{"id":770616,"date":"2026-02-23T07:11:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T07:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/770616\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T07:11:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T07:11:43","slug":"players-wanted-dan-campbell-to-replace-sean-payton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/770616\/","title":{"rendered":"Players wanted Dan Campbell to replace Sean Payton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 22, 2026, 4:33 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

Former New Orleans Saints<\/a> offensive tackle Terron Armstead recently shared a fascinating behind-the-scenes story involving current Detroit Lions<\/a> head coach Dan Campbell and longtime Saints head coach Sean Payton during their time together in New Orleans. If Payton had stepped down in 2019 it was Campbell they wanted as head coach — not Dennis Allen.<\/p>\n

While appearing on the St. Brown Podcast<\/a>, hosted by Lions wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown and his brother, former Saints receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, Armstead was asked about his experience playing under Campbell in New Orleans. At the time, Campbell served as the Saints\u2019 tight ends coach and assistant head coach, working directly under Payton.<\/p>\n

Armstead revealed that in 2019, there was real uncertainty within the organization surrounding Payton\u2019s future. Rumors swirled that Payton was considering leaving New Orleans for the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 head coaching job, and players were paying close attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a point where we were damn near petitioning to get Sean Payton out of there,\u201d Armstead said. \u201cWe kept hearing rumors of Sean entertaining the Cowboys job.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the idea of losing Payton would be obviously unsettling, Armstead explained that the locker room already had a clear choice in mind if coach Payton and the organization decided to part ways. Armstead added that, if it were up to the players, \u201cIf Sean goes to Dallas, Dan Campbell is going to be the head coach. If Sean decided that’s what\u2019s best for him and his family, we rockin\u2019 with Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Armstead also spoke highly of Campbell\u2019s attributes as a coach and why players gravitated toward him long before he became a head coach: \u201cHe\u2019s intense. He loves it, he loves the grind. He loves workers, he loves the offensive line, loves to run the ball and be physical. He was incredible, bro. We loved Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the head coach of the Detroit Lions, Campbell has built a reputation around toughness, and physical football leading to an organizational turnaround in Detroit. Of course by the time Payton left the team Campbell wasn’t an option, which meant Allen was the shoo-in. But you have to ask if the team’s decisionmakers would have agreed with the players if the job had come down to Campbell and Allen. Now Saints fans are left wondering what might have been if Campbell had been given the reins in New Orleans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 22, 2026, 4:33 p.m. CT Former New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Terron Armstead recently shared a fascinating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[95878,7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,15505,96128,95882,96840,96242,109466,96131,96129,95895,95906,95884,95883,99913,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-770616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints","16":"tag-sstssportsnflsaints","17":"tag-sstsnsaints","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagamon-ra-st-brown","20":"tag-tagdetroit-lions","21":"tag-tagequanimeous-st-brown","22":"tag-tagnew-orleans","23":"tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagterron-armstead","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116118702222607487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770616","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=770616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}