Sean Payton Admits to Saints Stealing Bears' Trick Play in Playoffs

Back in the NFC Wild Card Round, Matt Nagy got creative with an interesting trick play call against the New Orleans Saints. The Chicago Bears head coach had Mitchell Trubisky motion from a deep wide receiver set in a wildcat formation. Trubisky then took a backwards lateral from the wildcat QB before airing the ball out downfield.

It was a beautifully executed play, and it would have worked if not for an end zone drop from wide receiver Javon Wims. The following week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sean Payton decided to try his luck, and with much more fortuitous results.

In the Saints version, Tre'Quan Smith caught the deep ball from Jameis Winston before trotting into the end zone for a touchdown. When asked whether or not he stole the play, Payton had no interest in lying about it. He simply joked that he wrote down the play and replaced Nagy's name with his own.

All jokes aside, Bears fans were more upset than Nagy himself. Although both teams lost the games that they used the play in question, Payton says he thanked Nagy after the fact. He also gave the Bears HC full credit later in an interview on ESPN Radio.

Head coaches are always trying to get a leg up on one another, and they often use variations of their own plays to do so. This was just another example of that. It is just a game after all.

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Michael Obermuller is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Michael Obermuller also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username king_mizzard. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.