It's the most exciting off-season week of the year for NFL faithful, but Draft week is gut-wrenching for NFL general managers, head coaches and personnel staffs.

     The nearly year-long nightmare of Bountygate is now officially over! The NFL's decision Tuesday to reinstate Saints coach Sean Payton, a week after a federal judge tossed out Jonathan Vilma's defamation suit against Commissioner Roger Goodell, effectively puts an end to the most vexing year in franchise history.

@edwerderespn Ed Werder

"With suspensions overturned and players meeting with Commish Goodell, Drew Brees told me he still somehow hopes Sean Payton coaches in 2012" 

So, according to the tweet, Drew Brees hopes that Sean Payton might return to coach the New Orleans Saints this year. 

After last week’s embarrassing loss to the Washington Redskins, he better hope the return will come soon as in immediately. 

Well, we got what we asked for. Now what? We all knew that once the games started, all the bad memories of the worst off-season in team history would be forgotten. Drew would start clicking with Graham and Colston, Ingram and Thomas would grab yards at will and Sproles would sashay in and out of puzzled defenders like a moth. After the touchdowns and the other team finally got the ball, Spags' new revitalized defense would stop the bad guys in their tracks, probably intercept a pass or strip a fumble and get the ball back for Drew.

     When Sean Payton's one-year suspension ends, he might find the cupboard bare when he returns to his Saints office. Certainly not of players. Drew Brees will end his career in New Orleans, and most of the core Saint players are under contract for the foreseeable future. No, Payton might find that his absence led to a mass audition of his assistants to run their own shops. And there would be merit to that logic.

     Joe Vitt, Aaron Kromer, Steve Spagnuolo and Pete Carmichael Jr. all could be candidates for head coaching jobs about the time Payton returns to reclaim his locker. You earn your bones when the bullets start flying, and all four aforementioned assistants will soon be dodging and ducking while rallying their own troops to take out the enemy. Bullets have never flown so frequently around the Saints organization as they have during the past offseason. Bountygate, Brees holdout, wild stories of bugging devices, the commissioner suspensions, players suing the commissioner and other lawsuits being prepared.