In a recent appearance on the St. Brown Podcast, former New Orleans Saints left tackle Terron Armstead said that Saints players—fed up with head coach Sean Payton flirting with the Dallas Cowboys job—wanted Dan Campbell to take over the team.
For a little background, there were plenty of rumors toward the end of Payton’s career with the Saints that he really wanted the Cowboys job. There’s even an insane story from Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio that Dallas had a deal with the Saints for Payton in 2019 that was blown up by—of all things—the Pelicans forward Anthony Davis publicly requesting a trade. According to Florio, Mickey Loomis, who served as both the Saints general manager and Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations at the time, didn’t want to be tied together with New Orleans losing two iconic sports figures in one offseason, so the deal immediately dissolved.
Apparently those rumors slipped into the Saints locker room, and Armstead said the players were ready to ditch Payton, because Campbell—the assistant head coach and tight ends coach at the time—was so beloved.
“It was a point, we was damn-near petitioning to get Sean Payton to get up out of there,” Armstead said. “Not like really going on strike or nothing, but we kept hearing rumors of Sean entertaining the Cowboys job, and we were like, ‘If Sean goes to Dallas, Dan Campbell is going to be our head coach. So, Sean, you do what’s best for you and your family. We’ve got Dan Campbell.’”
Armstead was clearly personally impacted by Campbell’s coaching, despite not being in his position room.
“He (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,” Armstead said. “He was incredible, bro. We loved, Dan.”
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?
Penei Sewell’s origin story starts with Armstead with Campbell
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.
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—much like the Lions do with the equally-athletic Sewell today.
“I was Dan Campbell’s favorite,” Armstead said. “So everything that he’s put in for Penei, this is the origin right here, me. The pulls, the plays. Sean Payton didn’t call as many—I had a couple o-line plays that we had in practice, got called in the game, but didn’t get actually ran […]—but I was Dan Campbell’s 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’s seen it. Shoutout to Penei, he’s a monster, incredible, future Hall of Famer for sure. I’m the origin story.”
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