Today marks the first day of Sean Payton’s year long suspension as he will officially no longer be the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, at least for 2012. Today also marks the first day of offseason workouts for the players. You’ll notice via twitter/facebook that a lot of the Saints are back in town for the workouts, many of who have bonuses hinging on their attendance. A noticeable absence will of course be Drew Brees…
who remains unsigned and is sitting on his one year franchise tender offer while his agent continues to try to negotiate a long term deal with the Saints. Given the situation and Sean Payton being suspended, not having Brees around the lock room from the outset is far less than ideal. In fact, I’d go as far as to call it extremely troubling. I’ve said this before: the Saints cannot afford to not have Brees around, even for a second, given what’s happened to Sean Payton. They need all the leadership they can get. Mickey Loomis would be well served to get this deal done as soon as possible.
As far as what happens to Payton, rumors continue to surface he will work for a network. There was talk of Fox and ESPN outbidding each other for his services. We’ll see how that plays out but I think it’s safe to assume we’ll be seeing Payton during his suspension in some capacity, most likely as an analyst on TV. We know Payton can’t have any dialog whatsoever with his players, even Drew Brees while he remains unsigned, but we don’t know how much dialog he’s permitted to have with the Saints’ coaches. It’s unknown if he’ll be going completely dark with regards to the team, or if he’ll offer occassional mentorship and advice to his staff. Whether legal or not, knowing Sean Payton, he’ll do his best to have some impact on the team.
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