Ex-Saints coach Sean Payton’s pick to win NFC South? Of course, it’s not Tom Brady’s team.
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The Saints, who will host the Bucs for their home opener in Week 2, have won the past seven regular-season encounters against Tampa Bay (although the Bucs won a playoff game in New Orleans during that span following the 2020 season). So there’s certainly validity regarding the Saints’ confidence to match up against their heated division rival.
Yet Payton, now a studio analyst for the Fox Sports NFL pregame shows while aiming to ultimately return to the sideline after stepping away from his Saints job earlier this year after 16 seasons, undoubtedly has a bit of bias in the mix when assessing the chances of his former team.
He also wraps the wishful thinking with some relevant context.
Last season, the Saints used an NFL-record 58 players in the starting lineup for at least one game and cycled through 95 players on the 53-man roster. It was one of Payton’s best coaching performances, with the adjustments including the loss of quarterback Jameis Winston to a season-ending torn ACL on Oct. 31 and an offensive line forced to use 11 different starting combinations. New Orleans won four of its final five games and narrowly missed making the expanded playoff field.
Payton, replaced by his former defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, is bullish on offseason additions such as safety Tyrann Mathieu, receiver Jarvis Landry, backup quarterback Andy Dalton and first-round receiver Chris Olave. He believes the Saints will still field one of the NFL’s most prolific defenses. He’s eager to see star wideout Michael Thomas return to form after battling injuries the past two seasons. And he thinks the offense is in good hands with long-time coordinator Pete Carmichael still in place.
Although Payton called the plays during his tenure, Carmichael stepped into the role in 2012 as the coach served a year-long suspension stemming from the Saints bounty scandal.
“And he was in my ear every season,” Payton said of Carmichael being connected by headset on gamedays. “They won’t miss a beat there.”
Payton, however, has reservations when it comes to how the Saints will handle Taysom Hill – the versatile athlete who was Payton’s experimental quarterback project.
With Payton gone, the Saints have positioned Hill at tight end for the first time in his five-year pro career. Hill started nine games at quarterback the past two seasons due to injuries and Payton used him extensively otherwise as a run-pass threat weapon. Yet with the return of Winston, who beat out Hill for the job after Drew Brees retired, and with the addition of Dalton, Allen has seemingly moved on from using Hill in the type of hybrid role that Payton created.