Category: Darren Rizzi

Darren Rizzi has received a head coach interview request from another team

The New York Jets have requested to interview New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi for their own vacancy. He went 3-5 after replacing Dennis Allen:

Darren Rizzi is expected to interview for the New Orleans Saints head coaching vacancy, but it won’t be his only interview.

NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill reports the New York Jets have requested to interview the Saints interim head coach for their own head coaching vacancy.

It’s interesting the Jets are pursuing Rizzi when there’s been dwindling chatter of Rizzi getting the job in New Orleans. New York is also going after Aaron Glenn, Joe Brady and Mike Vrabel as well, but now Rizzi is added to the bunch.

Rizzi took over for Dennis Allen just before the Saints’ bye week, and finished with a 3-5 record. There was obviously something they liked from those eight weeks.

There was an initial surge by the Saints under Rizzi. In evaluating the results, it’s important to note Rizzi was working with bare cabinets. The lack of many critical starters on offense was certainly taken into account.

Results aside, Rizzi seems like a guy who is ready to build a culture of his own. That culture has to lead to success. Showcasing the ability to create an instant culture shift likely made the Jets want to see Rizzi’s long-term vision if he had the opportunity to build from scratch.

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Darren Rizzi talk player injuries, support he’s had as interim HC

Darren Rizzi reflected on his time as interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints and shared details on Foster Moreau’s injury after Sunday’s season-ending loss:

Darren Rizzi and the New Orleans Saints did not get the outcome they were after on Sunday, despite giving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a run for their money.

The Saints held the momentum for the majority of the 27-19 loss, but there were some low points, including injuries. Those included when tight end Foster Moreau went down with a knee injury and safety Tyrann Mathieu suffering a concussion late in the fourth quarter.

Rizzi spoke to that when he met with the media following the game.

“(Foster Moreau) is dealing with a knee injury,” Rizzi said. “I do not know any of the details yet. It’s just way too early. But I do know he got a knee injury in there in that last two-minute drill.”

The interim head coach who was thrust into action when the Saints parted ways with Dennis Allen also spoke to the way that he feels he has been received by the players in his time there.

He said that the team will go through the motions of the exit phase and that he will have a sit-down with the ownership and the front office.

“No matter what happens with me, they have to through with The NFL interview process. I know I’ll be a part of that. But, other than that, I’ll start getting a few days off and reflecting on things and go from there. Right now, I’m hurting for those guys in the locker room.”

Rizzi went on to explain that the last game of the season “always sucks” unless you are the team winning the Super Bowl, and that for him, he will never forget some of the special moments and special things that have been said to him in this time.

“They’re really emotional. There were some guys that were emotional postgame that usually are not, and that makes me emotional,” Rizzi said as he got teary-eyed.

“I love those guys and I love that locker room. Those guys have been unbelievably supportive of me. That’s just a huge personal thank you to the locker room.”

It remains to be seen to just exactly what will unfold moving forward, but it’s safe to expect the winds of change to blow strongly as the Saints continue through an era of transition.

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Darren Rizzi expresses condolences on ‘very somber day’ after terror attack

Darren Rizzi said all members of the Saints were safe after the New Years Day terror attack, reflecting on ‘a very somber day in our community’

New Orleanians have had to experience the unthinkable this week after a New Years Day terror attack left 15 dead with dozens more injured in the early hours on Wednesday morning. The attack led to the rescheduling of the AllState Sugar Bowl quarterfinal game in the College Football Playoff and an increased police presence in the city.

The New Orleans Saints issued a statement in the aftermath, while interim head coach Darren Rizzi shared his own message when speaking with local media on Wednesday afternoon: “Everybody, just want to start off by saying today’s obviously a very somber day in our community. I want to send out my personal heartfelt condolences, thoughts, prayers, to all the victims in this senseless shooting and attack early this morning in the French Quarter.”

Rizzi said, personally, this “hits close to home” given his experience in 9/11. The New Jersey native lost family friends and former teammates in that attack and situations like this resonate strongly for him. He added that his five children were all the same ages of many victims in this attack and several of them have been out in the area where it occurred. Seeing a community that’s welcomed him and his family with open arms be hurt like this was painful.

