The Houston Texans aren’t afraid to bring in a veteran coach with skins on the wall.
According to Aaron Wilson from KPRC-TV, the Texans completed an interview with former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton.
Technically Payton, who retired at the end of the 2021 campaign, is still under contract with the Saints through 2024. If the Texans were to hire Payton, they would need to be willing to part with one of their two first-round picks in the 2023 NFL draft.
“Ultimately, the compensation for the Saints would be a mid- or late-first-round pick,’’ Payton said on FS1 via Wilson. “Each team has different ammo or different pick selections. It could be a future one where maybe you have to throw in something.’’
Houston has a pick in that range at No. 12 overall, compensation from the Cleveland Browns when the two franchises completed a trade in the 2022 offseason.
Payton told FS1 that he has familiarity with the Texans organization after the Saints held joint practices with the AFC South club from 2015-17. As an NFL analyst for FOX Sports, Payton is also familiar with the building blocks Houston has to complete the rebuild.
“They’ve got really good draft capital, really good draft capital,” Payton said. “They’re in a division that you can at least say with [Indianapolis], Tennessee and Jacksonville. There’s growth potential immediately there from their two or three wins they had this year. I know a little bit, [general manager] Nick (Caserio), because when he was in New England we had a lot of practices with their team.”
In 2002, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers traded two first-round and two second-round picks to the Oakland Raiders for the services of Jon Gruden as coach. Tampa Bay also paid the Raiders $8 million spread out over the next three years.
