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Three teams have been cleared by the Saints to interview Sean Payton to be their next head coach, and those three teams know what kind of compensation the Saints will demand to hire Payton.
That’s the word of Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, who said today that these three teams were the only ones who asked permission to speak to Payton, and all three only got that permission after that the Saints made it clear that they weren’t giving Payton a way out.
“We haven’t defined exactly what the compensation will be yet, but they are well aware that there will be compensation,” Loomis said.
Loomis said he didn’t offer a specific price for Payton because different teams have different combinations of draft picks they could send to the Saints.
“It will be different for every team because they have different choices and different things available to them,” Loomis said. “They have to get our permission to have a discussion with him and then we have to settle the compensation before we can hire him.”
The Saints are in rough salary cap shape this year and don’t have a first-round pick. It’s going to be tough for them to rebuild their roster, but draft picks for Payton would help, and it would benefit the Saints if one of those other teams signed him.