N/S Payton critiques old Broncos staff, says Jets are setting themselves up for a hard fall, etc.
He was honest. He said he would most likely return in his farewell press conference.
Yeah, that part came after he got busted trying to worm his way to Miami and after he got exposed, his rationale for departing was "burn out". Also, as Drago eloquently explained above, he had no intention of staying for a rebuild post-Drew, so he ran up the credit cards and left Saints FO, and his successor with not a lot of talented, skilled players and began running his mouth even at his farewell press conference that he would likely return to coaching.
I agree with Drago, it is how he left that leaves a tinge of residual bitterness because his reasons for leaving were bullshirt, and self-serving but he knew that wouldn't be received very well by MSM sports outlets so he came up with a bunch of half-arse excuses as to why he didnt want to be Saints HC anymore.
He also left his successor in a bit of a bind that he's only recently been able to dig himself out of, at least on paper.