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Colts Potential Price for Saints Sean Payton is 2nd Round Pick

By Luke Schultheis

Oct 25, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton shakes hands after the game with Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano at Lucas Oil Stadium. New Orleans defeats Indianapolis 27-21. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 25, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton shakes hands after the game with Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano at Lucas Oil Stadium. New Orleans defeats Indianapolis 27-21. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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According to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, if the Indianapolis Colts in fact want the New Orleans Sean Payton as their next head coach, the organization may have to surrender a 2nd round pick in a trade between the two teams:

With Chuck Pagano likely being let go extremely soon, the Colts have been rumored to be interested in a pair of big name head coaches including Payton, as well as the University of Alabama’s Nick Saban.

Dec 27, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton walks off the field after they defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars, 38-27, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 27, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton walks off the field after they defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars, 38-27, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /

Payton has been previously linked to the Colts, with Indianapolis reported as one of his most likely landing spots, and would make quite a deal of sense in order to further develop young quarterback Andrew Luck.

Of course, trading draft picks in order to sign another NFL team’s head coach isn’t exactly unprecedented, as there have been such trades in the past:

  • In 2006, the Kansas City Chiefs signed head coach Herm Edwards, who was previously with the New York Jets, in exchange for a 4th round draft pick.
  • In 2004, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed head coach Jon Gruden, who was previously with the Oakland Raiders, in exchange for the Bucs 2002 and 2003 first round picks, 2002 and 2004 second round picks, and $8 million in cash.
  • In 2000, the New England Patriots signed head coach Bill Belichick, who recently quit his job with the New York Jets, but were forced to surrender a 2000 first round pick, a 2001 4th round pick, and 2002 7th round pick. However, the Patriots also received the Jets 2001 5th round pick and 2002 7th round pick.
  • In 1997, the New York Jets signed head coach Bill Parcells, who was previously with the New England Patriots, in exchange for 1997 3rd and 4th round picks, a 1998 2nd round pick, and a 1999 first round pick, as well as $300K to a Patriots charity.

Still, a 2nd round pick is a pretty valuable commodity, so it’s not exactly “chump change” that the Colts would be giving up in order to acquire Payton’s coaching services.

That being said, it’ll be interesting to see if interested NFL teams will actually give in to the Saints draft pick demands or whether they’ll look to call their bluff and see if Payton gets released from his current contract entirely–which has 2 years, at $8 million per year remaining.

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