Is Tom Benson's age and forced passivity causing a leadership void?

First off - not blaming Benson - he's arguably the greatest New Orleanian in the 300-year history of the city.

But the factors surrounding Tom Benson (extreme age, necessity to become a much more passive owner) have contributed to a very unique situation which has empowered Sean Payton (and Mickey Loomis, to a lesser degree) to an extent that is almost unprecedented in major pro sports. Further, the 2012 Bounty suspension which saw the Saints drop from a top 4 team in the NFL to a 5-11 mess further cemented Payton's complete power hold on this organization to a degree that eclipses even Bill Belichick in New England or Greg Popovich in San Antonio. When the 2011 "should have been Super Bowl champion Saints" dropped to an unorganized mess, it was clear to all that Sean Payton was the difference.

At some point Payton has grown (probably inevitably) into this cynical, stubborn megalomaniac who can do no wrong. Once he led the rebound in 2013 and started out 5-0 (on the heels of the disastrous 2012 season) it was clear that he was a top 3 coach - maybe THE top coach in the league. Somehow it's seemed to crumble since them. Since that shocking loss in New England where our chance of victory was as high as 99% late in the 4th quarter. It seemed like that loss shattered the mystique (at least it did for me). Payton and Brees teams NEVER lost a game like that - one that we had in the bag. That was the Saints of our fathers and grandfathers. To see it happen to THIS era team was stunning. I honestly don't think we've ever quite rebounded from that... from being a top 3 team at that point in Week 5 of last season to never reaching those heights again.

One of the lasting images to me of this transformation was in Week 2 at Cleveland when he was publicly berating Rob Ryan over some defensive mistake/tactic, ignoring the fact that his offense had completely sputtered all day and was largely the reason that we were about to drop to 0-2.

Payton's playcalling and in-game management is subpar (has been well documented by me ad nauseam) but I think the simple fact is that Tom Benson is too far along and far too heavily invested in this current power setup to make a change now. We're going to have to ride this thing out until it comes to a crashing and grinding halt, I fear.

Earlier this year we were all dreaming of a Green Bay like transition from Brees to our own version of Aaron Rodgers but now it seems like that's a pipe dream. The roster is thin and top heavy, and even the "blue chippers" like Jimmy Graham, Jahri Evans and the "red chippers" like Ben Grubbs, Kenny Vaccaro, and Curtis Lofton have now become question marks.

It's a baffling and dispiriting situation we've devolved into, and I don't really see how there's much hope to get it turned around given Mr. Benson's age and how engrained the current power structure is within the organization.