Just what did the New Orleans Saints locker room lose when Sean Payton stepped down as head coach? That’s a question Colin Cowherd sought to answer this week when he hosted Cameron Jordan on his weekly radio show this week, introducing the Saints’ all-time sacks leader as a future Hall of Famer. And they cut right to the case, with Jordan outlining what the team was missing when Payton left his post last year.
“I mean, (we lost) a huge level of energy. His level of energy is so offensive-minded. It’s, ‘Hey you know I see a wide receiver split at the hash, but it’s not exactly at the hash. I want you to be exactly inside the hash,'” He grunted and glared at the camera in an impression of his old coach making an adjustment during practice. Jordan continued, “And you see a receiver literally shift over, they have that step, they have a little more wriggle-room, they can get open here. On the defensive side, you wouldn’t see that or even think it could matter. … It exposes you and it’s a touchdown.”
And then, Jordan says, Payton would strut over to the defense and point at dozens of plays on his play sheet that could all go yard and score a touchdown. It adds real competitive energy to the daily grind at practice. Jordan added: “It’s easy to buy in, you love to see it. And he brings a level of consistency Monday through Saturday. You’re just going to get that exact same, ‘Hey this is what we’re going to do, this is what we’re going to improve on today, this is our focus.'”
It’s going to be tough for the Saints to move on from an engine like Payton powering the organization. It was clear last season that his attention for detail wasn’t adequately replaced, and Dennis Allen is going to need to a better job energizing his players and being mindful of those devils in the details that can break a game wide open if he’s going to remain their head coach moving forward. Having charismatic and experienced players like Jordan in the fold helps, but even more pressure goes on the head coach to keep everyone on task. Hopefully Allen’s taken that lesson to heart.
