[GTripp0012]

I support a lot of the pro-Coughlin sentiments. I do think there are better coaches in the NFL, but it's hard to argue with his accomplishments, and it's always tough to separate a good coach from a strong organization considering it's hard to be a top organization with a weak coaching staff and vice versa.

Coaches improve and decline much like players do, but the tricky thing with evaluating coaching careers is that age is not the number one indicator of where a guy is in his career. A thirty year old defensive end tells me something about the player's profile even knowing nothing else. Telling me a coach is fifty years old doesn't really tell me much of anything.

I do think age matters for coaches and there is certainly some evidence to back that up, but in the case of someone like Sean Payton, I can't tell you he's not going to be a better coach in his late 40's than he was in his late 30's. I wouldn't expect Payton to be as strong a coaching figure the next four years as he was the four prior to the suspension (sometimes guys just burnout), but that has little to do with his age and more to do with his accomplishments.