Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Sean Payton fires five Saints assistants, including Joe Vitt

Published January 5, 2017 12:38 PM
Sean Payton

FILE - This Dec. 26, 2011 file photo shows New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons in New Orleans. The NFL has suspended Payton for the 2012 season, and former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is banned from the league indefinitely because of the team’s bounty program that targeted opposing players. Also Wednesday, March 21, 2012, Goodell suspended Saints general manager Mickey Loomis for the first eight regular-season games of 2012, and assistant coach Joe Vitt has to sit out the first six games. (AP Photo/Rusty Costanza, File)

AP

Saints coach Sean Payton is making a major change to his coaching staff.

Payton has fired five assistants: Joe Vitt, Bill Johnson, Greg McMahon, Stan Kwan and James Willis, according to Alex Marvez of Sporting News.

Vitt is the most noteworthy name on that list. He has served as Payton’s assistant head coach since 2006 and was the Saints’ interim head coach in 2012, when Payton was suspended for Bountygate.

Also noteworthy is that Payton clearly thinks it’s time to improve his special teams: McMahon was special teams coordinator and Kwan was assistant special teams coach.

Johnson coached the Saints’ defensive line, and Willis was a linebackers assistant.