Jarrett Bell has been covering the NFL for USA TODAY since 1993 and is a recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Bill Nunn Memorial Award for career achievement. He's been a member of Hall of Fame selection committee since 1997 and has voted on AP awards and Super Bowl MVP panels for more than 25 years. Each Monday during the 2026 season, he'll take you around the league as only he can.
ATLANTA – Sitting across the table from Sean Payton, listening to one of the most accomplished play-callers in NFL history explain why he’s turned over the play-calling to rising coaching star Davis Webb, I’m still not fully convinced.
It was the afternoon before the Denver Broncos opened the preseason and Payton, riding a high after spending a couple days in Canton for the Hall of Fame ceremonies that included the induction of his former quarterback Drew Brees has talked about his decision dozens of times.
Let’s do it again, Sean, as we chatted for more than 90 minutes in the ballroom converted into the dining hall for team meals.
"Is it still something I’m working through? Yeah,” Payton told USA TODAY Sports. “Because I’ve gotten that same question like 50 times. My older brother (Tom), is like, ‘Damn, you’re giving up play-calling?’
"But it has to work.“
Payton explains his reasons, although he doesn’t touch what turned out to be a pivotal decision in the AFC title game against the Patriots, when he opted not to go for a short field goal that might have put Denver up 10-0 early in the second quarter – only to see New England blow up the fourth-and-one call and force an incompletion by backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, which changed the game’s momentum.
No, this play-calling turnover happened because Webb, 31, was such a hot offseason coaching commodity, and Payton, 62, loves the creative energy his newly-promoted offensive coordinator brings in addition to his bond with quarterback Bo Nix.
“I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think it was going to help us win,” Payton said. “I know it’s a big deal because that’s all I’ve done. I think he’s ready for it. He’s probably quicker. There aren’t many things where you are quicker at 62 than you were at 32.”
I’ve known Payton for at least a couple decades and over the years we’ve had many deep discussions about so many things – even non-football matters like losing family members. In any event, I must’ve twisted my face a bit as he went about his reasoning.
“Now I got your reaction!” Payton shot back, adding a choice curse word.
I told him something about the benefit of experience and that in another realm, a lot of CEOs hit their stride in their ‘60s. After all, he likens giving up play-calling to what it would have been like for Jerry Rice to stop running post patterns.
Payton admits that game days will be strange – the Broncos open on Sept. 14 on Monday Night Football at Arrowhead Stadium, when Patrick Mahomes is expected to make his return from the torn knee ligaments that ended his 2025 campaign in mid-December – but is determined to fill the void by being a better game manager.
Of course, he saw his mentor, Bill Parcells, handle it with aplomb.
“Bill’s superpower was, ‘How do we win this game?’ ” Payton said. “Now it doesn't always unfold that way. But Bill always thought each game had a different challenge. He said there’s a way to win all of them, so that bigger picture is what I’m paying attention to. That’s what occupies my mind.”
Payton called plays under Parcells while on the Dallas Cowboys staff in his last job as assistant before becoming the Saints coach in 2006. That had to be a trip to have Parcells grumbling in his ear.
“When you called plays for Parcells, it was like every play you heard Darth Vader,” Payton said.
Why did you call that? What are we doing?
“It had to become white noise or it would mess with you,” Payton added. “I’m not going to do that. I spent 20 years calling plays. I know what it’s like. This has to work, by the way. It has to work. Because we have too good of a team.”
Payton, whose squad went 14-3 last season to earn a No. 1 seed, acknowledged that Webb needs autonomy in calling games, although the head coach will be involved in the preparation during the week and add input with specific plays he wants in the gameplan.
“I can’t micromanage that, though,” he said. “Now, we’re not going to run off the side of the road here, with the start of our schedule. We don’t have time for growing pains here. We’ve got to be on point.”
After Kansas City, the Broncos host defending AFC South champ Jacksonville, which drubbed the Broncos on their own turf last December, and the Super Bowl favorite Los Angeles Rams. Then there are back-to-back road games at San Francisco and the L.A. Chargers before a Week 6 date against the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks.
It’s a murderer’s row kind of lineup that comes with a first-place schedule.
I’m wondering if there’s any chance of Payton taking the play-calling role, pending the circumstances.
“I think a lot of people are waiting on that. That’s where you’re going with it,” he said. “But listen, I told Davis, ‘That can’t happen. We’ve got too good of a team. The notion of that happening is like we’re 2-4. Like, we can’t start slow. And I’m not going to allow us to. I’m going to be in those meetings, but you can’t halfway do this.”
