Report – Eagles One of Four Teams in on Payton

The Philadelphia Eagles tried to get a head start in their coaching search by firing Chip Kelly in Week 16.

It seems though that a bidding war of sorts still could emerge over one of their located candidates.

According to a report, the Eagles are one of four teams to be interested in trading for current New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton.

Here's more from Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (as transcribed by BGN):

On Monday evening, Mickey Loomis, the general manager of the New Orleans Saints, and Sean Payton, the coach of the New Orleans Saints, for now, met to discuss the future for Payton.

And one thing has become clear, the Saints have set a low price if teams want to trade for Payton right now, and will allow him to leave if they can get a market for Payton in a trade. The reason for setting the low price is because Loomis wants to create a big market for Payton and believes he can get a big payoff. In other words, saying it will only take a second round pick, which was reported by Jay Glazer of FOX, is a way of getting multiple teams interested in trading for now him and then getting a bidding war for him among those teams.

And that’s a strong possibility, considering upwards of four teams are interested in getting Payton right now. Those teams include the New York Giants, where Payton has coached before, the Philadelphia Eagles, where he has also coached before and broke in with the NFL, the Miami Dolphins, which is a little bit more distant but still has an interest and a connection because of Bill Parcels, and finally the San Francisco 49ers, where the 49ers would like to have an established coach help turn the organization around.

Now what will in turn force Payton, and whether he’s able to leave, or wants to leave New Orleans, is ultimately about control. And he maintains that the kind of control that he has with the Saints, where he basically runs the organization and he runs the personnel … if he gets some of that or most of that kind of freedom with most of these jobs, look for Payton to look seriously at leaving New Orleans.

Are the Eagles now willing to trade for Payton? There is a difference between having Payton on your wish list and actually trying to negotiate something with the Saints in terms of compensation.

We've already seen reports of the Saints asking for a second round pick in exchange for Payton, the Eagles traded their only second round pick to the Rams last off season.

What Cole also points out is that Payton would want the kind of control he already has with the Saints, which could ultimately prove to be problematic with the power structure already laid out by Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.

Payton could end up being traded this off season, but for now the Eagles might not be a fit.

--PG