Didn't have this many "come to Jesus" moments under Payton

I remember there were a few times were the fanbase was ready to fire Payton in that ‘14-‘16 timeframe.
Maybe but I remember more concern with scouting and player acquisition in that period than with coaching, though it would be interesting to find out how much influence Payton had on drafting during that period compared to the GM and the DC -- the Saints used a lot of draft capital on defense in those years, probably figuring that with Payton and Brees they could still put together a solid offense.

From 2012 to 2016, the leading contributors to the Saints over those 5 drafts were probably, Michael Thomas, Terron Armstead and Andrus Peat. That's not great when you're going 7-9 and picking in the top half of the draft. That era also featured big paydays for dubious and low producing (after the payday) players like Junior Galette (serious issues going back to college) and Brandon Browner (now an inmate and felon).