FanHouse Seanpayton

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

Gregg Williams hasn't informed a free agent decision for New Orleans yet, hasn't hand-picked the inevitable defensive playmaker the Saints choose with their 14th-overall selection this year, hasn't installed a single scheme in a minicamp. Yet Williams' reputation has preceded him to the Crescent City, and his hiring as defensive coordinator is already considered one of the most important moves in team history.

After almost two decades of guaranteed defensive putridity, the last three of which have revolved around Gary Gibbs' lack of talent identification and bland scheming, the idea of Williams and his history of intelligent, hard-working, active, complex defenses coming to the Superdome is music to the ears. It also might finally push the Saints over the top.

Ryan already broke down how the now famous Arizona Cardinal modified fleaflicker that resulted in a 62 yard Larry Fitzgerald touchdown has a history in Ken Wisenhunt's playbook, dating to the Steelers in 2005.

But it turns out, via the esteemed Larry Brown, that there's a little more history behind it as well, particularly with the Philadelphia Eagles. So much so, in fact, that the specific play is actually known as "The Philly Special" because it seeks to take direct advantage of Jim Johnson's aggressive blitz packages.

Sacrificing a paycheck in order to bring another high profile player to a team is one of the truly selfless things that an athlete can do. Really, the willingness to make only a few million dollars instead of many millions of dollars is an act that often goes unnoticed. But you almost never hear of it from a coaching perspective.

However, giving up part of his salary for the betterment of his coaching staff is exactly what Sean Payton recently did, according to Jay Glazer (via LBS), offering up a quarter million bucks of his salary towards Gregg Williams' first year paycheck, just in order to land the defensive coordinator.

Former Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron, most recently a defensive line coach with the New Orleans Saints, has accepted a position on Lane Kiffin's staff at Tennessee. He had mulled competing offers from LSU and Tennessee, both with big money dangled in front of him.

The LSU offer was reportedly worth $500k, while Tennessee reeled him in with that shiny $850k offer.

Being that his former employ was in the NFL, Ed Werder style gossip soon followed.

Apparently, some within the organization felt Orgeron was more focused on his coaching future than his current job, and Payton grew tired of Orgeron juggling phone calls from LSU and Tennessee.

The source also suggested that [Saints' coach Sean] Payton was not very pleased with the progress of the defensive line under Orgeron even before the LSU-Tennessee tug-of-war began, and he is looking forward to the opportunity to bring in a veteran defensive line coach with NFL experience.

Meeeeowwwwwwww. This isn't all that surprising, we are talking about the gossipy NFL here where if somebody isn't ticked at something they might as well stop breathing.

On Monday, I admitted that I might've been off on the whole "the Giants will be fine without Plax" story line. New York has dropped two in a row and suddenly look very ordinary. And much of that has to do with there being no big-play threat on the field now that Plaxico Burress has been suspended for the rest of the year.

Evidently, I gave Domenik Hixon a little too much credit. And so did head coach Tom Coughlin. Which explains why the team put 36-year-old Joe Horn through the paces earlier this week. The Giants decided not to sign him -- perhaps because he's 36 years old -- and Horn took the news about how you might expect: he accused the organization of using of him.

[Horn] believes the Giants never had any intention of signing him, that they just brought him in to create some sort of "spark" among the young receivers they already have.

"I was told to pack my clothes because I may be staying," Horn told The Monty Show on Sporting News Radio earlier today. ... "However, before I could step in the locker room I had an itinerary with my flight back to Atlanta. The opportunity was there. I appreciate the organization and Coach Coughlin for giving me the opportunity.

I was talking to FanHouse Head of Zebra Accountability, Matt Snyder, when the Bucs took a 20-10 lead over the Saints with plenty of time left in the third quarter of today's eventual 23-20 Tampa win. To me the game was, for all intents and purposes, over at that point, though Snyder raised the reasonable, logical point that there was plenty of time for one of the league's elite offenses to erase a 10-point deficit.

