There’s a debate raging among some of our sources regarding whether former Saints V.P. of player personnel Rick Mueller was run out the door by G.M. Mickey Loomis or by coach Sean Payton.

Trusted sources have strong opinions on each side of the debate.  And we’re caught in the middle of it.

As far as we can tell, both Loomis and Payton were in on the move to move out Mueller.

Payton, we’re told, never felt comfortable working with Mueller.  In fact, Payton made a run at getting Mueller ousted a year ago, something that Mueller himself might not even know about today.

But Loomis was the guy who pulled the strings this time around, and Loomis now holds the juice.  The V.P. of player personnel position is gone, and the college and pro scouting directors now report directly to Loomis.

And it’s Loomis, not Payton, who has final say over the final 53-man roster.  So Loomis now has the juice, even though Loomis is a cap-and-contracts guy who was in the right place at the right time when Rick Mueller’s brother, Randy, was fired.

With that said, Payton is in no danger.  He and Loomis are joined at the hip, we’re told.  And they’ll likely remain that way until the team struggles for a few seasons and Loomis persuades ownership that it’s time to hire a new coach.

That’s the overriding point here.  The guy who has the owner’s ear is the guy who has the best chance at keeping his job, especially when the guy who has the owner’s ear also knows sufficiently little about the scouting and coaching to claim that the current state of the team shouldn’t be blamed on him.