Sean Payton promises change for New Orleans Saints

By Cory Buck | Dec 31, 2014

Dec 21, 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton (L) talks to quarterback Drew Brees (9) during the second half against the Atlanta Falcons at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Falcons won 30-14. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton promised the team would search high and low for productive ways to improve without changing simply for the sake of change.

The New Orleans Saints have some soul searching to do after a disappointing 7-9 campaign in the 2014 NFL season. The team had Super Bowl expectations, but failed miserably to live up to that hype from the first week of the season. They displayed maddening inconsistency all season, beating division winners like the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers while handing victories to the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons, among others.

More from New Orleans Saints

As a result, head coach Sean Payton is promising change, as one might expect, but not just any old change and not the ‘off-with-his-head’ variety we see so often in the NFL, where a team simply fires any coordinator whose unit didn’t perform to expectations (ie: Rob Ryan).

Instead, Payton prefers a methodical approach to building a team that finished with the worst record of any Saints club coached by Payton since his arrival in 2006.

“What is important is we are looking closely at ways to fix the things that kept us from winning games, and making sure that we are not fixing something that wasn’t a part of the problem,” Payton said per the Associated Press. “We have to look closely at the teaching, the coaching. We have to look closely at the players.”

The players certainly have work to do, but the talent is there for immediate success in 2015. The Saints were once again atop the league with over 400 yards of offense averaged per game. It was the turnovers that killed this unit. Payton pointed out the team had 30 giveaways in 2014.

“It has not been about stats for us. It has been about wins and losses. … There are some muddy hands in this (locker) room and they probably go across the board, not just on one side of the ball.”

The biggest failure of the Saints was their ability to play defense. They ranked 31st in the NFL, which led many to believe this would be Rob Ryan’s last year in New Orleans, a suggestion at which Payton bristled.

“Now is not the time for us to discuss a player or a coach or his future,” Payton said.

Whatever the Saints decide to do, they’ll have to do so with a deft hand. They have precious little cap room with which to improve so it’ll be a matter of selectively tweaking their roster to establish better consistency. If they can simply get that much with the talent at hand, they should be back in the playoff picture in 2015.

More from FanSided

Home/New Orleans Saints