Roger Goodell giveth and Roger Goodell taketh away.
In the case of Bounty-gate, the Atlanta Falcons have an opportunity to reap a bountiful harvest.
The last three NFC South titles have been won by the New Orleans Saints (two) and the Atlanta Falcons, and 2012 expected to be a season in which those two again battled it out for supremacy in the division.
Since Mike Smith took over as Falcons coach, beating the Saints has proved one of his most daunting tasks. Smith has a 2-6 record against New Orleans in his four seasons, losing five of the last six meetings against his counterpart, Sean Payton. Coming off their two victories over Atlanta last season, including the Dec. 26 domination of the Falcons, 45-16, in the Superdome, New Orleans stood to be the favorite to repeat in the coming season.
But Smith now will not have to face Payton in 2012. On Wednesday, the NFL commissioner suspended Payton effective on April 1, as a result of the Saints' bounty system uncovered during a league investigation.
As of yet, Saints owner Tom Benson has not decided who will coach the team in Payton’s absence. As part of the penalties Goodell levied, Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt was suspended for the first six games. A logical choice would seem to be new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who served as head coach of the St. Louis Rams for the last three seasons.
In St. Louis, Spagnuolo might have been dealt a bad hand, but he was not able to overcome it, which is why he lost his job and ended up in New Orleans coaching the defense. While he might be a top defensive coordinator, what has bedeviled the Falcons about the Saints is the wizardry of Payton's offense as run by quarterback Drew Brees.
Until the Dec. 26 game, the previous three were all decided by a field goal, but the Falcons have had trouble containing the Saints' high-powered attack nonetheless. In the six losses to the Saints during Smith's tenure, New Orleans has averaged 29.7 points per game.
This is always in the back of Smith's mind during these games. Who can forget Smith's unsuccessful decision to go for it on fourth down in overtime from deep in his own territory that ultimately cost his team the game?
That decision was based as much on a fear of Brees as it was on Payton's offense and his game plans and his play-calling. In divisional games, teams always talk about how familiar the opponent is, how it's the little wrinkles from game to game that make the difference. Payton excels at these wrinkles. Without him to start putting in new plays as of April 1 during offseason team activities and without him to come up with new ones on a weekly basis, the Saints will lose an edge.
Simply put, Payton is one of the game’s elite offensive minds and head coaches, which is why he has won a Super Bowl. Without him, the Saints obviously will take a step back.
That's not even considering who will fill in for general manager Mickey Loomis once his suspension for the first eight games takes effect. Who will pick the players when injuries or need arises? When the Saints were decimated by injuries in 2010 at the running back position, Loomis found undrafted free agent Chris Ivory out of Tiffin University. Ivory averaged 4.7 yards per carry last season.
And that's just the front office and coaching staff. The other shoe that has yet to drop is what penalties Saints players will receive. Somewhere between 22 and 27 players are implicated in the illegal program (not all of them still playing for the Saints). Middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma is the brains of the Saints' defense and has hurt the Falcons numerous times head-to-head. The NFL has identified him as offering $10,000 to knock Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the 2010 NFC Championship Game.
Maybe that’s one reason why the Saints have held talks with Falcons free agent middle linebacker Curtis Lofton -- in case Vilma, like Payton, is suspended for a season, which, at this point, does not seem out of the question. One had to figure that Lofton might have had mixed thoughts from the beginning about going to play for the Falcons' arch-rival, but under these circumstances? It could act as a deterrent.
Saints defensive back Jabari Greer reacted to the news on Wednesday in an interview with Sirius NFL Radio.
"It seems as if they are trying to destroy our season,'' he said. "They are trying to take away our leaders, take away our leadership.''
In many ways, the penalties are self-inflicted. But Greer could be right in that they might end up destroying the Saints' season. If so, the Falcons clearly stand to benefit.
