Former Saints HC Sean Payton gets brutally honest about his upcoming return to New Orleans

The New Orleans Saints are looking to end a four-game losing streak in Week 7. It won't be easy. Their foe will have some extra motivation to beat them. It's former Saint head coach Sean Payton.

Payton is not particularly looking for a warm welcome when he comes back. Sure, that would be nice of the Saints crowd. It's just not what he's expecting before an important matchup that both teams desperately need to win.

Sean Payton's expectation for return to New Orleans

"One of the things we talk about with our players is trying to handle all this stuff ahead of time... I think those around us know how challenging the short week is as compared to as if it was a full week. Certainly, there will be emotions going back there with players, but I do think that comes up quite a bit in our league. With players and in this case certainly the amount of time I was there, I understand it. We have to deal with the crowd noise. That place is loud, and you guys know that..."

“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of flowers and warm fuzzies for yours truly, and I get it.” -- Payton via NFL.com

Payton chose to leave New Orleans. Both sides came to an agreement of sorts for his departure and impending deal with the Broncos, but he was not forced out the door.

It is an odd situation that many franchises never deal with in the NFL.

Payton is the lone Super-Bowl winning head coach in team history, but fans will really want the Saints to get a win against him on Thursday night - just to send a message. There's plenty of emotion involved on both sides. Expect to see it during the game.

Jordan, Loomis on Payton's return

Payton has always worn emotions on his sleeve. Jordan clearly picked up on that during his time as a player under him. Now, he realizes that the veteran HC can really get one final laugh against the Saints.

Saints GM Mickey Loomis does not see it as a vengeful opportunity for the former head coach in New Orleans.

"It's not a revenge game, you know, sometimes you play against a team you were with and you have bitter, angry feelings about that team, you want to beat them because of that, that's not this game with Sean. Sean loved his time here with the Saints, he has love for the city and the organization, but ... it's like playing against your brother, you know. You want to beat him, and we feel the same way. It'll be a dogfight. He'll pull out all the stop and we have to be prepared for that."

-- Loomis on the matchup with Payton via Jeff Nowak

Loomis is definitely correct with his last comment there. Payton will almost certainly reach deep into his bag of tricks against the Saints. He will leave no stone unturned when it comes to embarrassing his former team, even if it simply for a laugh.

Regardless, there's a lot of anticipation for this matchup on both sides. There's plenty of unique point of views as well.

Related: Saints receive some good news for their offense days before game against Sean Payton