Sean Payton convinced Chris Banjo to jump from playing to coaching

Chris Banjo doesn’t remember the exact date in February, but he knows his phone rang at 9:41 p.m. on a Saturday.

On a double date with his wife, best friend and best friend’s wife, Banjo may well have ignored the incoming call but for the name that popped up.

Sean Payton.

“This will kind of tell you a bit about Sean himself,” Banjo told The Post. “We’ve texted a bit here and there over the years, but the fact that I got a call from him, the first thing that went through my mind is, ‘Damn, am I in trouble? What did I do?’”

No trouble this time, but the longtime NFL player still couldn’t have guessed what his former head coach in New Orleans had on his mind.

“I answered the call and he goes, ‘I’m in Denver right now building my coaching staff and you’re one of the guys that comes to mind in terms of me wanting to build this thing going forward.’

“I was kind of in shock. Coaching was nothing that ever crossed my mind at the time.”

Banjo didn’t know for sure whether he was going to try to play an 11th season after spending the past four in Arizona, but he hadn’t closed the door on the possibility. And he certainly hadn’t considered trading in cleats and a helmet for a whistle.

He told Payton he needed a couple of days to consider his options. Somebody calls you out of the blue and asks you to consider a brand new direction in life, you might want to sleep on it, too.

“Anybody that knows Coach Payton knows he’s extremely persistent, no matter what it is, when he has a goal,” Banjo said. “So 9:41 on Saturday night, and I get a call the next morning about 11:30, like, ‘What do you think?’ Then we got into more depth and detail about what the opportunity may look like, how he saw me as a player and what he saw as my potential as a coach.”

Payton had reasons beyond general impatience to put on the full-court press.

“We really had a really good experience with Chris when he came from Green Bay to New Orleans,” he said earlier this year. “I knew that he was still playing at Arizona, but he was at that stage in his career where he was looking forward maybe to getting into coaching. … Normally, I would say that it takes two years. There is a transition that it takes for players, where they go their way and then they want to get back in.”

Well, maybe he wasn’t exactly looking to get into coaching, but Payton identified a skill set and mentality he had interest in helping develop. And he talked Banjo into it.

“If any other coach I played for — it wasn’t that many — had given me that call, I probably wouldn’t have,” Banjo said. “But it just shows the amount of respect I have for Coach Payton. If he believes that I have the ability to be a good coach in the NFL, I have to, bare minimum, try it. I was excited to jump on board.”

Payton had a similar impact on Davis Webb, who threw 40 passes for the New York Giants in Week 18 of the 2022 season and seven weeks later had been hired as the Broncos quarterbacks coach.

The transition directly from playing to coaching isn’t typical — notable previous examples include Jim Harbaugh and Jason Garrett — but Banjo and Webb find themselves in similar situations on Denver’s staff. Banjo is working alongside two longtime special teams coaches in coordinator Ben Kotwica and senior assistant Mike Westhoff, widely considered to be one of the best special teams minds in NFL history. Webb, meanwhile, has Payton himself, veteran offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and passing game coordinator John Morton to learn from. All of them have experience working with quarterbacks, and all have been offensive coordinators in the NFL.

Essentially, both of the direct-to-coaching pupils on Payton’s staff find themselves in incubators, surrounded by longtimers who can help smooth out the learning curve and also, perhaps, expedite development.

So sure, there’s a plan in place. Even still, this all took some getting used to.

“It took a while for it to hit me when guys called me ‘Coach,’” Banjo said. “For a while I didn’t answer because I just assumed they weren’t talking to me, but I’m now starting to get in the rhythm. It’s interesting — Zach Allen was my teammate less than a year ago. We played in a game together in January.”

Banjo played for defensive coordinator Vance Joseph the past four years. He’s played for Westhoff in the past. He was teammates with offensive line coach Zach Strief and others in New Orleans.

Broncos fullback Michael Burton was teammates with Banjo during the 2019 offseason and got quite the surprise when he came to Denver on a free-agent visit before signing on to reunite with Payton this spring.

“I didn’t know that until I got here for my visit and I was like, ‘Oh, this is awesome,’” Burton said. “To have a special teams guy who made a living in this league on special teams is amazing. … He’s been a special teams demon in this league for a decade, so he’s another great resource to have. Not only is he great as a coach and in coaching it, but he has that experience as a player. He’s been a really great resource.”

Banjo played 81% of the Cardinals’ special teams snaps last year. He may well have found an opportunity to cover kickoffs and punts again this fall. Instead, he’s watching Burton and others do it, coaching them and considering where this career second act might lead.

“I’m taking it all in stride,” he said. “It’s been fun, it’s been a great opportunity. It’s been challenging for sure, but I’m grateful I have the group of guys and circle of guys I have upstairs as coaches to help me along the way.”

Chris Banjo: “Special teams demon”

Before being named an assistant special teams coach with the Broncos, Banjo made a name for himself as a reliable contributor in the third phase of football. Here’s a look at his numbers over a 10-year playing career that included stops in Green Bay, New Orleans and Arizona:

Davis Webb’s star-studded QB journey

Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb has crossed paths with some of the best to ever take snaps at the college and pro levels. Here’s a look at his journey from Texas Tech to Denver:

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