New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton retiring from NFL

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton is retiring, a source told New Orleans Football’s Nick Underhill.

There are now nine head coaching vacancies to fill around the NFL as the Saints join the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, Las Vegas Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and Houston Texans.

Sean Payton is retiring, per source

— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) January 25, 2022

There were reports as recently as this weekend that Payton was not guaranteed to return to the Saints. New Orleans will get a late start to the head-coaching search, though no hirings have been made across the NFL as of Tuesday.

Current Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has previous head-coaching experience with the Raiders and has received interest as a head-coaching candidate this offseason. If the Saints plan on hiring Allen, they would still need to go through a coaching search to fulfill the Rooney Rule, requiring teams to interview at least two external minority candidates.

Payton went 161–97 as the Saints’ head coach since being hired in 2006. He led New Orleans to one Super Bowl win during the 2009 season.

Sean Payton & The New Orleans Saints: Team offense grade and rank since 2010

Season	PFF Grade	Rank among 32 offenses
2021	69.9	24th of 32
2020	79.8	11th of 32
2019	86.1	1st of 32
2018	86.4	3rd of 32
2017	85.1	3rd of 32
2016	83.0	7th of 32
2015	83.2	4th of 32
2014	83.2	6th of 32
2013	90.1	2nd of 32
2012	87.4	7th of 32
2011	93.0	1st of 32
2010	81.8	7th of 32

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