He described a somber mood in the team meeting room on Wednesday, which began with a prayer and moment of silence for victims of the attack. Rizzi continued, “We talked for about 10 minutes this morning at the beginning of our team meeting, and nothing had to do with football. It all had to do with keeping things in perspective and how blessed and fortunate we all are at the start of a new year. What we do here is obviously important to all the individuals that are here, but there’s much more important things going on around the world and right here in our community and at home.”

Rizzi also said that all members of the organization were safe and accounted for, but he wanted to keep focus on the victims and their families and loved ones. Team leaders like Cameron Jordan have led fundraising efforts to support them, which you can read more about here, and they’ll continue to do good work lending the community a helping hand.

“We’re out here playing for the community, for New Orleans, for the state of Louisiana. We’re playing for our fan base,” Rizzi said. “In times like this sometimes, you can uplift people and you can bring, and shed a positive light in any way you can in a moment of disaster. Because that’s what this is, it’s a disaster. And our guys went out there with a focus today, but you know when practice is over you’re right back to reality. This is still sitting out here. There’s still a lot of stuff going on and I thought our players handled it very professionally and very personally.”

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Darren Rizzi admits Spencer Rattler did not have enough help in Week 17

Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi on Spencer Rattler’s Week 17 performance: ‘We really didn’t give him much help today’

New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi spoke on multiple topics during his postgame media appearance, and one point of discussion was the performance of rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler.

Rattler had a strong first half to the game, and ultimately was forced to make some less than optimal throws down the stretch to try and help a comeback take place, to no avail.

Rizzi had multiple things to say regarding Rattler’s performance, starting with, “I know a lot of people are gonna put it all on the quarterback, but we didn’t give him much help today.”

He continued building off this point later on, when asked about the opposing defensive changes and why the Saints struggled offensively. Rizzi said: “No listen, we didn’t execute. We dropped some passes, we missed on a couple pass protection wise, I felt like Spencer never really got settled in there and he was moving around, and he made some plays moving around to his credit. But like I said, we had some drops, we had some penalties offensively that kind of stalled.”

Rizzi added: “If I’m not mistaken we were over the plus 40-yard line twice, and had penalties that pushed us back into a punt situation, and you know you’re in a game like this you gotta come away with some points when you’re down there. I don’t think there was a schematic thing that they did, as much as it was an execution thing by us.”

Then when asked how he viewed Rattler’s performance directly, he stated, “I feel like it’s a little bit hard to evaluate, to be honest with you. Before I watch the film, just watching with my eyes from the sideline, I didn’t feel like we gave him a chance a lot of times.”

Rizzi clarified that while Rattler had some mistakes, too often the rest of the offense let him down: “You know some of those third downs, he did miss a couple of throws, obviously the throw that he has to I think it was Cedrick (Wilson Jr.) there that got tipped up in the air that gets picked off, and then the pass at the end. I know we had the OPI called on us, it looked like we were gonna be in scoring range there inside the 5-yard line, and then we had the penalty. It’s gonna be a tough evaluation, I think we’re gonna have to take a step back and look at it through a different lens because I feel like there was a lot of times where he wasn’t getting any help.”

Ultimately it is clear that Rizzi believed Rattler was not getting much help out there, and that seems relatively clear from the stat sheet as well. We will see if he is able to get the start in Week 18 or if Derek Carr returns for one more game.

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Back-to-back blowout losses should spike Darren Rizzi’s head coach candidacy

Back-to-back blowout losses should spike Darren Rizzi’s candidacy to be the next Saints head coach. His team just hasn’t looked prepared down the stretch:

There’s no easy way to say this: Back-to-back blowout losses should spike Darren Rizzi’s candidacy to be the next head coach of the New Orleans Saints. His team just hasn’t looked prepared down the stretch.

A week after getting shut out and outscored 34-0, Rizzi’s team returned home and caught a three-win Las Vegas Raiders squad dealing with short rest after mechanical issues derailed their flight plans the night before. And their only touchdown of the afternoon came off a trick play, in a 25-10 loss. Even with all of the injuries hammering their depth chart, that’s unacceptable given the talent remaining and the plays we’ve seen them make in other games this year.

