Written by Andrew Juge at Bloguin
The Saints are knee deep in the worst stretch of the Sean Payton era. While some of you might recall the Bountygate era being worse, the results on the field from that time period pale in comparison. Since a big win on the road at Carolina last season that catapulted the Saints back to a 4-4 record (after starting 1-3) and gave the Saints 1st place in the NFC South, the Saints are a lowly 4-9 which includes a 1-7 home record. One of those 4 wins, mind you, was basically a forfeit by the Tampa Bay Bucs in week 17 in a game they had before giving it away to secure the 1st overall pick. And if you watched any of the 39-17 annihilation in Philadelphia this weekend, the Saints looked like a bad football team at best. Only a narrow overtime win over a Dallas Cowboys team missing Tony Romo, Dez Bryant and Sean Lee has prevented them from being winless in 2015. So it’s fair to say with a declining Drew Brees and an offseason of unloading massive contracts, the Saints are in full rebuild mode as they try to clear out their cap mess. It will be interesting to see how much more change occurs in the upcoming offseason. And will Sean Payton even be around to see a second phase of his tenure beyond Drew Brees? If not, the Saints would be smart to trade him.
If you’re familiar with the Saints organization, you know that general manager Mickey Loomis is the right hand man of owner Tom Benson. Loomis not only runs the Saints, he’s also heavily involved in other business interests of Benson’s, most notably the New Orleans Pelicans. As far as job security goes, Benson will forever remember Loomis as the GM that brought a Super Bowl title to his small market team. More importantly, Benson has been burned by many people he trusted over the years including his own family. So he knows true trust is hard to come by… and Loomis has earned it. Benson’s relationship with Loomis goes beyond any success on the field. Faith in Loomis guiding the Saints through any form of a rebuilding process, right or wrong, is very high – and for that reason there is little to no chance he might lose his job. The same goes for Payton, really. His relationship with both Loomis and Benson is very strong and the two would have ultimate confidence in Payton being the man for the job to take this Saints team back to the playoffs eventually. After all, he’s already turned a losing team into a playoff contender three separate times (2006, 2009 and 2013). The Saints revamped their scouting staff significantly in the offseason, indirectly finger pointing player evaluation as responsible for the recent lack of success. Based on recent drafts, that’s a reasonable stance as only one player remains on the team from the 2014 class. There are more players from the 2006 draft class on the 53 man roster than there are from any other besides 2015. That being said, the revamp has already started in a lot of ways, and a strong 2015 draft class so far suggests the Saints might be on the right path with their new approach. This lends itself to Payton staying and the likelihood of him getting fired regardless of how bad this season gets is low.
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