Sean Payton retiring: Is Aaron Glenn a candidate to replace him in New Orleans?

Reports leaked from just about every NFL source on Tuesday afternoon that Saints head coach Sean Payton is stepping down from his position and retiring from coaching. With his departure, the NFL now has an extraordinarily high number of coaching vacancies with nine.

This one is of particular interest to Detroit Lions fans, seeing as the direct links between the Lions and Saints organizations. Last year, the Lions plucked Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn from the Saints to become their head coach and defensive coordinator, respectively.

Now there is an expectation that the Saints will at least interview Glenn for their now vacant head coaching position. While NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport did not explicitly say that Glenn will interview for the position, he did tweet the following:

“Expect the #Saints to interview Dennis Allen — considered the leading candidate — and #Lions DC Aaron Glenn for their now vacant HC job.”

As Rapoport alludes to, Glenn is not the presumed leading candidate for the job right now. Those honors go to current Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, who many believe has been groomed for the position over the past few years. Allen stepped in for Payton once already after the Saints head coach tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this year. The Saints shut out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0 in that game.

Allen is also a candidate for the Chicago Bears job, as he was scheduled to interview for the team on Tuesday.

As for Glenn, we noted the possibility that even though he no longer appears to be a candidate for the Denver Broncos job, Payton’s uncertain future mean the Lions weren’t certain to keep their defensive coordinator quite yet.

The Saints have set up a press conference at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday to address the news.