I believe Payton left for one reason and one reason only that he shared with one of his very best friends, Jay Glazer, a year earlier through his actions. According to Glazer, Payton was simply burned out and wanted a break from coaching altogether. He didn't leave to get away from the Saints. He left to get away from coaching in general for a time. During the offseason prior to the 2021 season, according to Glazer, Payton seemed to have lost the usually fire that he had always seen. Perhaps the pressures of the first year of the COVID pandemic was having a toll. Regardless, Glazer said he knew that Payton was seriously considering at least a temporary retirement following that season.

I think Sean left for several reasons, I will speculate that one of those reasons is roster issues and not issues with his coaches. There are glaring holes that need to be addressed, and no easy way of filling a lot of these. I think this year is a perfect example, the Saints probably had a great opportunity to unload a few veterans before the trade deadline, and if I am interpreting the salary cap correctly they couldn't have done it even if they wanted to. So from what I gather, the Saints have limited short term draft capital, a salary cap situation that is still very bad and will likely take several more years to dig out of, an aging roster with players they are stuck with, and no franchise QB anywhere to be found.

The Saint have six picks in the upcoming draft, only one fewer than the norm. They also have close to $120 million in convertible cap that they intentionally built into their existing contracts via base salaries and roster/workout bonuses. They have no plan to "dig out" of anything. The whole financial strategy involves transference of current costs into future years where those costs make up a smaller percentage of the ever expanding cap. There are some good interviews out there with Khai Harley, the architect of the plan. That strategy can't change as long as either Loomis and/or Harley are still with the Saints and could very well continue after they leave as more and more teams are moving toward this model.

Sure, the Saints do indeed have six picks in the upcoming draft, missing is the big one.

I get the strategy Loomis and Harley is using, and have seen the interviews too. The flaw as I see it is being committed to a player way after their prime. At some point the cap does need to be cleaned up to avoid this, and/or to make another run at a championship. Michael Thomas may be a great example of what I am talking about. If the Saints wanted to move on from him for any reason, it looks like 2023 is the very first opportunity to do so. It appears if they would have tried to move on from him sooner that it would have created an issue of having to clear even more cap space to move him. The same appears true for guys like Cam Jordan, Andrus Peat, Alvin Kamara, and several others. I am not trying to say the Saints were looking to move on from any of them, but if there is a need to move on they simply could not do it. I do agree with your point that several other teams may or will start using this approach to the cap, but it needs to be used with extreme caution or it could easily sink a franchise.

Can't Guard Mike is gonna cost you quite a bit of coin to let go in 2023.

And I know, you can "cut him" in June but the cap needs to cap compliant in March.

But hey, I'm just a couch GM/cap guru

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