Winners and losers from Sean Payton being hired by Broncos

Loser from Sean Payton being hired by Broncos: Arizona Cardinals

One of the big losers is a team that wasn’t even involved in the Sean Payton trade. That is none other than the Arizona Cardinals.

After making the playoffs one year ago, the Cardinals fell well below their expectations entering the 2022 campaign. The offense didn’t click with head coach Kliff Kingsbury and quarterback Kyler Murray. With a 4-13 record and the third-overall pick to show for it, the Cardinals opted to clean house, as they fired Kingsbury while general manager Steve Keim stepped down.

As of this writing just hours after the Payton trade, the Cardinals are still without a head coach. They did interview Payton once this offseason, but never got around to a second meeting. Things only got worse for Arizona, as they requested to interview San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans. The meeting was scheduled to take place the day before the 49ers’ Divisional Round game against the Dallas Cowboys, but he canceled it to focus on the game. As it turns out, Ryans never rescheduled the meeting, and he was hired by the Houston Texans to be their next head coach.

It is now just the Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts remaining as the only teams without a head coach. With big names like Payton and Ryans of the board, it will be interesting to see who Arizona will hire.

Winner from Sean Payton being hired by Broncos: Houston Texans

The Houston Texans may not have won just three games this past season, but they may have won the entire NFL coaching carousel.

In the past week, reports have indicated that Ryans was expected to make the jump from San Francisco to Houston to become the Texans’ head coach. It was a perfect fit, considering he was a former linebacker and captain for the team as a second-round draft pick in 2006. Sure enough on Tuesday, the Texans made it official, agreeing to terms with Ryans on a six-year contract.

As it turns out, the Texans managed to beat the Broncos for Ryans. According to NFL Network national insider Ian Rapoport, the Broncos spent all of Tuesday trying to get Ryans to accept their head coaching position again after they zeroed in on him earlier in the offseason. But, Ryans turned them down to take the Texans’ job. So, the Broncos actually pivoted to Payton and pulled off the trade with the Saints.

Even after last-second interference from the Broncos, the Texans hired the coach they wanted all along. That’s a big win.