BakoSaint

I thought this interview was interesting:

https://sports.yahoo.com/sean-payton...151248570.html

Payton says he went to Denver because of his belief in the people there at the top of the food chain, the ownership and GM. He believes he has good instincts with that.

He says that gives you a chance, and the only thing that is a guarantee is you don't have a chance if things at the top of the organization are not right, they can still beat you on a sunday, but if they are dysfunctional at the top you have no chance in the long run. He says that dysfunction is the case for "a lot" of teams in the league. He goes on to talk about having the right people in the building, not just players but everyone, and the attention to detail.

All of this makes me wonder whether or not he is talking about the Saints among those "a lot" of teams. Payton has person experience with only a limited number of organizations. He could be talking about the Cowboys. It would be very hard for him to be talking about the Eagles or Giants who he hasn't worked for in over 20 years. Payton somehow went out of his way to retire from the Saints and immediately start gauging interest in other jobs. He also was prepared to be traded to the Cowboys and reportedly wanted the trade, until Loomis could not pull the trigger due to the timing being too close to the Pelicans trading Anthony Davis. But all this talk of having instincts about a good group at the top, wanting to go to such a team, and engineering his own exit from New Orleans makes me think Payton may be talking about problems he had with ownership and/or executive management at the top of the Saints organization, perhaps after Tom Benson's death or as Tom Benson aged and became less involved.

I am skeptical that Payton just left for a change of scenery. The Broncos are a rough bit of scenery with all their traded away draft picks and their expensive seemingly declining QB. Plenty of head coaches like Belichick, Tomlin, Shula, etc have been legends with one team, and Payton could have been one. All this talk of how important it is to work with the right people at the top of the food chain makes it seem more likely to me that maybe he felt he was working with the wrong people here. After all, if so many teams have dubious ownership/management, and that is the key for a coach to win, why would Payton have wanted out if he had that special rare thing he is talking about here? Why risk ending up in that situation, unless you are already in it?

Also, Payton is smart enough to know somebody may read into it this way. He could easily have added praise for the ownership/GM in New Orleans while praising Denver's, to add credence to his comments as a coach of 241 games for the Saints and 0 so far with Denver, but he didn't.

EDIT ALSO: To be fair, I think its 50/50 whether Payton is talking about the Saints ownership/management here. And if he is, I don't know if his ideas are better or not. Maybe he is just trashing a bunch of teams like the Browns and Raiders who he never worked for and the teams that passed him up in the hiring cycle. Maybe he is mad the Saints didn't do more to trade up for Maholmes or stack the roster his last few years. But maybe also he had more nuanced grievances with Loomis, Gayle, etc and felt they were headed in a wrong direction. Maybe he wanted financial investments the team would not make in training and technology. Maybe he was a good soldier and put a brave face on moves he disagreed with. Maybe some examples of not paying 'attention to detail' would be stuff like constantly misdiagnosing injuries and signing a player to a big contract without getting a medical update on their heart condition.

jnormand

He sure could be. And your last comment may be spot on. But we won’t know anytime soon. Interesting take.

SmashMouth

Probably more spot on than many realize. It's a certainty SP wanted to GTFOH a few years before... for many reasons we can speculate on. We'll see in the end what happens in the next few years as clarity unfolds.

The Dude

Idk, Payton said on numerous occasions how much respect he had for the Bensons and the organization. He also had a huge hand in what players they brought in, injury risk or not. The latter of which was partially in an effort to save money due to salary cap manipulation. I believe he had a part in that as well. Helped him get the toys he wanted.
I think Covid, officiating, Goodell and other factors within the NFL as a whole just made him want to do a hard reset.
The crime and overall state of the city didn't help.

"Where life had no value, death, sometimes, had its price. That is why the bounty killers appeared."

Boston Saint

I’d find it hard to believe that he’d win a SB with a team then have doubts about their leadership. Producing the offensive success he had with Brees put him on another level of coaching as well. You mention a couple coaches that stayed put but plenty of others like Reid and his main mentor Parcells had success at multiple organizations. It is not surprising that you’d find an angle that bashes Loomis and company.

dizzle88

Not to mention that the same Ownership and GM believed in Payton, when he strung together multiple lackluster seasons.

Regardless, Payton isn't our coach anymore so it really doesn't matter what he has to say or what people "think he's thinking" lol just move on.

SmashMouth

To be fair, that's one of the privileges we have as fans, to be able to opine, even if misguided. It's part of the fun in reality.

Boston Saint

Let’s also not forget that Payton had Vicodin and bountygate scandals under his watch too. It’s not like his leadership as HC wasn’t scandal free.

rezburna

SP is the real prima donna. I got them going 7-10.

Boston Saint

It is, and if I’m being honest with myself, if this thought would’ve come from someone beside bako I’d probably give it a little more merit. He is just so obviously and adamantly against Loomis and Company that anything he writes on the subject I take with a grain of salt. My own feeling I guess.