Sean Payton put the hard sell on Sam Ehlinger over the past few days.
Stay here. Develop. Think about the longer-term future. Cash in down the road.
For Ehlinger, that meant getting cut Tuesday and signed to the practice squad Wednesday, even though the Broncos’ No. 3 quarterback could have gone somewhere else.
Payton went as far Thursday as to say two other teams had interest in Ehlinger as their No. 2.
“This is the first time I can ever recall a player like Sam having an opportunity with two clubs to be the No. 2 and chose to stay,” Payton said. “That’s a credit to the program.”
Payton and general manager George Paton each said on Thursday that Ehlinger has been better than expected.
Payton called him “a real pleasant surprise.” Paton said the former Indianapolis quarterback has been “better than I anticipated” and that “we consider him a 53-man player.”
Last year, the Broncos traded for Zach Wilson and put him through something of a rehab and development year after a tough start to his career in New York. Ehlinger wasn’t the No. 2 overall pick in a draft like Wilson, but he had more downs than ups with the Colts.
Payton thinks this is a long-term sweet spot for Denver. If you have the answer at the top of the room, like he believes the Broncos do in Bo Nix, that doesn’t mean you should stop mining for talent out of the college ranks or around the league. Currently, Minnesota and San Francisco are among a small group of teams that play this game well.
“The team that did that the best for a while was Green Bay,” Payton said. “Ron Wolf was the general manager, and they had (Brett) Favre and then (Mark) Brunell. Then Aaron Brooks. And Ty Detmer. And (Matt) Hasselbeck.
“They just were in that business. Oftentimes, you can trade a commodity. A little bit like what happened with (wide receiver Devaughn) Vele. Draft at a certain number and then trade (higher).”
Denver clearly believes in its development infrastructure, from Payton to veteran coaches like Joe Lombardi and Pete Carmichael to quarterbacks coach Davis Webb. Webb told The Post recently that they targeted Ehlinger this spring as a player with development upside.
Last year, Wilson didn’t play a snap but got $6 million on a one-year deal from Miami in free agency. Teddy Bridgewater played two years with Payton in New Orleans. After going 5-0 in place of an injured Drew Brees in 2019, he landed a three-year, $63 million deal in Carolina that came with $33 million guaranteed. Of course, Bridgewater was only there a year before getting traded to Denver.
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Of course, a successful developmental program can also benefit the team, too, if ever you have to dip deeper than you want into the quarterback depth chart.
“The position is so important,” Payton said. “If we called it the most important piece on a chess table — I don’t play chess, so I don’t know what it is. What is it? Queen?
“Then I’d like to have a bunch of queens.”
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