Reports: Saints Looking To Trade Sean Payton

For a couple of weeks, the questions have been swirling around the New Orleans Saints organization. Some wonder if it's time for Drew Brees to retire, others question if the problems stem from bad calls from the front office, and others complain that Sean Payton is the reason for all of the Saints problems.

While it's unlikely that any single person holds all of the blame for the Saints poor performance this year someone will have to answer for it. Because after all, this is the NFL.

Drew Brees will not be leaving New Orleans until HE wants to, Mikey Loomis (Saints GM) will likely try to push someone else in front of the sword before he takes it himself, which leaves Sean Payton in the cross-hairs. Now, Payton has a fat contract, so it's unlikely that the Saints will just buy him out. Which means we could see the Saints try to swing one of the oddest transactions in sports...they might be looking to TRADE their coach.

This isn't as uncommon as you might think, there have been a handful of NFL coaches traded away in recent memory. One of the most noteworthy was the trade of Bill Belichick from the New York Jets to the New England Patriots (this story is incredible beyond the trade aspect, considering that Belichick was only the Jet's coach for 1 day). But essentially for one of these "coach trades" to really work, the team getting the coach will hire him and sign him to a contract, in exchange for the team who currently has the coach to release the coach from his current contract, the team will give them draft picks.

There have been draft picks as high as first rounders traded for coaches in the past, but based on the reports surfacing today, the New Orleans Saints don't sound like they'd be asking for anything that high. By the sounds of it, the Saints may take whatever deal is offered.

This might be good news, because the best odds of a team desperate enough to trade for a coach belong to the Los Angeles Rams. Who happen to be light on draft picks this year, based on some of their sub-prime trade deals they've executed over the last few years. There could be other teams interested, like the San Francisco 49ers or New York Jets, who have more to offer in the draft pick department, but would they be likely to trade for a coach? We don't know yet.

While we don't think that Sean Payton should carry most of the blame for this season, the idea of drawing in half a dozen draft picks, including a first round pick, would be very interesting as the Saints are likely in the final 2 years of Drew Brees' career, and they need to WIN NOW.