Brian Billick: Sean Payton should give up play-calling duties
By Jesse Reed
Former Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick thinks Sean Payton is trying to do too much. Now with NFL Media, Billick believes Payton needs to give up his play-calling duties so that he can focus on being the head coach.
Speaking on GameDay First Sunday morning, Billick explained his reasoning.
“Bill Walsh always believed you can’t be in one place more than ten years,” he said. “Sean Payton is one of the great play-callers in this game. He ought to just think about being the head coach. When he was gone for a year, Pete Carmichael and Drew Brees threw for five thousand yards. (He should) become more the head coach because the team may need that now rather than the diffused ‘I’m also the play-caller’ — might be a good move for his part especially at this point in his career.”
There might be some merit to Billick’s assessment.
Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy relinquished his play-calling duties this year, and so far that’s working out well for his team.
Also, his point about Carmichael’s success during the season in which Payton was suspended is valid. In no way, shape or form did New Orleans’ offense suffer that season. Carmichael has been Payton’s understudy since 2006, when he came over from San Diego as the team’s quarterbacks coach. He knows the system and has been around long enough to call games the way Payton himself would call them.
And, perhaps he might have a fresh perspective that could brighten things up.
The Saints are in a funk, of that there’s no doubt. Since the beginning of the 2014 NFL season, Payton’s team has gone 7-11, and it might soon be 7-13 after a couple of difficult upcoming games against Carolina and Dallas.
If this team is going to turn things around, then Payton must be able to manage the entire program, not just his beloved offense.
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