NFL Conference Championship - The New Orleans Saints are $74 million over the projected 2022 salary cap. Their only quarterbacks under contract are Taysom Hill and Ian Book. Important starters such as Terron Armstead and Marcus Williams are headed for free agency. Other top performers such as Cameron Jordan, Malcolm Jenkins, and Demario Davis are well into their 30s. And Michael Thomas is brooding like Rambo in a mountain yurt somewhere.
If you were Sean Payton, you would run screaming from this situation too.
Payton stepped down as the Saints head coach on Tuesday, ostensibly to retire from the rigors of the NFL, plausibly to hang out in Mike McCarthy's barn o' wisdom until they switch places in a week year or two, but obviously to escape a miserable no-win scenario in Metairie.