But this is just one piece of a larger puzzle. When Dennis Allen was fired, Rizzi took over as the interim coach with eight games left in the season, and if he’d gone 5-3 he may have had a compelling argument. Instead, he’s 3-4 with a regular season finale coming up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad that dropped 51 points on the Saints earlier this year.

It doesn’t matter if Rizzi is beloved in the building. This version of this Saints team isn’t worth keeping together. Mickey Loomis played it safe to this point and he doesn’t have any positive results to speak for. The Saints need to move on with a new coach who isn’t trying to be Sean Payton, who can bring in their own coaches and players and retool this roster.

That won’t be easy given their salary cap constraints; Derek Carr is almost certainly returning for 2025, and the team only owns four picks in the first three rounds to add high-impact prospects. But that doesn’t matter. Taking the easy way out again because Rizzi is a known quantity or a favorite of the locker room is irrelevant. He’s shown that he doesn’t have the juice. His team hasn’t won games against weak opponents or even competed with playoff contenders. It won’t hurt to interview him and see how he compares to other interested candidates, but he should by no means be a frontrunner for the job.

And that’s a shame. Rizzi seems like a very knowledgeable, experienced coach whose peers and players respect him. If he’d been more successful in this seven-game audition he’d have a stronger argument in his favor. But the results speak for themselves, and it’s vital that the Saints look outside their building — and outside Payton’s circle of influence — in finding their next head coach.

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Darren Rizzi explains bizarre clock management to close the first half vs. Packers

The clock dripped from 40 seconds to 15 seconds after a Kevin Austin fumble. Darren Rizzi explained what went wrong in those 25 seconds:

One of the more confusing parts of the Green Bay Packers’ demolition of the New Orleans Saints came at the end of the first half. Kevin Austin Jr. caught a pass from Spencer Rattler, but fumbled the ball out of bounds.

What happened next was just strangle. There were 40 seconds left in the half when the ball rolled out of bounds. Interim head coach Darren Rizzi didn’t take a timeout until there was only 15 seconds left on the clock. Rizzi explained how the clock mismanagement came down to a miscommunication between him and the officials.

“Both covering official ruled the clock stopped. I asked the official if the clock would remain stopped, I got a yes,” Rizzi said. From there, he ” turned back to talk to the offensive coaches, kind of talk about our plan and what we were going do at the end of the half. Then they decided he fumbled the ball forward.”

Someone on the Saints sideline must have pointed out the running clock to Rizzi because the coach said, “it just wasn’t communicated to me that the clock had restarted.”

This explains why Rizzi was so heated on the field. He asked for confirmation and was given wrong information. Rizzi didn’t give what he would have done differently if he did know the clock would start running. He could have called the timeout immediately or the offense could have moved with urgency.

Those 25 seconds that vanished proved to be crucial. Rattler took a bad sack on the next play which forced New Orleans to take their last timeout. If that play happened with about 27 seconds instead of 10 seconds, throwing a short pass to get into field goal range would have been an option. The Saints, instead, had to.

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Darren Rizzi sees a ‘reenergized’ Cameron Jordan amid late-season hot sreak

Cameron Jordan’s production has soared in the past few weeks, and Darren Rizzi believes some changes have reenergized the defensive end:

One player that has stepped up his play in recent weeks is Cameron Jordan. Jordan didn’t have a good season last year and started this season slow as well. The defensive end even began to be phased out of the rotation.

Jordan has awoken over the last five weeks. He’s getting to the quarterback and making impact plays again. Darren Rizzi described Jordan as being “reenergized” during this hot streak.

But what changed? Why is one of the leaders of the New Orleans Saints suddenly improving and feeling reenergized in the middle of the season?

The Saints changed philosophically when they changed head coaches. Rizzi moved position coaches around, too, putting longtime pass-rush specialist Brian Young in a more prominent role working with the entire defensive line, instead of Todd Grantham.

Jordan received one of the biggest direct impacts from the changes. Instead of being phased out of the rotation, Jordan has returned to being a critical piece. Pro Football Focus charting has credited him with 26 pressures this season and 15 of them have come in the five games since Rizzi took over and charged Young with livening up the defensive line, including Jordan.

