Who is the best general manager in the NFL? It’s a tough question to to answer that gets more difficult the longer you consider it, because every team works differently. Each NFL franchise has its own power structure and decision-makers, and the combinations are often unique from one front office to the next.
The New Orleans Saints, for example, work in a collaboration between head coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis. Input also comes from various executives like assistant G.M. and college scouting director Jeff Ireland, and football administration vice president Khai Harley, the team’s salary cap guru. Current general managers around the league like Ryan Pace (Chicago Bears) and Terry Fontenot (Atlanta Falcons) also came up from this structure in New Orleans.
The system works, and the Payton-Loomis combination was ranked fourth-best in the NFL by NBC Sports’ Patrick Daugherty. New Orleans has won a lot of games in recent years by drafting well and leveraging all of their resources, even if their current post-Drew Brees situation is a bit dicey. Daugherty explored the state of the Saints in greater detail, writing:
“The Saints’ past four seasons were a textbook example of going all in. Spending big in free agency. A first-round trade up for a defensive lineman. Emphasizing the backup quarterback position. Not only did the approach produce 49 victories in four years, it generated an 8-1 record with No. 2 signal callers over the past two seasons. There is nothing more Mikey Loomis and Sean Payton could have asked for … except a Super Bowl. The Lombardi never arrived, but the bill came due all the same.
Or did it? Years of paying for tomorrow today coupled with the coronavirus’ decreased salary caps created an expectation of the Saints’ roster being blown to smithereens this offseason. It didn’t happen. Players like TE Josh Hill and P Thomas Morstead had to go, but Loomis and Payton solved most of their problems with some of their trademark restructures.
That approach is part of the reason why the Saints’ highest 2021 cap hit is Drew Brees’ dead money. It is difficult to argue with the results, even if they haven’t included another trophy. Like Bill Belichick in New England, the Saints’ biggest test is just beginning as they navigate the post-Brees waters. Like Belichick, they have earned the benefit of the doubt after nearly two decades of using every tool at their disposal to build teams that consistently post double-digit victory totals.”
It’s a strategy that has worked with a franchise quarterback locked in place, but there’s no guarantee the Saints will continue to find success without a sure thing under center. And neither Taysom Hill nor Jameis Winston have shown they can be a consistent top-10 quarterback in this league by stringing together positive plays without turning the ball over. Maybe one of them is able to take that step in 2021, but the Saints will have to consider the larger margin for error until they know they have their guy.
So it’ll be fascinating to see how the next era of pro football in New Orleans unfolds. We’ve already seen the Saints begin to conduct business differently — look at all of the compensatory draft picks they accumulated this year, and are scheduled to reel in during the next draft cycle. For decades the Saints were busy spenders who didn’t qualify for those extra draft selections, and now it’s changing to where they pile up.
And that’s just one example. Let’s see how the situation develops further, and whether Payton and Loomis are able to keep the ship afloat.
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