Sean Payton played coy after New Orleans’ 2007 preseason finale.

Then a second-year head coach, Payton had an undrafted running back who had impressed in training camp and surged in preseason games.

On that late August night, Pierre Thomas racked up 163 all-purpose yards, including 81 rushing yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.

“He ran well, picked up some big (first) downs for us, and he’s pretty consistent,” Payton said, according to the Associated Press at the time, which called the head coach “noncommittal” on Thomas’ roster status.

What Payton wasn’t letting on that night is that the Saints pretty much knew they’d keep Thomas and perhaps also knew that meant waiving fourth-round draft pick Antonio Pittman.

So many years later, Payton, now the Broncos’ first-year head coach, considers this particular anecdote instructive to his roster-building ethos.

“By the time we were halfway through camp, it was evident that Pierre was playing really well,” Payton said earlier this month. “You can look at it like, ‘Well, did you make a mistake with the fourth-round pick? Or did you find a free agent, maybe, that is better?’ I think the latter would be the case.

“We ended up keeping Pierre and waiving the draft pick. Sometimes that happens. I think it’s trusting your eye throughout the evaluation process.”

The evaluation process on the 2023 Broncos and every other NFL team arrives at a critical juncture Tuesday afternoon when clubs must reduce from 90-player camp rosters to their initial 53-man configuration.

That means up to 1,184 players will be jettisoned around the league, though 16 per team can find work Wednesday on practice squad deals.

The Broncos’ initial 53-man roster will be only a snapshot in time. They will almost assuredly make moves as soon as the next day. Some players who make the team could be on the move mid-week. Some cuts may bounce right back onto the roster due to injury.

The NFL roster is in a constant state of flux, and Payton’s first year here might end up being particularly fluid because of Denver’s overall lack of depth and the search for players who can help now and in the future.

But Tuesday is still a watershed day on the league calendar and Payton always comes back to one phrase, one goal, one message for his coaching staff, Denver’s personnel department and his players: “The right 53.”

Here’s how he sets about getting there.

“I didn’t say the best”

Scott Shanle remembers Payton standing in front of the full 90-man Saints before roster cuts and telling them he wanted everybody to make the team.

“But that’s not the reality, so we’re going to choose the right 53,” Payton said, according to the longtime New Orleans linebacker. “The right 53. I didn’t say the best, I didn’t say the most athletic. It’s the right 53 that fits this team.”

That’s how you end up taking a guy who plays a particular role, even a small one, exactly right instead of a bigger or faster, more talented generalist. A puzzle piece instead of a shiny square peg. It’s how you end up jettisoning a fourth-round running back for an undrafted free agent.

“We were all like, ‘it’s not even close, Pierre’s the better player,’” Shanle remembered. “A lot of teams don’t do stuff like that, so when (Payton) did, we were like, ‘Ok this guy is serious. This guy, his No. 1 goal is he wants to win.’

“There’s no contract that gets in the way, there’s no favors that are getting in the way. He’s doing what he preaches.”

Payton earlier in this camp said he talked to the Broncos’ young players about finding “advocates” in their quest to make the roster. Coaches and personnel staffers evaluate and see traits and grade players constantly, but sometimes players know just as quickly if a guy can play.

“Our linebackers coach was Joe Vitt and he’d come in and say, ‘What do you guys think about this guy? What do you think about this Pierre Thomas kid?’” Shanle said. “‘Man, he’s really good, Joe.’ He’d take that feedback back to Sean and you really felt like you had a say in how your team was being formed and what guys were being formed around you because they gathered that information.

“A lot of teams are segmented – it’s the front office, the coaches, the players and just deal with it. Sean doesn’t run teams like that.”

Quizzes and tests

Most players do have to make the team, though.

The Broncos staff meets twice a week over the course of training camp to talk through players, what positional depth looks like, what they might need on the waiver wire and who stands where in the pecking order.

The hours spent in that area will only intensify between the conclusion of Denver’s preseason finale against the Rams late Saturday night and the Tuesday afternoon cutdown deadline.

“Someone asked me the other day, ‘Is it more game or is it more practice?’” Payton said. “Honestly, I think it’s the whole body of work. When we were in school, we had quizzes and we had tests, and the (preseason) games would be a test. If you messed around on a bunch of quizzes like I used to, then the test is important because you didn’t do well on the quizzes.

“It’s all part of the equation.”

So, too, are other factors, like health and reliability.

Roman Harper played nine total years for Payton. Over time he progressed from prove-it to proven, but the evaluation is never fully complete.

“As I got older, it would be, ‘Hey, Coach (Bill) Parcells would always say with older guys, I don’t have to see it out of them every day, but I’ve got to see it out of them some days,’” Harper told The Post. “I missed a tackle one day early in a season and he’d come to me and say – whether he meant it or it was just my day to be that guy – ‘Hey, Coach Parcells would always say a safety that can’t tackle is a safety that doesn’t have a job.’”

One thing Harper had going for him: After a rookie-year injury in 2006, he played in 15 or 16 games seven of his other eight seasons in New Orleans.

“My boy, Usama Young, stretched next to me in the stretch line and (Payton would) call him a china doll because a china doll’s the doll on your mom’s cabinet that you can never touch,” Harper said.”Or like the high-priced Ferrari that, I bring it out of the garage once every three months, drive it hard one time and now I’ve got to put him in the shop back on the shelf. You don’t want to be that guy.

“You want to be the reliable Ford truck or Chevy, whatever it is. The Honda Accord that can roll for 230,000 miles.”

Broncos players

A big group of Broncos have spent the past several weeks trying to be Honda Accords.

This year maybe more than most, the bubble is tough to evaluate because it’ll be up to Payton’s eye whether he wants undrafted rookie Alex Palczewski as a backup tackle or veteran Isaiah Prince. Does Denver take an extra running back because Jaleel McLaughlin brings an element to the offense no other player on the roster does and newcomer Dwayne Washington is a plus special teams player? Or an extra defensive back because Tremon Smith and Delarrin Turner-Yell fit that bill? Is Elijah Garcia a nice camp story or an ascending young talent? Do the Broncos think rookie tight end Nate Adkins or fourth-year man Albert Okwuegbunam is more likely to get claimed on waivers and does that matter if choosing between them?

Not only that, but if Payton and general manager George Paton consider Denver’s overall roster depth to be thin, they could be active on the waiver wire as other teams trim at the deadline.

“We look at the qualified players to make a roster,” Payton said. “You might say, ‘Hey, there are 48 total (qualified) players, and we need to find player 49, 50, 51, 52, 53.’ In other words, I think it’s a mistake if you point to a number (for a position), fill it and don’t pay attention to whether you think it should be filled. In other words, are they good enough to fill that number? I’ve kind of stayed away from saying, ‘The receiver number would be this.’

“There are some thresholds certainly, and some minimums.”

You can’t have four wide receivers and 15 defensive backs. But before Jerry Jeudy’s hamstring injury Thursday, perhaps Denver would have considered starting with just five receivers in order to get an extra body at another position. Maybe they’ll go light at tight end knowing they have fullback Michael Burton as versatile player so that they can take an extra defensive lineman while D.J. Jones and Mike Purcell get up to speed.

Bottom line: Don’t cut a contributing-quality player at a deep position in order to fill a number at another position.

“You have to look at it relative to the whole league and if you feel like they can help us win,” Payton said.

That’s the ultimate goal. Setting the initial 53-man roster is only a waypoint on that path, but it’s an important one.

“There has to be a vision,” Payton explained Wednesday. “The special teams come into play, the right type of player and teammate. All those things matter when you’re building a program.

“Everyone this time of the year understands what’s at stake.”

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