It was a compliment. At least, sandwiched as one.
It became the rallying cry of the Broncos’ downfall Sunday night.
On Wednesday, amid a long song of praises toward the now-11-4 Jacksonville Jaguars, Broncos head coach Sean Payton dropped a small nugget that the Jaguars spun into fuel on their trip to Denver.
“As you look at ’em and you watch the tape — it’s a smaller market, but you see a real good team.”
On Sunday, after soundly outplaying the Broncos in all three phases of the game in a 34-20 Jaguars win, first-year Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen threw a not-so-subtle jab at Payton in the opening minutes of his press conference.
“Great team effort,” Coen said. “Just thankful that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done.”
All season, Coen and the Jaguars — who finished just 4-13 in 2024 — have thrown themselves behind the underdog narrative, a team continually overlooked and written off by much of the national conversation. The franchise’s social-media team stitched together a video compilation of dismissive takes before traveling to Denver on Sunday, a bold move that wound up paying dividends.
The Jaguars as a whole, not just Coen, were quite clearly aware of Payton’s comment. Jacksonville tight end Brenton Strange, who finished with five catches for 39 yards and a touchdown, was captured in a postgame Jaguars video offering his own rebuttal.
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Jacksonville’s own Twitter account, to boot, captioned the video with another diss: “Small market, big Ws.”
All season, Payton has masterminded these Broncos into clearly hearing and undermining national narratives that their record’s overblown. On Sunday, though, Denver’s head coach was outmaneuvered on the bulletin board.
“They beat us tonight,” Payton said postgame. “They beat us good, in all three areas. And so, starts with me. And so even though that hurts going down, you can’t spit it out. You have to swallow it.”
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