By: Jake Rajala

The football genius and Bill Parcells apprentice Sean Payton stepped away from football in 2022, but he stated that he could make a return to the football sphere in the future. It was a major surprise that Payton stepped away from the New Orleans Saints after unveiling a winning season “without Jameis Winston for 10 games”. Sure, Payton witnessed the struggles of coaching a Brees-less Saints team, as NO ranked 32nd in passing last season. Nonetheless, the Saints would likely have a floor of Jameis Winston at quarterback, a healthy Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara (after a potential suspension), and a defense that features elite talent in each position group. Furthermore, the Saints have consistently drafted really well each offseason in the Payton-Mickey Loomis era.

It was surprising to witness Payton exit his beloved Saints team in 2022. Although, it’s Payton’s heart and burnout is real for every person on this green planet. It’s also safe to say that the fact that the Saints had 57 different starters (an NFL record) in 2021 took a toll on Payton’s well-being in a short period of time. Outside of the Saints having musical chairs in many positions, the Saints sadly played four different QBs last season (Winston, Taysom Hill, Trevor Sieman, and Ian Book). Kevin James Payton will take a break from football and the Saints are full steam ahead with their familiar, bright face at the helm.

The Saints are relying on their former long-time defensive coordinator Dennis Allen to lead them into the battlefield moving forward. Allen was the HC behind the Saints 9-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season and he will be a strong, unique coach for the Saints.

Allen has really made his presence felt in the Big Easy thus far. He’s ended the “Taysom Hill experiment at QB” and the Saints have acquired another first-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft. Allen may not be Payton, but he will continue to roll the dice in his style.

I feel like Allen will truly bring the Saints back to the playoffs (at least) and the 49-year-old profile will remain their HC for many years to come. If the Allen-led Saints are coming off a season with at least one playoff victory, I don’t expect the Saints GM to have a chair open for Payton to return.

Allen is one of the best defensive minds in the NFL, he will have a sharp vision of the Saints, and he will know the right buttons with the defense to unleash havoc.

If Payton doesn’t have a realistic path available back to NO, I expect him to be a perfect candidate to land with the Dallas Cowboys beyond 2022. Tom Brady made a comeback and I wouldn’t be shocked if the 58-year-old Saints legend made a nearby return to the NFL and Cowboys. The Payton ties to Dallas have clearly been on fire in each of the past few seasons. As widely enunciated, Payton was a former Cowboys assistant with Bill Parcells from 2003 until 2005. The Dallas Cowboys are also a greek god-like football franchise and Austin, TX eats, breathes, and sleeps football. It would be poetic if Payton returned to the Cowboys as a wiser and more confident coach.

The most important attraction for Payton is unequivocally Dak Prescott. The Cowboys QB threw for 4,449 passing yards and 37 passing touchdowns in 2021. Prescott literally broke Tony Romo’s single-season passing touchdown record last season. He was also on pace for a career-best season in passing yards in 2020 prior to his season-ending injury. The 28-year-old is still scratching the surface and his potential is off the charts. It’s also fascinating that Payton had a positive impression of Prescott in his very early career. In Nov. of 2018, Payton called Prescott “an exceptional leader” and he held a positive notion of his dual-threat ability, per Saints Wire. I do believe Winston and Allen will be a great HC-QB combination, but the Cowboys would display the more potent HC-QB combo with Prescott and Payton.

The Dallas Cowboys defense that led the league in takeaways last season also has a d-unit that may have younger, more superb talent than the Saints defense. The 2021 Defensive Rookie of The Year Micah Parsons is “11 years younger than Saints LB Demario Davis” and CB the 23-year-old Trevon Diggs is also a bit more efficient than the veteran Marshon Lattimore. The Cowboys top edge rusher Demarcus Lawrence is a few years younger than Cameron Jordan and playing at an extremely high level, as well.

The electric 23-year-old Ceedee Lamb (1,102 yards in 2021), the recently extended Michael Gallup, and Zeke Elliot (979+ rushing yds in each season) are also blue-chip offensive pieces for Payton. The Cowboys still have their rockstar LT Tyron Smith, while the cap-strapped Saints lost Terron Armstead to the Miami Dolphins this offseason. The Cowboys arguably have the easiest divisional competition in the NFL and Payton has to be enticed about playing the NFC Least squads. The 2021 second-place NFC East team in the Philadelphia Eagles is the opposite of the 2021 NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers (and every other division champion), which was evident in the Buccaneers thrashing of the Eagles in the recent NFL wildcard game.

If Mike McCarthy can’t utilize the Cowboys properly and lock in an elusive playoff victory, I believe Jerry Jones will be interested in upgrading the head coach spot by inking the shiny, offensive mind Sean Payton. If Payton is open to being an OC for the Cowboys, Jones could still replace Kellen Moore with the former middle school offensive coach. The other former NFL QB Moore could also have a terrific 2022 season with the Boys offense and potentially be hired as a head coach next offseason, which would surely open the OC door for Payton. All in all, the reigning NFC East champions are honestly the perfect combination of destination, QB, and roster talent for the former Cowboys coach.

The post Why Sean Payton should join the Cowboys in the future appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

The New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis has been with the Saints since 2002. The Christopher Nolan look-alike, Loomis, is one of the very best GMs in the NFL and he has done a fantastic job of helping the Saints in the post Drew Brees/Sean Payton era. With that said, I believe Loomis’s reputation is a bit mysterious, especially with how much brainpower the GM carries. So, I’m going to outline a few fascinating facts about Loomis.

