There is some disagreement about how and when the New Orleans Saints and coach Sean Payton can negotiate a new contract. But Saints general manager Mickey Loomis isn't sweating the details.
Loomis told Mike Triplett of The Times-Picayune that he's "not anticipating any obstacles to getting a deal done."
That statement came on the same day that ESPN reported NFL officials and Payton's agent, Don Yee, were "finalizing the conditions" under which the coach and the Saints could negotiate his new contract during his season-long suspension for involvement in the bounty case. The report is surprising because the NFL said two weeks ago that nothing was preventing the Saints and Payton from negotiating.
"There are no issues and nothing to keep them from talking," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Thursday, via NFL.com's Ian Rapoport.
The whole back and forth is odd, confusing and probably irrelevant. Triplett reports the Saints and Payton are expected to "commence discussions" shortly, and Loomis expects to a deal to be done.
If Payton wants to extract the maximum leverage possible and consider leaving the Saints, he will continue to run clock in this negotiation until the Dallas Cowboys' season ends.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
