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How do you reflect on the past two seasons?
“I think your standards continue to get high and are high for what we want to accomplish. Just shortly after a loss like that, it’s hard to maybe come up with a summary. Certainly there were a lot of good things about the season, and yet you have that pit in your stomach with the way it ended so that’s difficult. Having had a season where it ended with a win, where your last game was a win, you know what that’s like and for everyone else in the postseason that’s not the case. That being said, we aspire to win championships here. That’s our goal when the season starts. It’s our last goal – win the division, put ourselves in the best position possible with seeding, and then win a Super Bowl. We’ll continue to strive for that. That’s what we set out to do.”

How challenging is it to have Drew Brees and Carl Nicks, two of the best at their positions, being free agents following the end of the league year and knowing you’re going to have to spend a lot of money to get them back?
“I think each year the puzzle is different. Last year it was heading into potentially a lockout season with 27 free agents. This season certainly we have some real good players that are potentially free agents. I think every year there’s that challenge. It’s something that Mickey (Loomis) and I will spend a lot of time on. He’s already been working on it closely with Khai (Harley) and Ryan Pace and Rick Reiprish. I think we do a good job in that regard. Part of it is really spending time on the evaluations and looking closely at your team and trying to look at ways where despite however many wins you just had, where can we improve and where can we be better a year from now? I think that technically begins now, but it’s already a work kind of in progress. Certainly there are challenges though, and we recognize that.”

Do you feel like you guys have a good chance of bringing those two players back?
“I think so. They’re potentially expensive because they’re good football players and are guys that have come into our program, developed, played well and been a part of a lot of wins. I think we’ve been fairly judicious in regards to what we’ve done. We’ve been smart and practical, and yet each year we’ve been able to look to improve. That’s kind of the approach we take.”

Do you have any type of timetable for when you want to get the Drew Brees deal done?
“That’s a good question. I think if that question were asked to Mickey (Loomis) or Drew right now, I don’t think there would be any timetable. Certainly the sooner the better, and yet I think this time away here initially after the season ended will be good for everyone to kind of remove yourself from the emotion of the season. I think it will be something that would certainly be on our priority list.”

Full article.
Payton Recaps 2011 Season

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Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

All little common sense goes a long way.