Should Dallas have gone after Sean Payton?

The Dallas Cowboys hired Mike McCarthy as their next head coach, but should they have gone after Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints instead of McCarthy?

The Dallas Cowboys have made Mike McCarthy their next head coach. Dallas hired the former Green Bay Packers head coach on Monday morning less than a day after finally parting ways with Jason Garrett. McCarthy won a Super Bowl in Green Bay, but that was a decade ago. Should the Cowboys have gone after New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton instead?

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, discuss if it was even possible for the Cowboys to hire Payton away from the Saints and if it would have been a good idea to pursue him (17:15).

Schwartz thinks that Payton already has too good of a thing going in New Orleans for him to really consider coming back to Dallas to be a head coach. He already won a Super Bowl in New Orleans, he helped guide the franchise through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and he can continue to coach in The Big Easy largely without criticism. Why would anyone want to leave that situation?

Verderame brought up a good point that Dallas doesn’t typically pay its head coaches top-dollar. Not only would the Cowboys have to orchestrate a trade with the Saints to land Payton, but they would also have to pay him more than handsomely to be their next head coach. We can’t expect owner Jerry Jones to do that when he’s been one way for his entire Cowboys ownership.

Would it have been nice if Dallas’ former offensive coordinator under Bill Parcells would have an opportunity to lead “America’s Team” again? Sure, but Payton is a head-coaching institution in New Orleans and he’d be a fool to leave that job willingly. Had Payton not had as much success with the Saints, then maybe there was a possibility to land him as Dallas’ next head coach.

Ultimately, Dallas should be pretty thrilled about landing a former Super Bowl winner in McCarthy. He will bring a no-nonsense brand to the coaching staff, as he is looking to bring in many solid coaches to round out his staff. There was no way Payton was ever going to come back to Dallas. Let’s put that rumor to bed and move on with the new era of Cowboys football.

Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Saints shockingly go home on controversial call (4:24)
• Should the NFL change overtime rules? (8:39)
• Does Tom Brady return to the Patriots? (25:19)
• What are we looking forward to this week? (57:10)

All this and more!

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