With an elite defense, a new weapon in receiver Jaylen Waddle and balance, he doesn’t hesitate to speak expectations. “Man, I like this team,” Payton said. “This team can win a Super Bowl. And this QB can.”
Payton gave up play-calling twice during his reign with the Saints. He barely remembers the time he gave it up for a couple games in 2016. He’ll never forget how it went down in 2011, when he suffered a brutal knee injury from a sideline collision that left him on crutches for weeks. Then-OC Pete Carmichael, whose departure to Buffalo last offseason, created the void for Webb to fill, was splendid in handling the duties for about half the season.
The first game, a Monday night contest against the Colts, the Saints scored 62 points with Carmichael calling the plays.
“I’m like, ‘Damn, Pete! I’m in a contract year. My value just went down a little,'" Payton recalled, chuckling. “If I’m Mickey (Loomis, Saints GM), I’m like we can score 62 with Pete calling the plays.”
When he worked for Parcells, Payton would sometimes get needled by his boss for being too cute or putting too many plays in the mix.
“It was, ‘More is not better, Sean,'" he recalled.
Webb will get a similar vibe from his boss. Last year, Payton said Webb might suggest the volume of plays was a bit heavy; now that feedback is poised to be reversed. Payton seems ready for it. He bought a life-sized cardboard figure of Webb in his coaching gear and put it in a meeting room. He cut holes above the ears in order to affix the reading glasses he bought to go with the prop.
“It was just a message,” Payton said. “ ‘Man, we’ve got a lot of stuff in. I want you to look at yourself when you’re installing all this stuff.’ ”
The message, of course, is subject to change pending the results.
What it is, and what it should beKudos to the NFL and NFL Players Association (NFLPA) for collaborating to launch an expanded Behavioral Health Network (BHN) on Tuesday that will provide more options for players and their dependents to access clinicians as part of their CIGNA insurance plan.
Earlier this year, the NFL-NFLPA mandated that each team integrate at least one full-time clinician. Yet an expanded network of providers not connected to the teams – in NFL cities and many other locations across the country, vetted by the league and union – needs to be robust as an alternative resource.
While building relationships with clinicians within the team could offer immense value, it’s not automatic that every player would be comfortable delving deep into personal issues with the team’s staff psychologist.
“You see that sometimes,” Dr. Amber Cargill, the NFLPA’s director of wellness services, told USA TODAY Sports. “You see players who either from their own perception or they’re getting talked to by outside forces saying, ‘Hey, maybe not talk to that person in the building’ and they will access services elsewhere.”
Cargill added that it’s key for players to understand that there is no preference where the player is engaging to get support.
“And I think whether real or perception, if players think for any moment that seeking support will have any impact on playing time or on personnel decisions, it could make them hesitant. And we try to make sure that team clinicians understand that and that they know that they’re aware, so that they don’t do anything to exacerbate that perception or feeling.”
The topic of mental health in the NFL undoubtedly has heightened awareness after two players, Marshawn Kneeland of the Cowboys and Rondale Moore of the Vikings died by suicide within a five-month period beginning in November 2025.
This week, BHN postcards will be placed in players’ lockers, following up on electronic and traditional mailings that inform players about available resources. There are also plans to establish a pilot peer program that engages players to promote wellness.
What we’ve learned…or confirmed- The official return of eight-time all-pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald to join forces with Myles Garrett on the Rams – on cut-down day at that – brings to mind the reactions from several Hall of Famers recently as the move was contemplated. Bruce Smith, the NFL’s all-time sack leader, seemed inspired by the possibility: “If I had another force on the defensive line like an Aaron Donald or Myles Garrett, I’d come back, too.”
- The ramped-up trade market that juiced the offseason has carried over to cut-down day. Although nothing came close to the blockbuster that sent Micah Parsons from Dallas to Green Bay last year, at least a dozen deals were struck as teams trimmed rosters to get to the 53-man roster limit. Two of the most intriguing trades involved Pittsburgh shipping two former high draft picks to two of coach Mike McCarthy’s old teams with former first-round tackle Broderick Jones (14th overall, 2023) sent to Dallas and running back Kaleb Johnson (3rd round, 2025) to the Packers. The latter move was sorely needed to beef up depth after Josh Jacobs, facing two misdemeanor charges stemming from a domestic incident, was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list.
