Rex Ryan's idiotic Sean Payton/Tom Brady to the Washington Commanders idea is over

Feb 1, 2023 - 2:00 PM

I don’t watch a lot of “sports talk” shows except for the occasional pregame blabfest or an episode of Good Morning Football if a Washington player is going to be interviewed/featured. Rex Ryan hasn’t coached in the NFL since being fired by the Buffalo Bills during the 2016 season. The last time I remember him even being around a team was when he visited his brother, former Washington Redskins ILB coach Rob Ryan, at training camp during his lone season with the team in 2019.

He’s a TV talking head now, so apparently he hears things and knows things. I’ve been blissfully ignorant to his hot takes until a clip from ESPN’s Get Up showed up on twitter on Monday courtesy of our good friend A.J. Perez. Rex starts out by pointing out the obvious, “Here’s a crazy one.” He follows up that perfect lead-in by saying we should watch for the Washington Commanders to be in the Sean Payton head coaching sweepstakes. Ryan explains that Washington is going to have new owners soon, and they won’t be “married” to Ron Rivera. He then goes deeper down the rabbit hole by including Tom Brady into the mix as a package deal due to the flirtation(i.e. violation of NFL rules that resulted in fines, suspensions, and loss of multiple draft picks) between him, Payton and the Dolphins.

This “idea” was dead on arrival due to multiple factors, but it got some play on Monday. Washington is expected to have new owners, but that likely wouldn’t be finalized in time to make a deal for Payton before he found a new head coaching job. The only way it would be if the four teams that are still hiring passed on him, or the new owner had been negotiating with him behind the scenes. Then the Tom Brady factor was also a non-starter. The GOAT was linked to the Raiders, and his former Patriots OC Josh McDaniel, and the 49ers, his childhood team. Washington has had QBs over the last two years veto trades to them(Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson), and they aren’t usually a first choice destination, especially for a first ballot Hall of Famer like Brady.

The Sean Payton dream ended yesterday when the Denver Broncos agreed to trade a 2023 first-round pick and a 2024 second-round pick to the New Orleans Saints for the rights to Payton’s contract and their 3rd round pick next year.

Tom Brady himself killed the other half of Rex Ryan’s brain fart by announcing his retirement this morning. He famously retired last year, and then unretired to rejoin the Buccaneers to chase another Lombardi trophy with them. That ended with a 8-9 division win and a first round exit in the playoffs via the Cowboys, but he is still considered the greatest NFL QB of all time, and has the resume to back that up. Congrats on retiring again Tom!

Thanks to Rex Ryan for coming up with the worst idea I’ve seen thrown out to the masses since the infamous Tony Romo to the Redskins via a series of trades between Washington, the Dallas Cowboys, and the 49ers that also included Kirk Cousins going to San Fran. Thanks for that one Ian Rapoport.