New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton didn’t push Gregg Williams out

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton confirmed during his last press conference of 2011-2012 season today that the team didn’t necessarily push defensive coordinator Gregg Williams out, but they didn’t really try to retain him either.

Williams was in the final year of the three-year deal he signed when joining the Saints prior to the start of the 2009 season.

Payton said the plan all a long was to wait until the end of the season to re-evaluate the direction of the defense and Williams future with the organization.

But Payton and the Saints didn’t need to make any harsh decision about Williams, he made it himself when deciding to take over as defensive coordinator of the Rams under head coach Jeff Fisher.

The parting may be for the best anyways — Williams defense was beginning to fail — and far to often they where beat in the most critical of moments.

To put it lightly had the Saints defense not been so good at scoring points this season,  the team would have been lucky just getting to ten wins.

Now the Saints will be on the prowl for a new defensive coordinator, and names such as Steve Spagnuolo, Mike Nolan, and jack Del Rio have all been linked to the team as potential replacements..

That doesn’t mean the Saints won’t give an internal candidate consideration as both assistant head coach Joe Vitt and defensive line coach Bill Johnson could get a look.

And when asked about looking internally for a new defensive coordinator Payton replied, “We’ll see. I’ll keep you guys posted.”