re: Does anyone think Payton's year off will HURT his playcalling?

absolutely not. In fact, i expect he will probably be better.

Watching the Allstar game this week they said they spoke to Buck Showalter of the Orioles. He spent some time with ESPN before returning to coaching and said it made a big difference in how he sees the game.

And thats baseball which moves at a snails pace compared to football.

Id bet Payton has a much different perspective on the game going in to this year which is a really good thing IMO. sometimes really good coaches can get in to a rut and need to move on to regain that perspective and edge.

Or just do it like Payton and take a seat for a year.