When asked at the end of an interview if he had any final words to say about Sean Payton, Bill Parcells said, “Just win, Sean.”

Payton has been doing plenty of that since he took his first job as a head coach with New Orleans in 2006 following three seasons as an assistant under Bill Parcells in Dallas. His 15 years with the Saints included winning Super Bowl XLIV in the 2009 season. Payton is now entering his fourth season as Denver’s head coach after taking the Broncos to the AFC Championship Game last January.

Over the past two decades, Payton has been getting regular advice from Parcells, a Hall of Fame coach who led the New York Giants to Super Bowl wins in the 1986 and 1990 seasons. Parcells said they talk “usually once a week” while Payton said it’s “probably every two weeks.”

Regardless of the exact timing, the two are on the phone a lot.

“He’s been a longtime friend of mine and I have a very high regard for him and I want to help him in any way I can,” Parcells, 85, told The Denver Gazette from his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

For Payton, 62, the relationship has been special.

“He’s like a father to me, so that mentorship and having that soundboard has been important,’’ he said.

Payton was just shy of 40 when he joined the Cowboys in 2003 for what would be a three-year stint under Parcells as assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach. He had instant success when taking over the Saints in 2006, leading them to the NFC Championship Game that season.

Payton enters this season with a career NFL coaching record of 184-108, including 32-19 with the Broncos. He ranks 13^th in league history in wins and a 10-victory season in 2026 would put him in ninth place.

“He’s established himself as one of the top coaches certainly now in the league and among the history of the league, he certainly deserves a place to be mentioned,” Parcells said. “I think it’s just a product of his hard work and dedication and willingness to put forth the effort. It’s not an easy job.”

With a 21-17 win at Philadelphia last October, Payton passed Parcells on the NFL’s all-time win list. Parcells, who coached the Giants from 1983-90, New England from 1993-96, the New York Jets from 1997-99 and the Cowboys from 2003-06, went 172-130-1 in 19 seasons.

“I’m happy about that,” Parcells of being passed by Payton. “It’s nice to see people that you’ve been working with in the past have success.”

This season, though, will be different for Payton. After calling offensive plays in his first 18 seasons, he has relinquished those duties to new offensive coordinator Davis Webb. Payton named Webb, Denver’s quarterbacks coach the past three seasons, to the position in February to replace the fired Joe Lombardi.

“Being a head coach is a very time-consuming thing and you have different aspects of the operation to consider every day and sometimes when people can give you a little relief off a big responsibility like the play calling, it’s really in your best interest to do it,’’ Parcells said.

Parcells, though, expects Payton to still have a notable influence on the offense when Denver’s regular season gets underway Sept. 14 at Kansas City.

“I think Sean will be deeply involved in everything, including the game and the management of the game and I don’t think him just giving up the play calling, he’s not divorcing himself from that,” Parcells said. “He’s going to be involved somehow.”

Once the season starts, Parcells will be a phone call away if Payton has anything he wants to discuss about his different role.

“We talk about what’s relevant,” Payton said of their time on the phone. “In other words, if I spoke to him during the draft, it would be draft discussion. If I spoke to him during training camp, it would be roster, start of the season, personnel and all those things.”

Since arriving in Denver in 2023, Payton has mentioned numerous times in press conferences lessons he learned from Parcells.

“It’s very flattering,” Parcells said of all the references. “But that’s what I was supposed to do. He was one of my coaches and it’s my responsibility to give him all the information that I can in order that he goes on to his own place (as a head coach). I’m happy that he has taken some of that. I’m always here to help him.”

Parcells was head coach at Air Force in 1978, leading the Falcons to a 3-8 mark before he joined the NFL in 1979 as the Giants’ defensive coordinator. Four years later, he became an NFL head coach for the first time.

“There were some people when I was a young coach that took the time to talk to me specifically about being a head coach and the things I needed to be thinking about and getting ready to put in place if that circumstance ever came to fruition,” Parcells said about wanting to dispense advice now. “And I’ve tried to do that with my assistant coaches any time they’re interested in talking about a head coaching position and some other things that we think are important. I’m always happy to do it because that’s my responsibility.”

Bill Belichick is the most successful coach to have once been an assistant under Parcells. Leading New England from 2000-23, he won six Super Bowls. Belichick is in his second season as North Carolina’s coach, with the Tar Heels having defeated TCU 15-10 last Saturday in the opener in Ireland.

Along with Payton, Parcells has another former assistant active as an NFL head coach in Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles.

“The guys that are head coaches like Todd Bowles and Sean, I’m always particularly interested in how they’re doing,” Parcells said. “And now even Bill Belichick has got me watching North Carolina. I watched the whole game (against the Horned Frogs on television).”

Parcells spends half the year in Saratoga Springs, where he raises racehorses. When it starts getting cold there in the late fall, he heads to his home in South Florida.

Parcells hasn’t attended a Broncos game since Payton took over but said he would if convenient to where he is at the time. He said he would welcome seeing the Broncos play at MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets, but that he already will have gone to Florida when Denver faces the Jets there Dec. 6.

Parcells, though, regularly tunes into the Broncos on television.

“I’m watching the games with interest and hoping (Payton) wins and trying to see what they’re doing strategically,” Parcells said. “I’m looking at it like a more-than-knowledgeable fan.”

Parcells could be watching Broncos games for a lot longer. Payton recently signed a new five-year contract that runs through the 2030 season.

“I have no idea,” Parcells said about how long he believes Payton will continue to coach. “When you’re starting to get to those ages, you don’t know what’s going to happen or how you’re going to feel, but I think he loves football. It’s what he sees himself as.”

Parcells was 65 when he last coached. But he did return to the NFL to serve as Miami’s executive vice president of football operations from 2008—10 before retiring from football for good at age 69.

“I was the poster boy for not being able to give it up, so I retired like three times and I came back,” said Parcells, who was a television analyst when he took time off from the NFL. “So whatever (Payton) does is his choice and I’m sure he’ll base it on how he feels at the time.”

In the meantime, Parcells will be looking for Payton to “just win.”