When the Denver Broncos host the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6, it appears there will be some old scores to settle.
In a recent interview with Graham Bensinger, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald revealed that Broncos coach Sean Payton accused the Seahawks of cheating during the 2024 season.
With the teams set to play in the 2024 season opener, Macdonald said that he and his staff scouted around 100 plays posted by fans on social media from Broncos training camp.
“It’s like public knowledge. So we took like 100 plays from their training camp,” Macdonald said in the interview.
The Seahawks went on to win the game, which was Macdonald’s first as an NFL head coach.
But according to Macdonald, Payton got word of their tactics later in the 2024 season and accused the Seahawks of cheating.
He even likened it to the New England Patriots’ Spygate scandal and the sign-stealing scandal at the University of Michigan.
“He got wind of it, and he lost it,” Macdonald said. “He called (Seahawks general manager) John (Schneider). He basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot, like Spygate type of thing. And I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my God, we didn’t cheat.’ He thought it was a Michigan thing, or we had a plant.
“So we had to counter with him to say, ‘Hey, look, if you come out with this, we’re going to sue you, because it’s not true.’ … He backed down, but he was killing John, our GM.”
Macdonald said things calmed down at the end of the season.
“The season ends, and he let it go,” Macdonald said. “But it was like the Cold War. He’s like, ‘I’m gonna hit the button, I’m gonna hit the button.’ We’re like, ‘Well, we’re gonna hit the button.’ So none of us hit the button.”
Payton and the Broncos ended up making the playoffs that season as a wild-card, while Macdonald's Seahawks fell just short.
Both teams are considered serious contenders in 2026, with the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks off to a 2-0 start and the Broncos sitting at 1-1.
