It's a very common theme in the NFL for a good Edge rusher to take 3 or 4 years before you see their real output. 2020 we saw it. The Bengals saw. Saints coaches/front office did not. The Bengals offered a contract that would pay him his money if 2020 ended up being a fluke. Just for clarity, we could've done the same. We could've offered him 4 years with 20 million guaranteed. And we would've struck gold.
There's no simple way to put it. You could put it on the defensive line coach, Dennis Allen or Loomis. But someone, if not all 3 of them thought they could've found a better product in the draft and ended up being more wrong then ever.
Loomis is the GM. His job is based on the recommendation of his defensive coach. Payton was the head coach, and his job is to overrule the defensive coach if he believes he's wrong. Dennis Allen was wrong. Payton didn't overrule him. Loomis let him walk.
And we struck out with Davenport and Turner.