Sean Payton’s New Orleans-to-Denver pipeline could involve a QB in this spring’s draft, too

MOBILE, Ala. — Sean Payton’s spent this week continuing to turn Denver into something resembling New Orleans West.

The Broncos made moves this week to hire two long-time Saints in former offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. and longtime scout Cody Rager.

They join a host of others, from offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi to linebackers coach Joe Vitt to offensive line coach Zach Strief and tight ends coach Declan Doyle to several players on the roster who have ties to the Bayou.

That’s not particularly surprising considering Payton coached there from 2006 to ’21, of course, but it’s notable the additions have barely slowed after the coach’s first year in Denver.

An interesting potential wrinkle: What if Denver decided to make a run at developing a quarterback from New Orleans, too?

That would be Tulane’s Michael Pratt, a Senior Bowl participant who entered the week projected by most as perhaps a Day 2 or early Day 3 pick in April’s draft.

Pratt’s been steady during the first two practices of the week, makes mostly clean, quick decisions, and said he’s learning a lot.

“The coolest thing is just to be out here with this level of competition, the caliber of guys that are out here and everybody’s got the same goal,” Pratt told The Post. “We’re out here, we’re trying to make each other better. We’re trying to get better and soak in as much of this knowledge and everything we can take out of this. That’s what’s really important.”

Pratt played in 46 games over four years starting at Tulane, threw for 9,611 yards and 90 touchdowns against 26 interceptions and improved his completion percentage each year in college, finishing at 65.3% as a senior this past fall.

Pratt’s showed a willingness to pull the ball down and run this week — quarterbacks don’t do much of that here overall — and in his career had 447 carries (2.6 per) and 28 touchdowns on the ground.

Mostly, though, he operates from the pocket and has the kind of tool kit Payton and company might be interested in if they don’t take a quarterback early in the draft.

“The biggest thing I’ve been working on is just getting my footwork right,” Pratt said. “Doing the little things that can increase my accuracy and just the little details that I’ve seen on film and wanted to work on the past couple of weeks and throughout training.

“That’s something that translates into what we’re doing out here.”

Players talk with virtually every team over the course of the Senior Bowl week and then again during the NFL Scouting Combine, so it’s not a surprise Pratt confirmed he’d spoken with the Broncos brass this week. He did say, though, that he’s already had more than one conversation with the organization, acknowledging, “a couple of interviews.”

“They’ve been awesome,” he told reporters Wednesday. “A lot of just background stuff, getting to know the person, support system, all that kind of stuff.”

One thing the Broncos and other teams can see just by looking at Pratt’s history: He helped lift a moribund Tulane program to new heights over his time there.

The Green Wave went 6-6 his first year starting and 2-10 in 2021. The past two seasons, though, the program went 23-5 overall (12-2 in 2022, 11-3 in 2023), a fact Pratt takes pride in.

“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in what the whole team did from the time I came in to the time I’m leaving it.”