After the 2020 season, Saints fans bid adieu to one franchise icon in quarterback Drew Brees. Now that the 2021 season is over, will New Orleans also have to say goodbye to the man who came to town with Brees 16 years ago and helped reverse the franchise’s fortunes?
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, head coach Sean Payton has not yet told the Saints that he is definitely returning for the 2022 campaign. He has been on vacation for over a week, and it sounds as though he is using that time to ponder his NFL future. Rapoport adds that Payton has “gone dark” on several people close to him.
Payton’s desire to go off the grid for a moment seems to have been borne out of his need to recharge after what his confidants tell Rapoport was “an incredibly challenging and difficult season” for him. New Orleans dealt with more than its fair share of injuries in 2021, and Payton was forced to cycle through four different passers in the first year of the post-Brees era. The QB situation was particularly taxing, and it has forced Payton to reevaluate his immediate future.
If he elects not to return to the New Orleans sidelines, Payton would likely not coach another club in 2022, per Rapoport. Instead, as Albert Breer of SI.com suggests, the 58-year-old may choose to follow Brees’ path and become a talking head somewhere, as TV networks have reportedly been gearing up to make a run at him (Twitter link).
Or, he could take a break from football entirely and rejoin the head coaching ranks in 2023 (though in such a scenario, a return to the Saints probably would not be in the cards, and New Orleans would end up trading him to another club). It’s likely that any team in need of an HC at that time would have Payton at or near the top of its list of preferred candidates, and a television opportunity will probably always be there for him whenever he chooses to retire from coaching for good. Indeed, Rapoport says that Payton is not considering official retirement at this point, and that if he steps away, it would only be for a year.
This is far from the first time that these types of rumors have surrounded Payton, who has publicly scoffed at them in the past. But Katherine Terrell, the Saints’ beat reporter for ESPN, suggests that there is real substance to this report (Twitter link). While Terrell believes Payton will be back in New Orleans in 2022, she concedes it is a situation to keep an eye on.
Payton is under contract through 2024 and is one of the league’s highest-paid coaches. It would no doubt be difficult for him to leave the city where he has built a terrific legacy, but it’s worth mentioning that the Saints will once again have an unenviable salary cap situation and do not have an obvious means of adding a championship-caliber QB to the roster. Perhaps Payton will decide that cutting ties now, while his stock is still as high as it can be, is the most prudent course of action.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, who has landed a head coaching interview with the Bears, would perhaps be the Saints’ top choice to replace Payton. However, the club would have to conduct a complete search, not only for its own benefit, but to comply with Rooney Rule requirements. And with HC interviews around the league already well underway, New Orleans would have a lot of catching up to do.
“Payton was forced to cycle through four different passers.”
Cry me a river. He choose to re-sign Jameis Winston, bring in Trevor Siemian, draft Ian Book, and give all sorts money to Taysom Hill, his pet-project gadget player who can’t throw for more than 20 yards.
But was he choose to USE all of these passers? He just got a lot of these guys as insurance.
Without Payton it’s rebuild time for New Orleans.
Rumor on the street, Payton is going to Dallas.
Rumor on the street, you can’t read.
He’s not referring to this article which failed to mention the Dallas rumor, which is real.
Says desperate Dallas fans and media that want McCarthy gone.
But Jerry would have to pay McCarthy to leave, give Saints draft compensation and then pay Payton to win with what’s now an aging team
It’s funny you think 15m for 3 years is something Jerry wouldn’t pay. That’s chump change to him.
Honestly, can’t see it. Jerry is way too involved with the Cowboys, and I have a hard time believing Payton would want to deal with that. It has that Jimmy Johnson/Jerry Jones issue feel to it.
He’s not going anywhere. The Saints will voodoo the cap like they do, Loomis and Payton will bring in a comparable qb, and the Saints will again be in the mix. Look at what they accomplished this year with those 4 “qbs”, no receivers, a banged up OL, and a defense and special teams that continually competed at a high level. He’s not going anywhere…
Would love to see the Saint’s trade picks for Tomlin!
Wouldn’t it just be awesome if you could just trade for a coach? Then at least you’d get compensation when your coordinator leaves.
WAIT WHAAAAAAAT? NFL teams can actually trade coaches! I did not know that!
I think Jimmy would be a good fit under Payton
Jerry Jones really badly wants Payton
Payton will have options this year at quarterback. There are going to be several capable veterans that will likely be available, so finding someone to tide the Saints over until a new long-term starter is found shouldn’t be hard. Those options expand significantly if we think that New Orleans could trade a draft pick (such as Minshew?). I still get the feeling that Rodgers and Adams would have New Orleans as the best option to continue their careers together if they chose to-the Saints could not possibly afford them, but Loomis has demonstrated over the years that the cap is really just a suggestion, so I never count him out.
With that said, if Payton walked, I wouldn’t be shocked. This year was very tough compared to his years of having a reliable elite starter in Brees. Not only that, and perhaps more impactful, he had a mess at WR and injuries/COVID to complicate a season that ordinarily could have been used to evaluate the roster. We didn’t expect the world from Hill, but I think Payton expected more from him and the other QBs and assumed that he could manage them to compensate enough. The Michael Thomas crap show was just the icing on the cake. The guy Payton was expecting to step up ended up flexing his diva muscles, making an already thin WR corps nearly empty.
Payton to Dallas has been what a 10 year long rumor?? Maybe longer??
I wouldn’t be surprised if he coached this next year, and then went to Dallas the following season after Jerry fires McCarthy for likely getting nowhere in the playoffs yet again..