Oakland moves on after Payton stays in Dallas

By Don Banks, SI.com

Sean Payton never was offered the Raiders' coaching job. Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Despite momentum that seemed to make his hiring something of a formality, Dallas Cowboys assistant head coach Sean Payton never received a contract offer to become the Oakland Raiders next head, and on Wednesday the Cowboys announced that Payton will remain with the organization.

Talks between the Raiders and Payton heated up Tuesday, as he became the first candidate to interview for the Oakland job a second time. But as two sources close to the situation said Tuesday night, reports of Payton's agreeing to terms were premature, and the negotiation process had not reached the stage where contract terms or a potential offer had been discussed.

One strong possibility that emerged Wednesday night was that Dallas head coach Bill Parcells had given Oakland owner Al Davis in essence a deadline: Either hire Payton by the end of Wednesday or move on in your coaching search. According to a source close to the situation, Davis said he was not prepared to offer Payton the job under those conditions, and the two sides agreed to end their talks.

"I don't think Sean Payton turned down the job because Sean Payton was never offered the job," Davis said in a rare interview with reporters. "Sean Payton has a lot of good credentials, but I don't know if that's the direction we're going."

Those with knowledge of the situation say that is a tried and true M.O. for Parcells, and that he gave Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer largely the same deadline when Zimmer was considering the University of Nebraska head coaching job earlier this month: a decision by the close of a certain day, or move on.

While some reports had Payton agreeing to a four-year deal with the Raiders, one that would pay him between $1.3 million to $1.5 million, negotiations apparently never got to the nitty-gritty level, sources say. The Raiders now plan to reopen their coaching search, a source said, but currently have no interviews scheduled.

After his interview Tuesday in Oakland, the Raiders put Payton on a plane bound for Dallas in the late afternoon, and did not have definite plans at that point to bring him back to town for a potential introductory news conference.

However, Payton was the obvious leading candidate to land the Raiders job, in part because he was the only one to receive two interviews with Davis. Sources said talks between the Payton and the Raiders, while far from being concluded, were serious and substantive.

Payton, 40, would have been the NFL's youngest head coach, nipping both Tampa Bay's Jon Gruden and Jacksonville's Jack Del Rio by a matter of months. Payton would replace the fired Bill Callahan, who was canned in late December after going 4-12 in his controversy-filled second season as Raiders head coach.

The 2003 season was Payton's first in Dallas, where he served as Bill Parcells' assistant head coach. Payton was the New York Giants offensive coordinator from 1999-2002, and got much of the credit for the Giants' Super Bowl run in 2000. But he had his play-calling duties taken away by Giants head coach Jim Fassel in midseason 2002, and the move was seen as instrumental in New York rallying to a playoff berth that season.

While the Raiders and Payton had yet to fully commit to one another, the marriage certainly made sense in light of Davis' track record for giving young, offensive-minded assistants their first NFL head coaching opportunity. Davis followed that formula in hiring John Madden, Tom Flores, Mike Shanahan, Art Shell, Mike White, Gruden, and Callahan.

Oakland is the only remaining team among the seven that had head coaching vacancies this offseason. Chicago, Atlanta, Buffalo, Arizona, the Giants, and Washington all hired head coaches in the past two weeks.