SmashMouth

Sean Payton has earned his reputation as one of the NFL's most brilliant offensive minds during 10-plus years as head coach of the New Orleans Saints.

But during that same decade, Payton also has burned through four defensive coordinators. He is now on No. 5, Dennis Allen.

Most of them have been fired because the defense just plain stunk -- it set the NFL record for yards allowed in a season under Steve Spagnuolo in 2012 and set NFL records for TD passes allowed and opponents' passer rating last season before Rob Ryan was fired in November.



Other times there have been some personality clashes -- such as with Gregg Williams, who helped lead the Saints to a Super Bowl in 2009. And Ryan burned some bridges on his way out, complaining that Payton and Saints management tried to force a defensive scheme on him that he didn't agree with.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly how much blame falls on the shoulders of Payton himself, how much falls on the front office and how much falls on each individual defensive coordinator.

But if chemistry has anything to do with the equation, then Allen should have the best chance of success yet.


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