Sean Payton Has Historical Past With Browns Dynamic Duo Of Jameis Winson, Jerry Jeudy

If anybody has the elixir to counter the flourishing connection between Cleveland teammates Jameis Winston and Jerry Jeudy, it needs to be Sean Payton, whose Denver Broncos host the Browns on Monday Evening Soccer.

Cleveland Browns

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Denver Broncos

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“I’ve coached each of them,” mentioned Payton, who spent three years with Winston in New Orleans and a yr with Jeudy in Denver earlier than granting his commerce request final March.

“Jameis’s character is infectious,” Payton mentioned. “He’ll inform any person, ‘Hey, go get open, and I’m going to seek out you.’ In order that’s what a receiver desires. These guys have had connection. You see it simply within the restricted video games that Jameis has performed.”

As for Jeudy, “from a expertise standpoint, he has nice hips, nice transition, and he has nice soccer IQ.”

Winston and Jeudy have related two dozen instances for 379 yards and a landing over the previous 4 weeks, which included wins over playoff contenders Baltimore and Pittsburgh, giving the Browns (3-8) a glimmer of hope they will salvage their season.

To do this, they’d virtually actually need to get a win in Denver, which has its personal blossoming duo in rookie quarterback Bo Nix and veteran large receiver Courtland Sutton, who has 36 catches for 467 yards and three touchdowns over the previous 5 weeks.

Winston took over when QB Deshaun Watson sustained a season-ending torn Achilles tendon in mid-October and in his first begin in two years threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns in a win over the Ravens.

That efficiency had followers questioning why the workforce caught with Watson for therefore lengthy, but it surely certain did not increase Payton’s eyebrows.

Winston began the 2021 season for the injury-ravaged Saints and had them off to a 5-2 begin when he tore an ACL in opposition to Tampa Bay, ending his season.

“I loved” teaching him, Payton mentioned. “He’s huge. He’s large within the locker room. He’s received this infectious character, a smile on his face each day he’s at work. You hear him earlier than you see him, that sort of man.

“I actually loved teaching him and having an opportunity to work with him. He’s the last word professional. He has pure management talents, and you are feeling that with him,” he added.

Not surprisingly, Payton was much less of a fan once they had been division rivals on reverse sidelines.

“It’s a must to bear in mind now there have been years when he was in Tampa enjoying in opposition to us,” Payton mentioned, chuckling. “I hated him as a result of that was one of many opposing groups’ quarterbacks, however we at all times had some good battles.

“When he got here to our program, he was a sponge as a backup. Once more, he tore his ACL and he was having a extremely good season. It is going to be good to shake his hand and see him after the sport.”

He additionally wish to shake Jeudy’s hand. Though Jeudy was sad together with his alternatives and his function in Denver, Payton was a giant fan of his throughout their sole season collectively and resisted the temptation to commerce him on the deadline final yr earlier than relenting and sending him to the Browns for a pair of 2024 NFL Draft picks.

After working with veterans Winston, Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater in New Orleans and with Russell Wilson his first yr in Denver, Payton went the rookie route within the draft and grabbed Nix at No. 12.

The sixth quarterback chosen on this yr’s draft has been the most effective over the previous two months, piling up honors such because the NFL’s Rookie of the Month in October and the previous three NFL Rookie of the Week awards.

He has thrown for no less than 200 yards and two touchdowns with out an interception in his previous three video games, which is tied for the longest streak by a rookie because the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The others to do it had been C.J. Stroud, Gardner Minshew and Dak Prescott.

Not that Nix is paying a lot thoughts.

“Not likely,” he mentioned. “All I can deal with is the following sport, the following opponent, what I can do to win, what I can do to assist the workforce win and proper now it’s simply executing. There’s at all times going to be the off-the-field issues. It doesn’t matter if you happen to don’t play nicely. All I’m involved about proper now’s the following opponent and that’s Cleveland.”

Nix was listed on the harm report with a strained again muscle that is bothered him since final week. However he gave a brief reply when requested about it Friday: “Good to go. Able to roll.”

Reporting by The Related Press.

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