AsylumGuido

How good exactly is Saints HC Sean Payton as an offensive playcaller?

Will he go down as one of the greatest offensive minds of all time, or is it simply Who Dat Nation propaganda?

By Deuce Windham@RevDeuceWindham Jul 21, 2020, 11:00am CDT

When we think of some of the great head coaches in the game’s history as offensive playcallers Saints Head Coach Sean Payton’s name certainly comes up in regards to recent years of success, but should he be considered one of the greatest offensive minds of all time? It’s easy to look through black and gold colored glasses to immediately say yes but let’s take a look at Payton compared to both himself and to great coaches both past and present.

It can be easy to forget that the Saints aren’t the only team that Payton has called plays for. He was the offensive coordinator under Jim Fassel from 2000 to 2002 and in those three seasons the Giants offense led by Kerry Collins, Tiki Barber, Ron Dayne and a young Jeremy Shockey (and Payton at the helm) New York managed to make the playoffs twice and even to the Super Bowl.

Since 2000 the Giants have has 12 wins or greater in a season twice and one of those years came in Payton’s “rookie” gig as the offensive playcaller. Fun factoid: The backup tight end for the Giants was Dan Campbell who now serves as the tight ends coach for the Saints under Payton. 2000 was also the only season Payton has ever had where his offense didn’t rank in the Top 10, but we’ll talk about that later in the article.

Payton’s success has come from his ability to adapt and grow as a playcaller. Take a look at these two plays. One is from the 2000 New York Giants playbook and the other from the 2011 Saints. Both plays work on the Four Verticals concept, but you can see slight changes in how it’s deployed. The spacing of the receivers is different, the alert calls are changed slightly and even the positioning of the “X-Factors”.





So, while one play is Flank RT YD 22 Trip Seam and one is Gun Empty RT 52 All Go Special H Jerk the core of the plays are the same. They both are using Four Verticals to attack a defense, but as Payton has grown as a playcaller so has his playbook. A more recent example of an alteration to this play would be “X-Cross” where instead of Michael Thomas running the deep go he would cut underneath in a crossing pattern.

This continued success whether with the Giants or the Saints has helped him accrue one of the highest win totals amongst active coaches with their current teams. In fact, Payton has the third highest win total (131) behind Bill Belichick (237) and Mike Tomlin (133).

While it might be a bit early to put in an order for Payton’s bust in Canton the resume is already pretty glowing. He is a Super Bowl champion, a winner of the AP Coach of the Year award, and just might be the most successful offensive mind in NFL history. Let’s start with what coaches in the Hall of Fame currently look like.

Of the twenty-five head coaches currently in the NFL Hall of Fame (including Bill Cower and Jimmy Johnson who are part of the 2020 class) Payton already has more wins than twelve of them. Johnson, while having two Super Bowl titles to his name, only won eighty games and has a lower (55.6% vs 63%) win percentage than Payton. Mark Levy took his team to four Super Bowls (1990-1993 Buffalo Bills) which is incredibly impressive, but he too has a lower win percentage than Payton (56.1%). Keep in mind, we’re comparing Payton to Hall of Fame coaches. This doesn’t diminish what others have accomplished.

What truly sets Payton apart from most of his peers is his consistent success as an offensive play caller. Below is a table showing some of the top offensive minds of all time as well as more recent names like ...

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“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

Rugby Saint II

This is possibly the most informative read on Sean besides his book Home Team which was very revealing of how Payton thinks. This truly brought into focus the general picture and gave me a sharp photograph to look at of his offensive successes.

spkb25

SP is good enough to win one super bowl. No more, no less.

dizzle88

I think Carmichael is better.

In 2011 when Payton broke his leg and gave play calling duties to Carmichael, everyone saw how much the offense took off.

jeanpierre

So the argument is made that he's a superb offensive coordinator; but a Head Coach is responsible for the complete game...

And that's been the criticism of the Saints, not having the complete game...

SmashMouth

How good is he with the rule book? BB schooled him for end of games scenarios. He is directly responsible for two failed SB berths.

Maybe we should go ask the Whole Foods Meat Guy?

RailBoss

The question is:
How good exactly is Saints HC Sean Payton as an offensive playcaller?

I'm wondering how good SP would have been without Drew's input.

When SP was the Giants OC Kerry Collins was his QB and he did manage
to have success there.

jeanpierre

AsylumGuido

Is Payton perfect? No. But he is the best all round head coach we have had Saints history.

jeanpierre

True, but the bar wasn't exactly set high either...