The problem is that Payton is massively in Loomis' head. I can see Loomis obsessing on their competitive personal rivalry to the point of frequent distraction and a little insanity.
The more Payton succeeds in Denver, the more it tarnishes Mickey's legacy here, as it historically implies that Sean was the off-field alpha in the Super Bowl era. Especially now as Loomis GM's a team that's adrift and quite stuck between a ceiling of 5-9 wins, on nobody's watch but his and his Icarus cap management.
On the others' point about Payton-Mahomes. This has angered me over the years. Sean didn't trade up one or two spots for Mahomes, so Sean, shaddup.
What did the geniuses Loomis and Payton do in 2018? They loaded up and traded the 2019 pick to move up and draft Marcus Davenport with the 14th pick, while Lamar Jackson was drafted 32nd! Sean, Mickey... You blew the team's future dramatically. Here we are.
As for injuries, there are no more "outlier low injury" years for the team. The roster is top heavy with mediocre and overpaid old guys, and too much of the roster is filled with guys who had major injuries in college, and too many guys at the bottom of the roster in the revolving door squad.
Kamara's wonderful but Jamaal Williams has been a total bust signing, and they drafted Kendre coming off massive college injury. And so they upped Taysom's usage, and that's unsustainable at his age and with his long injury history.
The dead cap loss each year robs the Saints of at minimum, quality depth players. The Saints are sitting ducks because they lack the overall personnel quality to compete. It's all systemic now, in my opinion.