Saints fans will see a familiar face on the other sideline this “Thursday Night Football.”
New Orleans has a prime-time slot on the Week 7 slate, as the Saints are set to host the Broncos at the Caesar SuperDome on Thursday night. While Dennis Allen’s group aims to get back on track after slipping to 2-4, Sean Payton, the former coach of the Saints, is hoping to get his 3-3 group over .500 for the first time this year.
For years, the faces of the New Orleans football program were star quarterback Drew Brees and the coaching mastermind that is Payton. That duo dominated for years in Louisiana, bringing the franchise its first-ever Super Bowl in 2008.
However, Payton’s time with the Saints was also marred in controversy. He was involved in the BountyGate scandal that swept the nation in 2012, and was forced to sit out an entire season as a result.
Here is a full timeline of Payton’s tenure with the Saints, and in the NFL.
Sean Payton coaching timeline
New Orleans Saints
After spending three seasons in Dallas as the Cowboys’ assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach under Bill Parcells, Payton was hired as the new head coach of the Saints in 2006. The team was fresh off a 3-13 season in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but had just added star QB Drew Brees in free agency.
The combination of Payton and Brees wound up being a deadly one to those in the NFC. New Orleans found immediate success with the new quarterback and head coach, making the playoffs in the duo’s first season together. The Saints lost to the Bears in the NFC Championship that season.
After missing the playoffs in 2007 and 2008, New Orleans got back on track in 2009, going 13-3 and finishing first in the NFC South. The Saints went on a run to Super Bowl 44, where Payton’s squad defeated the Colts 31-17 to win the franchise’s first championship. New Orleans overcame a 10-7 deficit at the half by ripping off 21 points in the second half for the win. Brees was named Super Bowl MVP after completing 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns.
The Saints failed to get back to the big dance the next two seasons, bowing out in the wild-card round in 2010 and then in the divisional round in 2011.
Saints BountyGate scandal, explained
Then, BountyGate happened.
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In 2012, the NFL completed an investigation into the Saints on the team’s alleged bounty program. From 2009 to 2011, the league found sufficient evidence that Payton’s crew implemented a system that rewarded players for deliberately attempting to knock opposing players out of games. Payton was implicated in the scandal, as the league determined that he was responsible for covering up the bounty program when the NFL first began its investigation into the allegations in 2009.
As a result of BountyGate, the NFL suspended Payton for the entire 2012 season, with the Saints head coach becoming the first head coach in modern NFL history to be suspended for any reason. While he was not a direct participant in the slush fund (which was organized by defensive coordinator Gregg Williams), Payton was aware of the ongoing bounty program and did not do anything sufficient to stop it.
“Although head coach Sean Payton was not a direct participant in the funding or administration of the program, he was aware of the allegations, did not make any detailed inquiry or otherwise seek to learn the facts, and failed to stop the bounty program,” the NFL said in its statement. “He never instructed his assistant coaches or players that a bounty program was improper and could not continue.”
Despite an appeal, the suspension was upheld and Payton was forced to sit out the 2012 season. During his ban, he coached his son’s sixth-grade football team in Argyle, Texas.
He returned to the Saints in 2013, where New Orleans lost in the divisional round as a wild-card team. The Saints went three consecutive seasons going 7-9, missing the playoffs each year from 2014 to 2016.
In 2017, the Saints won the NFC South for the fourth time under Payton, the beginning of a stretch of four consecutive seasons as divisional champions. However, Brees and Co. only reached the NFC Championship once during that span, losing to the Rams in 2018. Brees retired after the 2020 season.
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After missing the postseason in 2021, Payton announced that he was retiring from coaching. Payton ended his Saints’ tenure with a Super Bowl ring in his lone appearance and a record of 152-89 during his 16 seasons in New Orleans.
| Season | Record | Result |
| 2006 | 10-6 | Lost NFC Championship |
| 2007 | 7-9 | Missed playoffs |
| 2008 | 8-8 | Missed playoffs |
| 2009 | 13-3 | Won Super Bowl |
| 2010 | 11-5 | Lost in Wild Card Game |
| 2011 | 13-3 | Lost in Divisional Game |
| 2012 | N/A | Suspended for BountyGate |
| 2013 | 11-5 | Lost in Divisional Game |
| 2014 | 7-9 | Missed playoffs |
| 2015 | 7-9 | Missed playoffs |
| 2016 | 7-9 | Missed playoffs |
| 2017 | 11-5 | Lost in Divisional Game |
| 2018 | 13-3 | Lost NFC Championship |
| 2019 | 13-3 | Lost in Wild Card Game |
| 2020 | 12-4 | Lost in Divisional Game |
| 2021 | 9-8 | Missed playoffs |
| Total | 152-89 |
Denver Broncos
In January of 2023, Payton announced that he was coming out of retirement and taking the head coaching job with the Broncos. He had interviewed with multiple other teams, but landed in Denver, where he was tasked with reviving QB Russell Wilson’s career.
Since he was still under contract with the Saints, the Broncos had to trade a 2023 first-round pick and a 2024 second-round pick for Payton and a 2024 third-round pick.
His first season at Mile High, the Broncos went 8-9 and missed the postseason. It ended in controversy, after Wilson was benched the last two games of the season in favor of Jarrett Stidham. The veteran QB was released that offseason, and the Broncos drafted Bo Nix with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
| Season | Record | Result |
| 2023 | 8-9 | Missed playoffs |
| 2024 | 3-3* | TBD |
| Tota; | 11-12 |
*= record as of Week 6 of 2024 season
