Nah, Payton didn’t always get along with Saints stars. He shipped out Jimmy Graham, he had issues with Michael Thomas and there’s about a handful of other runins with productive Saints players during his run as HC. The problems we assume DA has in the locker room is what CSP dealt with but we usually blamed the player because CSP was winning.
According to Duncan, Saints beef with Lattimore started because they’re frustrated with his injury recovery pace after missing half a season 2 years in a row. That irked Lattimore and brought them to where they are now.
DA developed Lattimore into the top CB he is today since Latt’s been here. He’s a byproduct of DA’s coaching like the rest of the DBs and defense so coaching isn’t the main issue here. The HC/FO and Lattimore just has to continue mending their gripes about his health and truly move forward together like they say they will.