Saints, Loomis Have Made All the Right Moves

Bit by Bit, GM Built a Contender

Saints Coach Sean Patyon, left, and quarterback Drew Brees have made a formidable combination. The were brought together by Mickey Loomis, right. (By Bill Haber -- Associated Press)

In the days and months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, the Saints, one of the NFL's traditionally poor teams, were the least of the area's problems.

Which is not to say that they weren't a problem. Forced to relocate to San Antonio, the Saints limped through a 3-13 season and their long-term future in New Orleans was in question. As the dismal 2005 season ended, General Manager Mickey Loomis knew he had to take apart the team and rebuild it -- but he worried that no one would want to come to the ravaged city to work for a broken franchise with such an uncertain future.

"I thought we could have a problem," Loomis said in a midweek phone interview. "I definitely thought it could be a problem in the coaching search -- not so much with the head coach because those jobs are so scarce and they're so coveted, but when it came to getting assistant coaches -- and players. Those guys have other options."

There had been talk at one point among league officials and the 32 owners of altering the salary cap rules to enable the Saints to offer players special inducements to play in New Orleans. Last season, Saints players got $40,000 bonuses from the league and NFL Players Association. But nothing ever was done to help Loomis rebuild the club for this season. He was on his own.

Looking back as the Saints prepare to play the first NFC championship game in their history today in Chicago, Loomis did exceptionally well. It wasn't merely that the football fates owed the Saints some big-time breaks. Loomis, the NFL executive of the year, made the right moves and took the right risks at the right time. He landed the NFL's coach of the year, its most prolific quarterback and its most dynamic rookie running back -- not to mention the steal of the draft and a whole collection of useful role players -- in a matter of a few months.

His first masterstroke was hiring Payton, the top offensive assistant to Dallas Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells, to replace the fired Jim Haslett. Payton knew the risks of going to a team that many people in the league believed would be headed to Los Angeles eventually and perhaps sold, but he accepted the job after consulting Parcells and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He brought along Cowboys linebackers coach Gary Gibbs as his defensive coordinator and he got Joe Vitt, who'd ended last season as the St. Louis Rams' interim coach, to be his assistant head coach and linebackers coach. The three of them used their connections to cobble together a staff.

Loomis was surprised, he said, that no holdover Saints players asked to be traded or released. Still, he knew there had to be significant roster turnover. Quarterback Aaron Brooks was released. Veteran left tackle Wayne Gandy was traded. Center LeCharles Bentley and defensive end Darren Howard were allowed to depart as free agents. As the opening of the free agent market in March neared, Loomis decided to be upfront with interested players.

"I made the decision early on: 'Yeah, we have those warts. We're not going to hide them. If we disguise it and they come, later on we'll have an unhappy employee,' " Loomis said. "So we said to guys: 'Here are the good things and the bad things. You can have an impact here that goes beyond football.' I was surprised how many guys were attracted to that. Even guys that we didn't get were attracted to the circumstances surrounding our city and our football team."

The approach worked.

"For me, it was all about finding the right fit and the place where I felt the most comfortable and thought I would be the happiest," said linebacker Scott Fujita, who signed a four-year, $12 million contract with the Saints in mid-March after spending last season with the Cowboys. "Once free agency opened up and I came down to New Orleans, I just felt like I was right here where I belonged."

The key to free agency, Loomis said, was getting Drew Brees merely to visit. The quarterback was a marquee free agent even though he was coming off shoulder surgery for an injury suffered in his final game with the San Diego Chargers.

"It sent a message to other guys that they should at least take our phone calls," Loomis said. "More than anything, I was worried about guys dismissing us without even taking our phone calls."