Rizzi points to playing time and style of play as reasons for this improvement from Jordan: “I think the fact he has more opportunity to play, number one. We made the change and tried to simplify things up front these last five games.”

Rizzi also mentioned the way the Saints are practicing as a benefit to Jordan as well. There have been many changes in New Orleans since Rizzi has taken over and many of them have benefitted Jordan.

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Darren Rizzi ‘really impressed’ by Spencer Rattler’s final drive vs. Commanders

Saints coach Darren Rizzi was “really impressed” with how well Spencer Rattler handled the two-minute drive to close out Week 15’s game with the Commanders:

When Spencer Rattler stepped in for Jake Haener against the Washington Commanders, he led four consecutive scoring drives. Darren Rizzi’s explanation for inserting Rattler into the game was the New Orleans Saints needed a spark. Mission accomplished.

One of the more impressive things about Rattler’s game is how he performed in crunch time. Rattler returns to the starting lineup until Derek Carr is healthy enough to play, if that happens in 2024. The rookie will need to take some of the positives from end of Week 15 and carry them throughout the game.

Rizzi walked away from the final drive of the game impressed by some of the intangibles the rookie quarterback displayed.

Rizzi highlighted some of the impressive parts of Rattler’s final drive, including “the way he operated that that final drive, the way we managed the drive, managed the clock, understood the situation,” as well as that, “We got the ball clocked there to allow us to have one final play in regulation.”

What impressed Rizzi the most was Rattler handled the situation with great poise despite being in just his fourth professional game.

We’ve seen one rookie this year not handle a late fourth quarter drive with such calmness and efficiency. This is a good starting point and shows Rattler can handle himself when the pressure is on.

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Why didn’t Saints dress out veteran DL after activating him from injury?

Why wasn’t Tanoh Kpassagnon available against the Washington Commanders after being activated from the PUP list? Darren Rizzi has answers:

The New Orleans Saints defensive line had an outstanding day against the Washington Commanders in Week 15, putting together an 8-sack performance with 25 pressures as well. With that said, they did so without the aid of Tanoh Kpassagnon, who is recovering from his torn Achilles and has been making strides in practice, getting ever closer to playing once again.

However, despite practicing fully leading up to this game, he was not active, and interim head coach Darren Rizzi shared some context as to why, telling reporters afterwards that it was more about the game plan than Kpassagnon’s health. He says the veteran defensive lineman is ready to play.

Clearly the gameplan was correctly set up, as the pass rush was enormously successful. Getting depth back along the defensive line is always a bonus however, especially a veteran who knows what he’s doing. Kpassagnon has 3.0 sacks in 3 games against the Green Bay Packers (the next Saints opponent), so we will see if he gets included for the Week 16 game instead.

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Darren Rizzi shares injury updates on Alvin Kamara, Kool-Aid McKinstry

Darren Rizzi shared injury updates on New Orleans Saints playmakers Alvin Kamara and Kool-Aid McKinstry after they were nicked up against the Commanders:

Interim head coach Darren Rizzi shared injury updates on a couple of New Orleans Saints playmakers after they were nicked up against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. Star running back Alvin Kamara made the play of the day when he caught a touchdown pass on a trick play from wide receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr., but he exited the game with a groin injury and didn’t return.

Rizzi said after the game was told that Kamara felt something on his long touchdown catch: “That’s what it sounds like from our medical staff. I will have more information. He’s going to get some imaging stuff, so I’ll have more on that later.”

As for Kool-Aid McKisntry — Rizzi said the rookie cornerback was diagnosed with a stinger after taking the brunt of a big hit while making a tackle, but he was given the green light to return on Sunday afternoon.

“All I know is that if we had gone back on defense, I was told he would have gone back in the game. I don’t know all the details of it, but I was told during the game on the sideline. I was just told he was good to go back in the game,” Rizzi said.

Additionally, wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling was evaluated for a concussion after getting shaken up in a collision downfield, but he was cleared to return and later got back in the game. The Saints play on Monday night next week against the Green Bay Packers so we’ll have to wait until practice resumes on Thursday for official word on everyone’s status, barring any reports or announcements sooner.

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