With most teams, a lead like that with so much time left is practically irrelevant. With powerhouses like the Giants, Patriots, or Colts, you could stick them with a 10-point deficit with less than five minutes left and I still wouldn't close the book on the game. Yet in Sean Payton's three years, the Saints have displayed an inability to overcome adversity. Today's game was just the same ole song and dance for Saints fans who have been able to mark wins and losses in ink by halftime.

Say what you will about Aaron Brooks (and I've said plenty, most of which is not suitable for this space), but he had 16 fourth-quarter comebacks in his career in New Orleans, including five in 2004. Under the Payton/Drew Brees regime, the Saints are a mind-boggling 0-17 when trailing after three quarters. Though Brees is greatly responsible for this one particular loss, he's also orchestrated 12 late-game comebacks in San Diego, so I tend to believe the onus falls on Payton.

Nobody probably thought that at this point in the season the Saints would be scraping the bottom of the NFC North barrel, but that is what it has come to.

Luckily for New Orleans, they have Drew Brees being Drew Brees and Reggie Bush proclaiming he could be available for the first time in four weeks. Bush told the The Times-Picayune yesterday that he felt this was the week we'd be seeing him making plenty of exciting cutbacks for two-yard losses.

"I definitely feel like this is the week" for his return.

"You're just trying to make sure you're 100 percent before you get back out there on the field," said Bush, who tore the meniscus in his knee at Carolina on Oct. 19 and had surgery the next day.

As easy as it is to harp on Bush (you know, because he goes to Las Vegas instead of London with his team), the only way the Saints have a chance in that division is if everyone is back healthy. Three of their final fives games are against divisional opponents and with two of those being at home, it is possible they could go 3-0. With the Bears and Lions being the other two games, if the Saints can do what they did Monday Night against the Packers, we could be looking at an 11-5 team vying for a playoff berth. (This is, obviously, hinging on one of the three teams in front of the Saints take a digger over the next five weeks, and one or two teams in the NFC East start to struggle).

After you swallow all of that information, head coach Sean Payton said he hopes to get Bush more reps this week so he can be on the field against Tampa Bay.

"Hopefully, he practices more this week and we have him this week," Payton said.

Bush has 943 all-purpose yards this season and eight touchdowns.

Reggie Bush is a very unique individual when it comes to his impact on an offense. Even when Tom Brady went down, the Patriots were plugging in a backup to the same position. Obviously, Matt Cassel isn't near the QB Brady is, so the ripples felt through the team and league were significant. The point is, though, that the offense didn't change.

With Bush going down, the entire offensive complexion of the Saints is forced to change, because the dynamic Bush impacts the game on every play. Even when he doesn't touch the ball, the defense must pay attention to him. That element is now going to be missing from the Saints offense for at least the next two games.

So what does Sean Payton do? Does he try to plug Aaron Stecker -- the most comparable player left on the roster -- into the Bush-role? The defense doesn't exactly jump to Stecker the way they would Bush. The other option is to run a traditional offense until Bush gets back. Deuce McAllister would jump into the feature back role, with Pierre Thomas available to spell him, and Stecker picking up third and long duties.

New Orleans running back Reggie Bush has been knocked out of their game against Carolina. Deuce McAllister has taken over the role of featured back.

Bush, who is one of the best punt returners in the league, injured his knee in the first half, probably on a punt return that ran out the clock on the half. He hobbled into the locker room at the break and has not resurfaced. The Fox broadcast reported that Bush will not return.

This is big for the Saints, who are already a bit shorthanded. Yes, Jeremy Shockey and Marques Colston are playing, but they're far from 100%. It's obvious that Colston still doesn't feel comfortable out there with a splint on his hand. McAllister is recovering from knee surgery last year and head coach Sean Payton hasn't wanted to overwork him, but he's got no choice.

Bush ran nine times for 55 yards and caught one pass for five yards.