The Broncos had just officially earned their first AFC West championship in a decade.
Head coach Sean Payton watched the final moments of Houston beating the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday, he said, “probably like everybody else,” and his mind immediately turned to Monday’s team meeting and Denver’s preparations for a Week 18 tilt against the Chargers.
Denver, of course, has a lot to play for. Win and the team secures the AFC’s No. 1 seed. Lose, and the overwhelming likelihood is they tumble to the No. 2 or No. 3 slot.
“This game is very much like a playoff game,” Payton said.
Along the way over the weekend, Payton got a text from longtime equipment manager Chris “Flip” Valenti asking what Payton wanted done with the AFC West champion hats and T-shirts.
Those, of course, are central to any good sports celebration.
“Give me my hat and T-shirt baby!” kicker Wil Lutz tweeted after Houston won Saturday.
The Broncos didn’t get a chance to don them after clinching a division since they had already beat Kansas City on Thursday night.
So Payton told Flip to hang the gear in players’ lockers.
Turns out, that was the extent of the celebration at the club’s headquarters.
“I haven’t seen the hats or the shirts,” Payton said. “My understanding is they’re pretty ugly.”
Payton said late Monday morning that he didn’t even mention the division title during the morning team meeting.
“We actually didn’t even talk about it, and I don’t know if that’s something I should have (talked about) or omitted,” Payton said. “… We just didn’t really talk about it. The focus was on this week’s game and the Chargers and the seeding ramifications. Really trying to educate them relative to what’s going to be important here, down the stretch.”
Inside linebacker Alex Singleton said he was at Zoo Lights with his family when the Broncos clinched the division, which was “definitely a little different, but still exciting.”
Singleton said Saturday evening featured plenty of celebrating, just in different ways than on the field or in the locker room. Players and coaches exchanged phone calls, group texts blew up and the team in general had an appreciation for what it accomplished.
That, Singleton said, is why it made sense that Payton skipped the topic altogether Monday morning.
“It’s not like we have three games left. We have one game left,” Singleton said. “Go beat the Chargers and get that one-seed. Thatap obviously what’s most important right now. And there was a lot of congratulating before that. There were a lot of phone calls on Saturday, but it’s been two days since then. Guys know how special it is to win a division, because it is really important. But also we have a lot bigger goals and we have the opportunity to have those big goals.
“So, he could have talked about it. We didn’t. And I think it was a better way to do that, just to let guys know, like our main goal and our one focus this week should be beating the Chargers and being the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.”
Payton spent the team meeting talking through the benefits of getting that top spot, the bye and the homefield advantage that comes with it.
“Just historically speaking, it’s extremely important,” Payton said.
“The first reason would be that you skip a game in which you’re at risk to not play well or an opponent all of a sudden has a great game — you skip the threat of potentially losing a game,” Payton added. … “And then to be able to play in front of our fans with the crowd noise, the atmosphere. It’s been a while since they’ve hosted a playoff game. Certainly, it’s a fan base that deserves that opportunity and I get excited for them and I get excited for our team.
“So, man, all of it’s important.”
He also outlined one of the key metrics to success in the playoffs: Reversing the season-long trend of being on the wrong side of the turnover battle. Denver is minus-5 in turnover differential this year and Payton told his team that only one Super Bowl champion in the past 25 years — the Los Angeles Rams in 2022 — had a negative differential in the playoffs.
They don’t hand out hats and T-shirts for securing the No. 1 seed, but that is Denver’s foremost goal for the regular season and has been for weeks.
The swag, players said Monday, will end up in a box or a memorabilia set.
“I’ll probably see it again in about 50 years from now,” Singleton said.
Tight end Adam Trautman won the NFC South as a New Orleans rookie in 2020 with Payton. That year, the Saints won the division but bowed out to division rival Tampa Bay and quarterback Tom Brady in the divisional round. Thatap not a T-shirt he looks back on fondly.
“It also can be, frankly, one of those things you look back on, and it’s almost disappointing if the season doesn’t end how you want.”
