The Saints’ franchise went 33 years without winning a playoff game. In recent years, they’ve been a consistent contender, winning a Super Bowl.
And so that history is reflected in any effort to identify the organization’s all-time greats.
Half of the Pro Football Talk on NBCSN Mt. Rushmore for the Saints consists of guys who played big roles in securing that championship: coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees. Elsewhere on the stone monument is quarterback Archie Manning and linebacker Rickey Jackson, the Saints’ first Hall of Famer.
PFT Planet mainly agreed, replacing Jackson with tackle Willie Roaf.
Brees led the way in the voting, showing up on 92 percent of the ballots. Manning landed on 60 percent. Payton and Roaf appeared on 44 percent.
Shaun King, who played college football at Tulane, argued aggressively for owner Tom Benson to be included. (Shaun has a thing about making the case for guys who didn’t even make it to the 12 finalists.) But he was shot down even more aggressively, as the video from Wednesday’s show indicates.
Erik Kuselias and Ross Tucker would have omitted Payton. Which is fine. I like coaches who transform an organization and take it to unprecedented heights. They don’t.