Every team with a head coaching vacancy should be putting out feelers to the New Orleans Saints right now. That includes the Giants.
Numerous league sources have been telling the Daily News for more than a week that they believe Saints coach Sean Payton either wants out of New Orleans or may retire to take a year off from coaching entirely. This includes people in the Saints’ building.
That is some background on NFL Network’s Sunday report that Payton still has not yet informed the organization that he will definitely return.
Payton, 58, has not returned requests for comment, but Saints owner Gayle Benson threw gasoline on the fire of uncertainty Monday.
“You know Sean, we don’t know. You know? Who knows, “Benson told FOX8NOLA with a smile and a laugh. “We’ll find out soon enough I guess. I don’t think any of us know. But he’ll let us know soon enough.”
Payton was back at the Saints’ facility on Monday after taking a vacation at season’s end, per Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football. He is under contract for three more seasons.
It’s unclear whether Payton is waiting to see the Saints commit to landing a franchise quarterback — there were rumors of Russell Wilson pinings a year ago — or if he simply wants a change or a break.
Some believe the Saints are now in the process of trying to convince Payton to stay.
Any NFL team with a head coaching vacancy has to look into Payton’s possibility via trade, though. Coach trades happen. They’re expensive, but they happen.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers famously shipped two first-round picks, two second-round picks and $8 million to the Oakland Raiders in 2002 for coach Jon Gruden. Gruden promptly won the Super Bowl with former coach Tony Dungy’s club in his first year.
If Payton wants to keep coaching but leave New Orleans, it’s hard to believe Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys wouldn’t show up at Payton’s front door with a Brinks truck.
But all NFL teams should have their antennae up until Payton clarifies where he stands.
That includes teams with frustrated owners like the Arizona Cardinals’ Michael Bidwill, who has a coach in Kliff Kingsbury but recently told the Arizona Republic this season was “disappointing for everybody.”
Payton would be the most valuable and attractive asset available all offseason if he tells the Saints he wants to coach somewhere else.
WHAT A WEEKEND
We don’t believe what we just saw. The weekend’s divisional playoff round was the first in NFL history with four game-winning scores on the final play. That is one of several jaw-dropping stats courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau that reflect how special those four games were. Some more:
— Buffalo’s Gabriel Davis became the first NFL player ever to score four receiving touchdowns in one playoff game. Davis, 22, a second-year pro, was a fourth-round Buffalo draft pick in 2020 out of Central Florida. Only three other position players have scored four or more total TDs in a playoff game: the 49ers’ Ricky Watters (five, Jan. 1994), the Patriots’ LeGarrette Blount (four, Jan. 2014) and the 49ers’ Raheem Mostert (Jan. 2020).
— Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes turned in one of the best NFL quarterback duels of all time. The Bills and Chiefs combined for 25 points in the final 1:54 of regulation in Kansas City’s jaw-dropping 42-36 walk-off OT win over Buffalo. Allen left no debate that he is a top tier NFL quarterback by going 27-of-37 for 329 passing yards and four TDs, adding 68 rushing yards on 11 carries. But Patrick Mahomes hit 33 of 44 passes for 378 yards and three TDs and rushed seven times for 69 yards and another TD.
— The Kansas City Chiefs are the first team since the 1990 Bills to score 40+ points in each of back-to-back games during a single postseason. The Chiefs and Bills combined to go 5-for-5 on fourth down, the second time in the Super Bowl Era that two playoff teams have combined for five or more fourth-down conversions without a turnover on downs.
— Sunday’s games marked the fourth time ever that four QBs threw for 300+ yards in one day of the postseason. It was the first time ever in the divisional round.
— The Bengals’ upset win over the Tennessee Titans was Cincinnati’s first road playoff win in franchise history, one week after the franchise’s first postseason victory in 31 years. Rookie kicker Evan McPherson, a fifth-round pick out of Florida, made the game winner. The Bengals are the only team of the remaining four that has never won a Super Bowl. They are in their first AFC Championship Game since 1988. They lost the Super Bowl that year to the 49ers.
— The L.A. Rams’ four lost fumbles were the most by any team in a single playoff game since the Jaguars’ four lost fumbles in the AFC Championship Game against the Titans in Jan. 2000 … The Titans became the third team in the last 20 seasons with eight-plus sacks in a single postseason game, joining the 2003 Packers and the 2018 Patriots.
RULES DEBATE
The Bills had every opportunity to win Sunday’s game, and their defensive play-callers and players let them down. Buffalo has itself to blame, not the NFL’s overtime rules that prevented Allen from getting the ball in the extra period. Still, it would be sensible for the NFL to ensure both teams get at least one possession, even if the first team scores a TD.
The Chiefs actually proposed to change the rule themselves in 2019 after losing the 2018 AFC Championship Game to the Patriots in OT without getting the ball. But no change was adopted. Now, three seasons later, the same rule helps them advance.
