Sean Payton is stepping away as New Orleans Saints head coach, and the vultures are already circling — knives out and ready to carve into the black and gold, eager to scrap the roster and sell it off for spare parts. Just run a search for “cap hell” on Twitter and you’ll see a whole bunch of people misunderstanding the situation.
The Saints aren’t in cap hell now any more than they’ve been before. They conduct business differently than other teams, structuring contracts differently and looking to maximize their resources rather than stack up salary cap space they’ll never use. They’re in the red by tens of millions of dollars right now, and we’ve already explored how they’ll get out of it without any big shakeups to the roster.
Khai Harley is still working the accounting books. Jeff Ireland is still running the college scouting department. They’ve still got plenty of talented players, proven coaches, and a Mickey Loomis-led front office looking to compete year in and year out. Don’t look for New Orleans to wave a white flag and start trading away players and tanking for draft picks.
Obviously there’s no replacing Sean Payton. There wasn’t any replacing Drew Brees, either. Things are going to fall apart here and there and we’ll feel those absences. Change isn’t always easy, but it’s a natural part of life. We should expect some hiccups along the way. We should also expect the Saints to continue going all-in to chase wins and field a strong team each week. Let’s see if they live up to those expectations.
