Sean Payton interested in Chargers, Cowboys jobs should he ever return to NFL sidelines

During the slowest part of the offseason, any sort of interesting and/or original news can feel like stumbling upon an oasis in the middle of the desert.

I think this constitutes as just that.

According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, former Saints head coach Sean Payton would only consider a handful of teams should he ever find himself wanting to return to the sidelines. The Dolphins are one of them, as are both the Cowboys and the Chargers.

Per Jackson’s source, Payton is looking for several factors in a potential landing spot. First, he wants warm weather. Secondly, he would like to take over a roster that’s ready to compete right now. Lastly, he wants total control over all personnel decisions.

Now this all probably seems a bit weird as each of those three teams have a head coach that either in their first, second, or third year at the helm. It’s not likely any of them are fired following the 2022 season and Payton reportedly isn’t going to openly lobby for a job that’s already filled. So as it stands, this is all just hypothetical nonsense.

Would the Chargers really move on from Brandon Staley after just his second year, regardless of how this upcoming season shakes out? My money is on them trusting the process, but it’d be one hell of a pill to swallow to see the team fail to make the playoffs following an offseason where they went all-in on their Super Bowl window.

Heck, would simply making the playoffs even be enough this season? Would exiting the postseason without a victory still fall far short of the sky-high expectations currently surrounding the franchise?

Payton would be a very ideal candidate to replace any underachieving head coach, but that seems like such a faraway idea right now in regards to the Chargers. Despite missing the postseason in year one, Staley has shown to be good for the franchise and the front office showed him that by giving him the freedom to blow up half the roster from a year ago to build it the way he needs it to be.

This was certainly an interesting headline, but I wouldn’t consider it anything more than just that.