Darren Rizzi confirmed what Tyrann Mathieu implied earlier, Joe Woods is going to call the defensive plays. Dennis Allen was doing that before.
— Katherine Terrell (@Kat_Terrell) November 4, 2024
The New Orleans Saints’ firing of Dennis Allen moves around the coaching tree a decent bit, and one of the questions that became of this was who would call defensive plays, as Allen had previously done so. That question was answered during media availability on Monday, with interim head coach Darren Rizzi announcing that Joe Woods will take over these duties. This was the presumed result as Woods is the defensive coordinator of the Saints currently.
This will be the first time the Saints have had someone new calling defensive plays since nearly a decade ago, as Dennis Allen has handled this since his promotion in 2015 from senior defensive assistant to defensive coordinator with New Orleans. Prior to that it was Rob Ryan from 2013-2015 before he moved on to the Buffalo Bills shortly thereafter. We will see how Woods does in this new role, but ultimately the defense has not been exceptional as of late so things being worse would be a tough mark to hit.