The offensive coordinator, Carmichael.
Payton got hurt in the Bucs game last year, and the Saints lost that one at the 7 yard line.
Other than that, the Saints went 10 games under Carmichael & with him calling the plays, & this is a pretty good summary of the differences:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1277388-how-the-new-orleans-saints-offense-will-change-without-sean-payton
>>>Here are some interesting statistics. In the five full games Payton was the lone play-caller, the offense attempted 134 rushes (26.8 per game). In the 10 games Carmichael was the primary play-caller, the Saints ran it 265 times (more to the point, 26.5 times per game).
Surprisingly, the team actually ran the ball 0.3 fewer times per game. That is statistically too close to suggest there was a major difference. But the numbers very conclusively suggest the team greatly improved its running productivity with Carmichael calling plays.
Under Payton the team gained 577 yards on the ground in five games (115.4 per game). In 10 games under Carmichael, the total number was 1,607 (160.7 per game).
Statistically, that is a large difference. <<<
>>>As for the passing statistics, it is hard to notice a huge difference in terms of overall production. But the number of passing attempts per game dropped with Carmichael calling plays (46 with Payton, 42 with Carmichael).
Clearly the overall balance with Carmichael calling plays was better. It should also be noted that under Carmichael the team became more consistent in terms of protecting Drew Brees. With Payton calling plays, the Saints gave up at least one sack in all five games.
Aside from the aberration of the St. Louis Rams game, the Saints did not have a game with more than two sacks allowed under Carmichael.
And they actually had four games of not allowing any sacks.
Including the St. Louis game, the Saints allowed 12 sacks in Carmichael's 10 games. That is a 1.2 average. In five games under Payton, the team gave up 11 sacks (2.1 per game).<<<
There was a 62 point game, 4 games of 42+ points in the last 6 games, 45 points put on the Lions, and the most points scored on the 9ers all season long. (Can't recall if Peyton was calling the plays in the playoffs though...).
Brees had the most yards passing in history.
Sproles had the most combined yards in history.
The team had the most first downs and most yards in history, plus a few other NFL productivity records, and they were just 13 points behind the Packers of having the most points in the league (and the difference there was pretty much the 14-0 lead the Pack took in the early part of the 1st quarter of the NFL season opener vs the Saints).
Only question for me is whether or how much Payton creating and installing the offensive packages in the offseason will be missed. The best case scenario there is what happened when offensive genius Bill Walsh left the 9ers in 88 and was replaced by George Seifert, who was an offensive guy in 1989: the 9ers improved from 10 wins to 14, and they scored 73 more points than the season before.
In a weird way Payton's being hurt last year, though it may have hurt the team in the Bucs and Rams losses, may have actually been a positive in preparing the team for this season.
As for Brees calling the plays a la Manning, well yeah of course he can do all that (and more and better) but Brees' relationship with Payton in terms of strategy and playcalling has always been more hand in glove, a partnership of the sort that Manning never had in Indy (yes, Tom Moore but for whatever reason I don't recall getting the 'genius' tag slapped on him like Walsh and Payton).
