I had no real issue with the process or time frame for hiring, first a GM and then a HC.
One shouldn't confuse due diligence with confusion or a 'crap show' simply because someone you know little about didn't get the job. Other than Payton and Reich, no other candidate seriously reviewed got a HC job. And in the end, there were good reasons for those two accepting the Denver and Carolina offers.
They conducted 10+ interviews and widdled it down to actual finalists. I think the final three were strong candidates.
As to Payton: he was MB's dream hire, I think, and given that he was competing against only one other interested party, he had a shot. And unless there is some evidence that Payton would have simply returned to the media had he not garnered the Denver job, then MB's hope was not ill-placed. Gannon was Monti's, held in reserve, gambit.