The New Orleans Saints signed Coach Sean Payton to a multiyear extension Monday, another step in an evolving policy of ensuring the organization locks up talented people in its top rungs for the foreseeable future.
Quarterback Drew Brees represents the last and perhaps most important cog in that machine, but with Payton and General Manager Mickey Loomis on board long term the club is widely expected to ink a blockbuster deal with Brees in the near future.
Those three are generally recognized as the trio that turned the Saints around, transforming one of the worst outfits in professional sports into a perennial playoff factor and Super Bowl champion.
The terms of Payton’s deal, which will run through the 2015 season, were not disclosed. However, it is believed to have propelled him into the top salary ranks of the NFL coaching fraternity and, if true, his annual pay would jump from somewhere north of $4 million to the neighborhood of $6 million or beyond.
Payton said he was grateful for the stamp of approval the deal represented.
“It is good news and I would start by recognizing the significant role that Mickey Loomis and (owner) Tom Benson have had not just in this contract for me but the stability and the success we’ve had as an organization,”
Payton said. “I’m very thankful to have that opportunity here for another five years.”
When asked if his new pay scale represented a thank you for past accomplishments or a demand for new ones, Payton chuckled.
“It’s a performance-based business,”
he said. “And our jobs as coaches, our jobs as front office people, our jobs as players are to be competitive and win. And I think when you have that success then these type of things happen.”
The success thus far has been unprecedented for the Saints. Payton, 47, took over as coach in 2006 and since then has taken a team with one playoff victory in its previous 39 years into the postseason three times. Twice those trips went to the NFC championship game and, in 2009, beyond as the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV.
Overall, Payton has amassed a 53-33 record with New Orleans.
“I also recognize the fluidness, if you will, of the profession in regards to each year you see six or seven head coaches that are out of jobs,”
he said. “And so we’ve started, awhile back, in 2006 in trying to build something that is consistent, trying to build a program and that’s something that really never stops. You don’t ever really arrive, you’re just constantly ongoing.”
Benson echoed that point in a statement issued by the team.
