Payton came in here got rid of the greatest Wide Receiver the Saints had up to that point because his whole plan to was to make sure everyone knew who the boss was. I mean that's a positive in my opinion... Although, I would rather have Horn be able to retire a Saint without having to be a Falcon first.
Colston clearly established himself as WR1 . In addition to Colston, the Saints were establishing themselves at the league's top offense with WRs named Terrence Copper and Jamal Jones during Joe's injury.
Let's not act like Payton immediately strolled in and drew a line in the sand with Horn (the way he basically did with Stallworth). It took a lot of things going right before that happened.