When New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton suddenly announced he would resign from his duties for the 2022 season, immediately speculation began questioning what his next move would be. There have been murmurs about him getting involved with media, with him believing he’d do well there. But other, more interesting thoughts centered around a potential Payton trade, that would still have him as a head coach in 2022, with another organization.
Since Payton technically still has a contract with the Saints for the next three years, any franchise interested in hiring him would have to negotiate with the Saints first.
Earlier this week, Payton went on the Dan Patrick Show claiming he’d heard there were a couple of teams who were interested in hiring him. Yet, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortenson, these efforts never made it as far to reach Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, who would ultimately be the one to accept or deny any such trade.
Mickey Loomis prepared for inevitable Sean Payton trade talks
In fact, Loomis already seems prepared for such future talks, seemingly expecting them to happen. According to Mort’s appearance on Sunday NFL Countdown, Loomis even has a “trade chart” prepared for when teams call. This chart would help him quickly identify and relay just how much compensation he’s seeking for the head coach. His data is partially based on the previous Jon Gruden trade, which delivered two first-round and second-round selections to the Raiders.
Basically, any team hoping to trade for Payton better be prepared to cough up some heavy draft capital to get a deal done. Whether that’s this season, despite Payton’s suggestion he wouldn’t coach in 2022, or in 2023 or later. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Payton want back in after one year away.
For now, he’ll have to settle for watching Kevin James play him on the silver screen in the Netflix original Home Team.
