Sean Payton mindful of Cam Newton's 'benchmark season,' he tells NFL Network
 

Cam Newton was voted No. 1 on NFL Network's Top 100 Players of 2016 list, and you better believe New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton is paying attention to the NFL MVP and the NFC South rival Carolina Panthers.

"In your division, the first objective is 'how do we get past these guys?' Because that's where we want to be," Payton said this week on NFL Network's "Total Access."

Sean Payton mindful of Cam Newton's 'benchmark season,' he tells NFL Network | NOLA.com

Re: Sean Payton mindful of Cam Newton's 'benchmark season,' he tells NFL Network
 

Best Way to get past Cam, Beat Him. Easy Enough.

Re: Sean Payton mindful of Cam Newton's 'benchmark season,' he tells NFL Network
 

It's not only Newton, Carolina has a good D.

Re: Sean Payton mindful of Cam Newton's 'benchmark season,' he tells NFL Network
 

True, but we had them dead to rights both games last year but didn't finish them. We gotta finish better this year.

Re: Sean Payton mindful of Cam Newton's 'benchmark season,' he tells NFL Network
 

The NFC South has been built to beat the Saints and they've been successful mostly. It's time to build to beat the Panties again. We're rebuilding very nicely but we need to keep focusing on our O-line.