The New Orleans Saints finished 3-13 and last in the NFC South in 2005. That dismal season resulted in the team parting ways with Jim Haslett and led to the team hiring an assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach from the Dallas Cowboys to take over on the Superdome sidelines.
Sean Payton got his first shot at being a head coach in New Orleans and hit the ground running. He went 10-6 in his first season and won the Coach of the Year Award as the Saints finished one game shy of a Super Bowl appearance. Payton and the Saints got to the big game in 2009, winning Super Bowl 44 over the Indianapolis Colts.
While they never returned to the Super Bowl, Payton remained the head coach through the 2021 season, outside of the 2012 season when he was suspended by the NFL for the ‘BountyGate’ scandal.
Let’s look back at what went into Payton’s retirement and what led to his being traded to the Denver Broncos.
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Why did Sean Payton retire?
Payton’s retirement came a year after future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees hung up his cleats. Many joked that Payton got a glimpse of what life was like after Brees, and the 9-8 record after four straight double-digit-win, division-title seasons made him realize it was time to go a different direction.
It was later revealed that Payton was offered a five-year, $ 100 million deal with the Dolphins. The Saints had given him a five-year extension, so when he was linked to Miami, he was still under contract with New Orleans. Any new team would have to trade for him from the Saints.
Payton’s reasoning when he made the decision was that he wanted to focus on his health and spend time with his kids. Also, the way that he left allowed him to put a vote of confidence in his defensive coordinator Dennis Allen to take over. Payton admitted that “retirement” wasn’t the right word at the time, and he proved to be correct.
Payton spent his first year away from the sidelines as an analyst at Fox.
When was Sean Payton traded to Denver?
Payton took a year off of coaching in 2022, but in January 2023, he interviewed for vacancies with the Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals, and Houston Texans.
Payton was expected to return to Fox as an analyst again in 2023, but he ended up taking the Denver opening. On Jan. 31, 2023, it was announced that Denver had hired Payton and would acquire his rights from the Saints.
The Broncos ended up trading a 2023 first-round and 2024 second-round pick to New Orleans in exchange for the rights to Payton and a 2025 third-round pick.
