Well, when you waste six plus years see-sawing back and forth over what kind of scheme you want to run, drafting personnel for a 4-3 and then for a 3-4 only to go back to a 4-3, you can expect these kind of results...

Firmly believe Payton the Coach would be fine with a strong GM who actually built the team, both personnel and defensive coaches, and who could veto Payton on personnel moves...

Payton gets in trouble when he has too much control with no checks and balances (see Jeff Fisher, Chip Kelly, Chuck Pagano); the only guy that's been able to do it is Bill Belichick, but in the Pat's HC's rare candid interviews, Belichick talks about actually listening, trusting his people...

Agree with the criticism that D.A. is basically a yes man (he's been a HC and he's not HC material) and that's why Payton hasn't seen this defense continue to improve as communication seems to be a problem with D.A. and that's why he has such a strong support staff in place (i.e. Nolan, Nielsen, Glenn)...

The one guy who challenged Payton during his tenure, Williams, well you could tell it was still personal when Payton chose to show the entire playbook against the Rams last season - this was the worst side of Payton I've seen besides the public bullying of Ryan on the sidelines...

With Payton having absolute organizational power and a 92yo, virtually cuckolded, team owner in Benson who's just happy to be alive at this point with his one Superbowl ring, Payton has to show rare self-discipline and continue this path he's started of actually listening and trusting good people he's brought in (i.e. Ireland, Nolan) or he will find himself in the same position as Jim Mora after he lost Jim Finks - ruining the good will he's built with the fans...