- Raiders rookie coach Klint Kubiak still didn’t name his starting quarterback for Week 1 after the preseason finale, although it’s expected Kirk Cousins (as planned) will get the nod over Fernando Mendoza. On a landscape where, per Pro Football Talk, 12 teams didn’t play their starting quarterbacks during the preseason, Kubiak sent quite the message as he trotted out Cousins and the first unit during the preseason finale against the 49ers on Thursday night. As in, they need the reps as Kubiak tries to make over the NFL’s worst team.
- It was sure weird seeing Keenan Allen, the Chargers’ all-time leading receiver, wearing the Colts uniform after signing on as a free agent for a 14th NFL season. Even worse was Allen being arrested early Sunday on two misdemeanor DUI charges. It’s possible that Allen could wind up suspended or exempted before stepping on the field in a real game for Indy.
- Love ya, Blue? Time will reveal the impact of new coach Robert Saleh and new OC Brian Daboll but regardless, the Titans new uniforms are fire. Of course, the Columbia Blue hue comes straight from the Houston Oilers wardrobe that preceded the franchise’s move to Nashville.
- The helmet decal the Ravens will wear all season to honor O.J. Brigance, the former linebacker and player development director who died recently after battling ALS, is a class move. The team also held a moment of silence for Brigance before the preseason romp against Washington on Friday night. Homegoing services will be held at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday at Evangel Cathedral Church in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
- The eyeball test suggests that Rams coach Sean McVay has a legitimate decision to make about first-round pick Ty Simpson winning the job over second-year vet Stetson Bennett IV as the No. 2 QB behind reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford. Simpson closed an impressive preseason (74.3% completion rate, 0 INTs) with a strong start against the Chargers and a sweet, 11-yard TD pass flung while rolling left. Either way, Simpson is making McVay and Rams GM Les Snead look smart for investing the 13th pick overall into the QB-of-the-future.
I watched Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast for the first time on YouTube for research purposes – just happening to catch an episode that featured Ryan Clark, the former teammate who once chided a younger Heyward as a first-round bust – as I was lined up for a one-on-one interview with the venerable defensive lineman on the final day of a three-day visit to Steelers training camp.
Now it’s a continuing pattern – good insight and behind-the-scenes chatter, great humor. Heyward has tapped one teammate after another during camp – including DeShon Elliott, Patrick Queen, Keeanu Benton and Sebastian Joseph-Day – for his podcast.
Then there was Germie Bernard, the second-round rookie receiver from Alabama, who revealed on the podcast why he’ll wear the Guardian Cap atop his helmet all season. And it was a timely explanation, given the report published last week that cited results from researchers at Mass General Brigham and Boston University who concluded that nearly 25% of former NFL players who died between 2016-21 – and 91.4% of the 231 deceased players who donated their brains to science – suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
The Guardian Cap is a padded layer of protection that reduces the shock from collisions and is optional for players to wear during the games.
“I’m standing on it. I’m going to wear it…the entire year,” Bernard said on the podcast.
He said a conversation with his girlfriend, discussing long-term risks of CTE, prompted his decision. CTE is a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.
“For me to play, like longevity, it’s not normal for our brains to be rattled for 10-plus years,” Bernard said. “So, that is something that can help me in the long run. That’s how I look at it.”
Although some players shun the cap as bulky or an eyesore, it hasn’t cramped Bernard’s style. He had a nifty, 13-yard TD at Buffalo on Thursday night when he caught a pass in the flat and promptly juked Maxwell Hairston to create his lane to paydirt.
Closing BellWith the sale of the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks formally approved on Wednesday for $9.6 billion to Vinod, Neeru and Neal Kholsa, the record for NFL franchise purchases has more than doubled in the four years since the Denver Broncos sold for $4.65 billion in 2022 – which more than doubled the then-record $2.27 billion for the Carolina Panthers.
The Seahawks topped the $6.05 billion the Washington Commanders went for in 2023.
Which begs the question: What could the Dallas Cowboys command from a sale?
No, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones isn’t selling, with the franchise structured to be passed along to his children. Still, with the latest Forbes valuation at $13 billion for the Cowboys, some suggest the USA’s most valuable sports franchise could fetch $15 billion.
“That would be an insult,” sports consultant Marc Ganis counters. “That’s a joke.”
If Ganis had to put a number on what the Cowboys are worth on the open market, he’d start at $25 billion. And that’s without a Super Bowl crown in more than 30 years. In other words, recent championship mettle or not, the Cowboys would blow away the competition at the bank.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Monday Morning JB: Sean Payton's master plan, Donald's return and a $25 billion NFL team
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