Sean Payton floats idea of teaming up with Lamar Jackson during Monday’s Saints loss to Ravens

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The first Saints season without Sean Payton as head coach has been anything but smooth, but Monday’s 27-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens (6-3) was particularly rocky.

Instead of positioning themselves for a possible lead in the NFC South, the Saints fell to 3-6.

What possibly stings for Saints fans, even more, is that the greatest coach in franchise history floated out the possibility of joining forces with the quarterback on the winning side of Monday’s matchup.

ESPN 2 ran a simulcast of Monday’s game with hosts The Manning Brothers, Peyton and Eli, with Sean Payton as a special guest.

Payton, who “retired” after the previous Saints season has made his intentions to return to the NFL as a head coach somewhere next season after spending this year working in television well known. Again, he made those intentions loud and clear on the simulcast, even if he was partly joking.

“I have a chance to be a free agent, and he has a chance to be a free agent,” Payton said.

Payton was talking about coming back to the NFL to team up Lamar Jackson, who had the Saints flatfooted with misdirection all night. This offseason, when Payton is plotting a return to the league, Jackson is set up for a big payday as a free agent since he and the Ravens failed to reach an extension last summer.

The pairing would give Payton one of the most explosive offensive players in the game today in Jackson, who threw for 133 yards and rushed for 82 against the Saints.

There could be a possibility that the duo could team up in New Orleans but that would likely involve heavy cap magic. Payton would be a hot commodity coming back with a hefty price tag and so would Jackson. Never say never in the NFL, but the dream would likely be a difficult one to make a reality.

Of course, the idea floated by Payton will likely be chalked up to being just a joke. But strange things happen in professional sports all the time.

Interestingly enough, Payton had the chance to draft Jackson out of Louisville in 2018. Instead, the team opted to draft defensive end Marcus Davenport in a “Super Bowl-or-Bust” campaign in the twilight of Drew Brees’ career.

Unfortunately, that did not pan out.

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