They were a middling team that had the ground ripped from under them and were made vagrant for an entire season. They weren’t a Jim Mora/Rick Venturi 3-13 or a Mike Ditka 3-13 — they were a natural disaster 3-13. I understand the emotional gravitas of rebirth, getting off to a hot start, winning a hard-fought playoff game, and so forth. Football is also a business. A 7-9 finish followed by an 8-8 fourth-place finish made fans say “something has to change or this isn’t gonna work out long term.” I’m new to this board, but I was a fan then, too. Would you hold Payton in such high regard if he’d kept his friend Gibbs on the staff and suffered through more 7- to 9-win seasons and no playoff berths, or would he be “very good, coulda been great if loyalty hadn’t gotten in his way?” If Allen retains Carmichael in ‘24 the seat goes from hot to scorching. If he goes a different direction and his defense continues to excel, and complementary football on offense leads to success, what will this all have been for?