Payton is an offensive genius but a mediocre head coach.

Half of Drew's time here is non winning seasons, and that is totally unacceptable.

Plus the playoff debacles vs the 49ers and Vikings (and Seahawks for that matter). What could have been had we invested in defense, special teams, kicking game, etc. But alas, Payton has been overly consumed with having his high flying offense on display and has largely paid the cost with heart wrenching losses due to terrible support for Brees.

I don't know if I would say mediocre.

Payton has the 5th highest winning percentage of active coaches in the league @ .600.

That's good for 35th in the 98 year history of the NFL. And 7 of the coaches ahead of him only coached for 5 years or less.

Of the 4 active coaches with better overall records, only Belichick has a higher playoff winning percentage.

*Min 50 games coached

See this is non-sequitur because you have many unique factors to consider here...

First, the Saints franchise history only had a five year run of league respect during the Dome Patrol years and even then that team hadn't won a playoff game...

Second, Tom Benson's age made the old man less volatile than previously and he had his ring unlike other comparable owners (i.e. Bud Adams, Bill Bidwill)...

Third, the Payton-era team, despite only six winning seasons in eleven years, has an electric offense and subsequent television and stadium draw...

But what ensured Payton's tenure here was when the league tried to tell Benson how to run his franchise (i.e. fire Payton) - that ensured Payton's tenure...

That is why the only comparison I can see that you could find in NFL history was Don Shula, his '72 Dolphins, and riding out another twenty years with mediocre football...

...and that included an unlikely one year tease appearance in the Superbowl with Marino vs a dominant 49ers team and consuming Marino's career with mediocre team effort...