Where Would Sean Payton Rank Among Great Offensive Minds if He Wins Another Super Bowl?
I think you have to put him behind the late Bill Walsh.
From a strictly offensive perspective as the title requests, he may just be the greatest mind ever including Bill Walsh. In an era of historic offensive performances league wide, one can make an easy argument that Payton has been the most consistently outstanding. I'm not sure that even Walsh would be better in this day and age. I know that smacks of hyperbole, but giving it a lot of thought I just can't point to anyone as an obviously superior offensive mind.
Walsh created or greatly improved on the original West Coast Offensive while Payton uses every tool at his disposal, both existing schemes and schemes of his own creation, to get the best performance from his team. So it is a bit apples and oranges.
Still, like guido mentions, offense is not why we have just the one trophy. That is why I would hesitate to rank Payton very high on the list of historic Head Coaches. But as an offensive mind, it is hard to find anyone who you might rank head and shoulders above him.