• Loomis was named NFL Executive of the year in 2006

The Saints GM managed to bring in Sean Payton and Drew Brees in the same offseason (2006). The Saints impressively reached the NFC championship in year one under Payton and Brees. Loomis rightfully garnered respect for his ability to significantly uplift the Saints from 2005 to 2006 and beyond.

• Saints 2017 draft was the best draft class since 2015

The Saints had an overly superb draft in 2017, where they drafted Marshon Lattimore, Marcus Williams, Alvin Kamara, Alex Anzalone, and Trey Hendrickson. The Pro Football Focus expert Mike Renner graded the Saints 2017 draft class ahead of every other team’s draft class since 2015. It should also be stated that Trey Hendrickson has been a bit of a late bloomer over the past couple of seasons. The Saints don’t have Hendrickson, Anzalone, or Williams, but they still heavily lean on AK and Lattimore.

• Saints have the second-most wins since 2017

The Saints have had romantic exits from the postseason, but they have been a regular-season juggernaut since 2017. In fact, there is only one team that has been more dominant than NO in the non-playoff season since 2017: the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs. The Saints have had 58 wins since 2017, while KC has knocked out 60 victories since 2017. It’s special that the Saints have still been utterly productive in the season with injuries to Drew Brees and Jameis Winston.

The post 3 things to know about Saints GM Mickey Loomis appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Jeremy Trottier

With the 2021 NFL offseason close to being coming over, and training camps coming in the near future, we have had another chance to see teams being managed both poorly and very well.  Coming into this offseason, the Saints had one of the worst outlooks, due to their financial liabilities as well as not having nearly enough draft picks to fill all the holes made.  Yet here we are, the Saints still looking poised to be in contention for a division title. 

If the Saints do take the division title again this year, that would make their fifth in a row, which is more than any other franchise in the division has had in a row since 2002 (conception of the division with these four teams.).  With that said, there is a reason the Saints have been dominating in this stat for the last four seasons.  His name is Mickey Loomis.  In this article, I will be going over three reasons why Loomis should be considered the best general manager in the game today.  

Cap Space Compliance

This one has to be by far the most interesting and pertinent to the situation.  The last few years obviously the Saints have been competitors and have made the playoffs for awhile now.  They have continued to do so without having to get rid of many of the core pieces to this roster.  The reason being is that Loomis is absolutely amazing at working around the cap ceiling.

Take this year for example.  Loomis was able to shed roughly 99 million dollars of cap space in about two months, while keeping the core intact for next season.  He also did this under the Covid-19 cap ceiling, which is significantly lower than it has been in previous years due to little to no in person attendance.  This was absolutely wild to watch as a fan of the league, as he worked around every possible outcome to make this happen.

Anywhere from normal cuts to a huge amount of re-structured deals, to an 140 million dollar “extension” for Taysom Hill, in which all years are voidable and they do not have to pay a dime after this year.  Mickey has been an absolute force when it comes to clearing out the cap situation in a time effective and knowledgeable manner.  He was even able to franchise tag Marcus Williams for another ten million dollars this offseason, as well as sign some free agents and draft picks.  We are likely looking at over 110 million dollars cleared from the cap overall to comply with league standards this offseason.

Draft Picks & Draft Day Trade Success

In the last four years, the Saints front office has not drafted a non-starting player to their roster in the first three rounds at any point.  Just to prove this, I will list every player from 2016-2020 they have taken in rounds one through three, and how many starts they have on the team so far.

• 2016: Sheldon Rankins (33 starts), Michael Thomas (62 starts), Vonn Bell (45 starts for NOLA, 16 in Cincinnati), David Onyemata (4^th rounder, 40 starts)
• 2017: Marshon Lattimore (57 starts in 57 games), Ryan Ramczyk (63 starts in 63 games), Marcus Williams (60 starts in 60 games), Alvin Kamara (35 starts), Alex Anzalone (20 starts), Trey Hendrickson (18 starts)
• 2018: Marcus Davenport (14 starts), Tre ”˜Quan Smith (23 starts)
• 2019: Erik McCoy (32 starts in 32 games), Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (4^th rounder, 20 starts)
• 2020: Cesar Ruiz (9 starts in rookie year), Zack Baun (3 starts), Adam Trautman (6 starts)

With quite a few people saying the Saints drafted poorly in 2021, they really need to take a look at the history of their picks.  While some of them were seen as questionable picks at the time, at the end of the day they turned out to be very solid players.  Loomis has been able to facilitate some great draft classes over the years and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Facilitation of Staff

Finally, we have Mickey’s ability to rebuild staff that leaves the franchise and keep the most important ones.  Starting with Sean Payton, one of the best offensive masterminds in the league leading the pack.  His ability to take someone nobody knew at the time in Taysom Hill and turning him into one of the best gadget players if not the face of gadget players in the league is nothing short of impressive.

They have also been able to retain Jeff Ireland, who has been fantastic at scouting players over the course of his career, and is a high level assistant GM.  In terms of positional coaches, you have Ryan Nielsen and brought in Kris Richard, Nielsen being a very consistent coach for the defensive line and being able to develop players very quickly.  Then Richard being a new hire, who will again be working with a Stanford rookie CB (Paulson Adebo) after working with a former one during the legion of boom in Richard Sherman.

Overall, the ability to retain the main functional pieces of the coaching staff while being able to also bring in new improvements for the franchise is exceptional.  This is a huge reason as to why he should be seen as one of the best GMs in the league. 

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