Jets’ Randall Cobb, Billy Turner fire back at Sean Payton: ‘F–king bum’
Randall Cobb isn’t paying too much attention to the criticisms lobbed at the Jets and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett by Broncos coach Sean Payton.
Payton, in an interview with USA Today, leveled some blistering shots at Hackett for the job that he did during his lone season as head coach in Denver, along with a not-so-subtle dig at the Jets for trying to dominate the offseason headlines.
The Jets’ receiver called the comments by Payton “pretty soft” during an appearance on ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show” on Thursday and referred to Payton as the “Bountygate coach.”
“Am I surprised? No, not in this day and age,” Cobb said when asked if he was taken aback by Payton’s comments. “As a man, I think it’s pretty soft. Think he’s trying to soften the blow.
“That’s not my team, I’m not worried about them. He can say what he wants to say.”
Cobb played under Hackett when he was the offensive coordinator for the Packers in 2021.
Hackett held the position in Green Bay for three seasons and helped the Packers build the league’s best offense in 2020.
Aaron Rodgers, now the Jets quarterback, won back-to-back NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021 while Hackett was the offensive coordinator.
“I know who Hackett is, I know what he brings to our team,” Cobb said. “I know how he’s going to motivate guys and how he’s going to make the game fun.
“And that’s one of the reasons that I’m here. He’s a big part of the reason I wanted to come to the Jets.”
Hackett was hired by head coach Robert Saleh to take over as offensive coordinator, and he has been credited as a reason why Rodgers wanted to come to New York.
Hackett was fired by the Broncos 15 games into the season after Denver compiled a 4-11 record as Russell Wilson struggled to the worst season of his career.
Blaming Hackett in large part for Wilson’s regression, Payton said, “it might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.”
He then drew comparisons with the Broncos’ offseason in 2022 with the Jets’ this year.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton told USA Today. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much [expletive] time trying to win the offseason — the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.
“We’re not doing any of that. The Jets did that this year. You watch.”
Payton’s comments are sure to add intrigue to the Week 5 matchup between the Jets and Broncos in Denver.
Saleh defended Hackett while not directly focusing on Payton’s criticisms of his offensive coordinator and team.
Cobb wasn’t the only Jets player to take exception to Payton’s comments either.
Offensive tackle Billy Turner had some choice words for the Denver coach in a post on his Instagram story.
“Seems like someone started training camp and is trying to soften the blow after realizing what he’s in for. F–king bum,” Turner wrote while adding the hashtags “childish” and “BountyGate.”
During the radio interview, Cobb also expressed his surprise that things didn’t work out differently for Hackett in Denver last season.
“I was surprised that they only gave less than a year to put in his pieces,” Cobb said. “That’s this business though. That’s this business and that’s the way that it goes.
“You got to take it how you take and move forward.”
