Elliot Harrison recently released his NFL head coach power rankings over at NFL.com. I guess this is something he does every off-season. Who knew?
Anyway, Elliot appears to be a pretty big fan of Saints head coach Sean Payton, who is ranked second overall in his rankings behind only Bill Belichick. Can't say I blame him, of course.
Here is how Harrison defends his high Payton ranking:
So, let's see ... in 2011, the Saints go 13-3 with Payton. Then the coach gets suspended for the 2012 campaign, and New Orleans drops to 7-9. Payton returns last year and leads the Saints to an 11-5 mark. Notice a pattern? Payton is indispensable to this franchise. He's taken the Saints to the playoffs five times, making the NFC Championship Game twice and winning the organization's only Lombardi Trophy in 2009.
Nothing but cold, hard facts here. Pretty hard to disagree with any of it.
This is actually a move upward for Payton, who was ranked 5th by Harrison in his head coach power rankings last year.
If Payton manages to win another Super Bowl this season, who knows, maybe he'll earn the coveted top spot in Harrison's power rankings next summer. We can only hope.