Questions, answers regarding Payton’s career change

By Ed Daniels
WGNO Sports Director

You have questions, and we have answers.

Will Sean Payton be a TV analyst in 2022? Yes.

Will he do it for a brief time, no more than three years? Yes.

Will he coach in the NFL, again? Of course.

Will he coach the Dallas Cowboys? I would say the odds are pretty good he will.

Here’s my question for you: In 2023, if Payton is coaching the Dallas Cowboys, will you still feel the same way you do about him now?

My guess is, probably not, but you should.

For 15 seasons, Payton made Saints football always relevant and, at times, great. In their first 39 years of football, the Saints won 10 games or more four times. Since 2006, the Saints did it nine times.

New Orleans had never won 13 games in a season. With Sean Payton as head coach, the Saints won 13 games in a season four times.

Throw in three trips to the NFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl championship in the 2009 season, and you have a resumé that will attract a ton of interest.

Every offseason – from the end of next season until he coaches again – Sean Payton will be the NFL’s highest-profile free agent. He could be a $20 million a season head coach.

At his goodbye press conference, Payton said he didn’t have any immediate plans, and “that it felt good.” But, at some point, he will return.

There’s no guarantee he will be successful. After winning five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls, Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi surfaced in Washington. His first Washington  team won seven games. A year later, Lombardi succumbed to cancer.

Hank Stram and Mike Ditka both won Super Bowls that were played in New Orleans: Stram for Kansas City in January 1970 at Tulane Stadium, and Ditka for the Bears at the Superdome 16 years later.

The pair lasted a total of five seasons as they returned to the coach the Saints.

Payton’s mentor Bill Parcells won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants. Later, he coached the Patriots to a Super Bowl and the Jets to the AFC Championship Game, but he never won another title.

In Dallas, Jimmy Johnson won two Super Bowl titles. In four seasons in Miami, Johnson posted one double-digit win season.

In San Francisco, George Seifert won a Super Bowl in the 1994 season. He was 98-30 in regular-season games with the 49ers. At Carolina, Seifert went 16-32.

History isn’t kind to coaches in their return engagement, but Payton, never short on confidence, believes he can come back, and win big.

So, here’s the Payton plan: Do TV. Come back to football. Win a Super Bowl. Retire. Get the gold jacket in Canton.

I wouldn’t bet against him.

Ed Daniels is sports director at ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at [email protected].