NFL 2023 trade deadline: Sean Payton says Broncos aren’t ‘looking to do business with any of our players’

The Sean Payton era is not off to an ideal start. The new Broncos head coach is off to a 1-4 record, Denver’s worst five game start since 2019, and the team has the worst scoring defense in the NFL, allowing 36.2 points per game. Given these circumstances, it would be understandable for the Broncos to be open for business before the trade deadline on Oct. 31. However, that’s not necessarily the case. 

“We’re not looking to do business with any of our players,” Payton said Tuesday when asked about where the team stands ahead of the trade deadline. “That doesn’t prevent teams from calling at times. We just — you pick the phone up, but that’s kind of where it’s at.”

Actions speak louder than words, and the Broncos just shipped out defensive lineman Randy Gregory, whom the team signed to a five-year, $70 million contract in 2022, to the San Francisco 49ers along with a 2024 seventh-round draft pick in exchange for a 2024 sixth-round selection. That calls into question the status of some other players the Broncos have invested in over the past few years like outside linebacker Frank Clark (signed to a one-year, $5.5 million contract this past offseason) and wide receivers Jerry Jeudy (the 15th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft) and Courtland Sutton (signed to a four-year, $60.8 million contract extension in 2021). 

Even though Payton said the Broncos aren’t looking to do business, he already mentioned having an eye on 2024. That’s the kind of language that will have teams reaching to make deals over the next few weeks. 

“We’ve got a good handle on this current roster and our vision for the roster a year from now,” Payton said. “That’s the part about improving and getting better. Until you just said it, I wouldn’t have known it was three weeks away. Three weeks seems like an eternity right now.”  

The Broncos’ next three games include two matchups with the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs — a team they have lost to 15 times in a row — in Weeks 6 and 8, with a home game against the Packers sandwiched in between those contests in Week 7. The outcome of the next three weeks will certainly have a major impact on the NFL’s trade deadline.