not be a tougher coach to place, perhaps because Payton’s become so polarizing,” Benjamin wrote for CBS Sports. “Once the vaunted leader of a hyper-efficient New Orleans Saints contender, he’s managed a single playoff victory in his last four years as a head coach, and now he’s resetting the table in Denver, likely with a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix.”

For context, Dennis Allen, the head coach at Payton’s previous place of employment, New Orleans, is ranked last at 32. Andy Reid for the Kansas City was the easy pick to be first. However, as Benjamin points out, these rankings in July won’t mean much if Payton can’t prove his worth as a coach by producing wins this fall.