Prior to being traded to the Denver Broncos, Sean Payton was the hottest coaching name in the NFL as every team knew he wanted to coach again, but he didn’t want to go back to the New Orleans Saints.
Many teams were said to be in the mix, but he will ultimately end up with the Denver Broncos. However, there was one time when he could’ve ended up in Arizona.
Appearing on Arizona Sports 98.7 this week, Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell admitted that his team had an interest in signing Payton, but explained that the asking price was just too much.
“We spent a lot of time. The issues around coach Payton had nothing to do with the money, the compensation we would be paying him,” Bidwill said, via ProFootballTalk.
“It was all the compensation, the draft compensation to the Saints. We just weren’t willing to go with what the Saints wanted us to give up. It would have been too costly to the team for us to rebuild that roster. It was really a series of tradeoffs. I still felt like we got great coaches out there that can get this team turned around. I think we were right when you look at (Jonathan Gannon).
The Broncos wound up trading for Payton, parting with a 2023 first- and 2024 second-round pick and a 2024 third-round pick.
The Cardinals would soon hire Jonathan Gannon – a first-year head coach who specializes in defense. The upcoming 2023 season is not looking good for the Cardinals as Kyler Murray will miss a number of games because of his torn ACL and Deandre Hopkins is likely to be traded this offseason.
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This is not exactly an attractive job to have right now for any head coach. It will take a miracle for the Cardinals to once again be a playoff team, which is what the cardinals brass are hoping for with their first-year head coach.
