Saints need a change and it starts with Sean Payton
By Josh Wilson
The New Orleans Saints have fallen to a recent-memory low, and a change is in order with the team’s coaching staff, especially regarding Sean Payton.
Firing Sean Payton (or letting him explore other coaching opportunities, if you want to put it nicely) is not a thought that New Orleans Saints fans would have even entertained at the beginning of this season. But the way this season has gone is perhaps even more surprising, and definitely more unsettling. This is a young team with a revamped roster. This isn’t the 2009 Saints that won a Super Bowl, and it’s definitely not the high-flying Marques Colton and Jimmy Graham Saints that dominated defenses with rebound-like catches for 50+ yards on a gamely basis just a few years ago.
This is a Saints team that hasn’t won a game since November 1st, and that win was not impressive. Yes, Drew Brees and the Saints put up 52 points, proving Brees’ shoulder was just fine, but they let up 49 of their own to the New York Giants. We have to go back to October 4th to find a truly impressive win for the Saints, against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Even here, though, the Saints won against a Tony Romo-less Cowboy team, and had to really fight for it.
There are no truly impressive wins for the Saints this year. Nearly every game they’ve lost was a winnable one.
The real meltdown was this past Sunday, during their Week 12 contest. They lost to the rolling Houston Texans, 24-6, and Brees didn’t throw a single touchdown pass for the first time since November 11, 2012. Adding insult to injury, the Saints were touchdown-less for the first time in 155 straight games, according to Yahoo! Sports.
This fallout is a much bigger picture than just this season. The Saints haven’t won a playoff game since beating the Philadelphia Eagles in a Wild Card game in 2013.
At first, it looked as if this was a youth issue, an issue of players not yet being developed enough to have enough impact on games. And that may still be true, but there is a much larger, increasingly apparent truth with the team, that is that a personnel change needs to occur.
Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was recently fired after another terrible defensive showing this season, but that’s not the end of it. Firing Ryan was supposed to immediately fix something. Granted, firing one man can’t fix all of the woes, but promoting Dennis Allen to the defensive coordinator position was supposed to help the defense. Allen has been the one who packaged the Saints third-down defense, which is arguably the only moderately decent part of the Saints defense as of late. But in Allen’s first game this past Sunday, the Saints let up 24 points to a team that averages only 21 per game. The Texans had only scored above 20 points in five games this season prior to their matchup against New Orleans.
Personnel changes take some time to be ironed out, but Payton should be a leader enough to prepare his team for games like this. At the very least, he should have had his offense prepared to score at least one touchdown.
This meltdown as the end of the season nears seems to be a foreshadowing of the future between Payton and the Saints’ relationship. This is no longer a symbiotic relationship. The two parties are not getting along as they once did.
Some may say that this isn’t Payton’s fault, and that the losses are more an issue of players not playing well. Payton used to be able to lead his team with stellar play calling, which was a huge reason the team won Super Bowl XLIV. This is a coach that used to be able to lead his team. No longer is that the case.
Yes, this is the coach that led the team to a legendary 2009 Super Bowl run that made some amazing play calls (see the Ambush kick). And he has been involved with some of the greatest NFL moments of all time as the Saints’ coach. His time in New Orleans is essentially over, though.
Coaching relationships with teams rarely last forever. Vince Lombardi left the Green Bay Packers for the Washington Redskins at one point. Andy Reid eventually had to part with the Philadelphia Eagles. And even more recently, Jim Harbaugh had to leave the San Fransisco 49ers. Payton will forever be an important part of history to the entire city of New Orleans, but he has failed as a coach as of late, and it’s time for the Saints to part ways with him.
The team has a new look as far as players, and it’s time for a new look as far as the coaching staff as well.