This is a guest post from the forum. Credit for this article should be attributed to forum member Boris. Thanks for posting some good insight. — David
Sean Payton had a great first year with the Saints. We made it to the NFC Championship, but since then, we have not made the playoffs. That being said, I have not really given much thought to whether he should be the Saints head coach. I think he has actually accomplished a lot (in spite of two disappointing seasons). I started thinking about why I felt that way (Haslett had a similar start, but I had enough of him pretty quickly).
After giving it some though, I made a list of some of the things that separate Payton from our previous Saints head coaches, along with some of his most important decisions:
1. Payton joined the Saints shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area. There was a lot of uncertainly about the Saints and the viability of the city and franchise, and I think he had options, but took the job anyway. He played a leadership role not just with the team, but in the community, and I respect him for that. He also is an excellent role model.
2. He is the only Saints Coach that I can remember that calls all the offensive plays, and is an offensive coach. He has made the Saints and exciting football team, win or lose. Haslett and Mora were both defensive coaches, and Ditka was just plain ‘offensive’. I will never forget “Jumbo”.
3. Payton has a good and fair relationship with the media. He keeps his cool. He answers questions, and is very reasonable. He is not afraid to give explanations. Haslett, Mora and Ditka had contentious relationships with the press, and were for the most part hot headed, particularly when things were not going well. And when things were going well they were very sarcastic. Kind of, “I won a game, how dare you ever criticize me.” I will never forget Mora’s, “You think you know, but you will never know.”
4. Payton shows a lot of respect and appreciation for the fans. Mora, Haslett and Ditka looked at the fans as necessary evils, and with arrogance. Remember the Ditka crotch grabbing incident, Haslett defending Brooks, and Mora sticking with his offensive coordinator, Carl Smith?
5 Unlike his 3 predecessors, (it is too painful to think past Mora), Payton has often admitted he has been wrong. More importantly, he has made a lot of changes in response to bad decisions. You can list them:
(1) Brought in a New Defensive Coordinator and basically recruited Greg Williams.
(2) He did not even consider Aaron Brooks; his first move was signing Drew Brees.
(3) Kept Pierre Thomas, and eventually even started to play him.
(4) Made a mistake in getting rid of John Carney, with good intentions. But then he
did not waste too much time bringing in new kickers. Releasing Carney was a bad
mistake, as kickers probably kept us out of the playoffs the past two years.
(5) Was not afraid to draft Reggie Bush. Yes, he has not lived up to everyone’s expectations, but undoubtedly brought a lot of excitement to a city that needed something to get excited about. It helped to sell tickets and bring attention to the franchise. I cannot think of another player that would have brought that much excitement to the Saints in that draft.
(6) Tries to fill Saints obvious needs. Went after Vilma, traded up for Cedric Ellis, brought in Fujita, gave Lance Moore a chance, made sure management kept the core players like Hill, Grant, Colston, brought in Shockey (even though he has not produced, our TEs had really not been productive.
There are more, but the point is that if Payton recognizes a mistake, he fixes it. Letting Bullocks and Tebucky Jones, go, and bringing in a Darren Sharper. He brought in a veteran back up QB in Brunnel, and I think Harrington is even better than some of the backups we had in the past. (I mean he was a no. 1 pick and a starter for at least two other teams.) But, I am still scratching my head about Jason David.
The other thing is Payton does appear sincere. He has brought in high-character players (unlike, Ditka and Haslett), and has changed the attitude for the franchise, where we can actually go out and attract quality players and coaches. This team has some very good role models that are active in the community.
There have been very few character issues with his Saints, and it appears the Players have bought into the program. If there is any dissension in the locker room, we do not hear about it. (I think possible dissension that could have created issues is what cost Kevin Houser his job, and hopefully, we do not pay the price.)
But Payton is very different from our past 3 coaches. I think he will eventually win, if we can avoid injuries and get a few more breaks, have some consistency in the kicking game, and have a decent defense.
I think extending his contract was a good decision.