{"id":766123,"date":"2026-02-21T05:21:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766123\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:21:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:21:28","slug":"why-in-2019-saints-players-wanted-sean-payton-out-dan-campbell-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766123\/","title":{"rendered":"Why, in 2019, Saints players wanted Sean Payton out, Dan Campbell in"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent appearance on the St. Brown Podcast<\/a>, former New Orleans Saints left tackle Terron Armstead said that Saints players\u2014fed up with head coach Sean Payton flirting with the Dallas Cowboys job\u2014wanted Dan Campbell to take over the team.<\/p>\n

Apparently those rumors slipped into the Saints locker room, and Armstead said the players were ready to ditch Payton, because Campbell\u2014the assistant head coach and tight ends coach at the time\u2014was so beloved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a point, we was damn-near petitioning to get Sean Payton to get up out of there,\u201d Armstead said. \u201cNot like really going on strike or nothing, but we kept hearing rumors of Sean entertaining the Cowboys job, and we were like, \u2018If Sean goes to Dallas, Dan Campbell is going to be our head coach. So, Sean, you do what\u2019s best for you and your family. We\u2019ve got Dan Campbell.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstead was clearly personally impacted by Campbell\u2019s coaching, despite not being in his position room.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (was) intense. He loves it. He loves the grind, he loves workers, he loves o-lineman. He loves to run the ball and be physical,\u201d Armstead said. \u201cHe was incredible, bro. We loved, Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is one of those times splinters in time that could have had a major impact on where the Lions were today. If Payton had departed to Dallas and Campbell took over the Saints in 2019, would he have been available for the Lions in 2021? Seems unlikely, and where would the Lions be today without Campbell?<\/p>\n

Penei Sewell\u2019s origin story starts with Armstead with Campbell<\/p>\n

Armstead also told an interesting story about how he believes everything Campbell is doing with All-Pro Penei Sewell started with him in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Armstead will forever be known as one of the most athletic offensive tackles in NFL history. His 4.71 40-yard dash remains the fastest time recorded at the NFL Combine for any offensive lineman. And because of that athleticism, Armstead credited Campbell with using him in so many different ways\u2014much like the Lions do with the equally-athletic Sewell today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was Dan Campbell\u2019s favorite,\u201d Armstead said. \u201cSo everything that he\u2019s put in for Penei, this is the origin right here, me. The pulls, the plays. Sean Payton didn\u2019t call as many\u2014I had a couple o-line plays that we had in practice, got called in the game, but didn\u2019t get actually ran [\u2026]\u2014but I was Dan Campbell\u2019s prized possession. So everything that Penei is doing, Dan had already seen the freak, the most-athletic big man ever, really, me (do it). He\u2019s seen it. Shoutout to Penei, he\u2019s a monster, incredible, future Hall of Famer for sure. I\u2019m the origin story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a recent appearance on the St. Brown Podcast, former New Orleans Saints left tackle Terron Armstead said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[153,1889,7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-766123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-detroit-lions-news","9":"tag-detroit-lions-quotes","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-new-orleans","12":"tag-new-orleans-saints","13":"tag-neworleans","14":"tag-neworleanssaints","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116106945098837289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}