By Jordan Long
The New Orleans Saints finished the year at 9-8, missing the playoffs for the third year in a row. Following week 18’s win against the Atlanta Falcons, rumors swirled about Head Coach Dennis Allen’s job security. A decision has been made; the Saints will keep Allen.
Allen has been the Saints’ Head Coach since 2022. He replaced Sean Payton who stepped down after 16 years with the franchise. Allen served as Payton’s defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2022. The Saints felt Allen was the best in-house candidate. He also had NFL head coaching experience with the then Oakland Raiders from 2012 to 4 games into the 2014 season. The Raiders fired him after an 0-4 start.
Last year, the Saints finished 7-10. This year the franchise had higher expectations. They brought in veteran quarterback Derek Carr who was going to help them earn a playoff spot which didn’t happen. The Saints ended the season at 9-8, the same record as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who won the division. Tampa Bay held the tie breaker because they had a better NFC conference record at 7-5. The Saints were 6-6.
The Saints took their time and decided to keep Allen. According to NFL.com, General Manager Mickey Loomis said, “So I think the easy thing to do is just look the results and say, ‘Oh no, we’ve got to have a change.’ You need to look beyond that. What are the reasons why we were 9-8 instead of 13-4. It’s collective. It’s the players, it’s the coaches, it’s me. It’s our personnel staff, our roster, it’s variables sometimes that we don’t have control of. And so my assessment is Dennis Allen is a good coach. Again, with Sean Payton we went 10-6 the first year, but then we were 7-9, 8-8 and I heard some of the same noise, but at the time I knew we had a good football coach, I think sometimes the hard thing to do is to be patient and recognize your other shortcomings and get those fixed, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Loomis is right. The Saints must be patient with Allen. They improved this past season even though it wasn’t enough to earn a playoff spot. Letting Allen go right now wouldn’t make sense. They would be giving up on him and starting over. The Saints might let Allen have one or two more years. If they fail to earn a playoff spot, then it could be time to let him go. At least the Saints believe two years is not enough.
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