Does Saints’ quiet offseason reflect on Dennis Allen’s job security?

Dennis Allen was thought to be on the hot seat heading into 2024, but the lack of aggression in free agency could suggest otherwise:

The New Orleans Saints’ inactivity in free agency could reflect Dennis Allen’s job security. Many have believed Allen is entering the 2024 season on the hot seat, having failed to reach the playoffs in either of his first two years on the job. That may be the case, but the Saints’ moves don’t suggest the team nor Allen feels the pressure. They’ve made limited additions, only signing one player who could be a starter.

New Orleans has never been afraid to make a splash even when it may have seemed the salary cap wouldn’t allow them to. Years of cap gymnastics should show us the Saints will find a way to do what they want. If they aren’t aggressive, one can only assume the Saints don’t want to be. It’s not a stretch to relate that to the organization’s mentality heading into the season.

If Allen truly felt his job was on the line, he should be more proactive in lobbying to improve a team that limped to a winning record in 2023. They’re essentially running it back with their same core players. Maybe the offense just needed a year to build chemistry, which may carry over with the new coaching staff. Maybe Allen just doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Both are plausible explanations, but either way the Saints aren’t moving like a team that feels it needs to be significantly better in the fall. It’s also possible that general manager Mickey Loomis does see a future where Allen isn’t coaching this team in 2025 and beyond. If that’s the case, spending carefully and responsibly on free agents in 2024 to help get the books in order for 2025 would make sense. Allen has his quarterback, his new offensive coaching staff, and a ton of returning starters. How much more does he need to get this team to the playoffs?

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Dennis Allen shares Marshon Lattimore update amid trade speculation

New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen shared an update on Marshon Lattimore amid trade speculation:

Will Marshon Lattimore be playing for the New Orleans Saints in 2024? The Saints reworked their contract with the cornerback so that they could trade him, if they choose, back in the final weeks of the 2023 season.

Don’t get it twisted: trading Lattimore would still be expensive. Prohibitively so before June 1 (costing an extra $16 million against the salary cap). If Lattimore is going to be dealt it will be after the 2024 draft, and after June 1. The deadline: one week before the first game of the 2024 season in September.

Saints head coach Dennis Allen was asked about Lattimore’s future with the team this week at the NFL Scouting Combine. He wants to keep things focused on Lattimore’s health after injuries caused him to miss 17 games over the last two years.

“Look, Lattimore is on our football team,” Allen said when asked about Lattimore’s status. “He’s a good football player. He’s been a good football player for us. Obviously, there’s a lot of things that happen throughout the offseason, but Latt’s a big part of our team right now.”

Lattimore suffered a high ankle sprain when a teammate rolled up on him late in a midseason game with the Minnesota Vikings while he was trying to assist with a tackle; his cleat caught in the turf and twisted his leg awkwardly. The year before he suffered a lacerated kidney and other internal organ injuries after colliding with a teammate to defend a big pass over the top of the defense. Both times he was injured on, essentially, freak accidents while trying to help the team win the day.

A lot of discourse in Saints fan groups on social media has centered on perceived culture problems in New Orleans. When asked about that topic and Lattimore’s role in the locker room, Allen said: “I think it’s about guys we think can help us win football games. Guys who can continue to develop the right kind of culture here, and guys that are willing to do the things that are necessary to succeed. Marshon’s a part of our football team, he has been a big part of our football team. Unfortunately the last couple of years health has been a big factor.”

Hopefully those health issues are behind him. There aren’t many cornerbacks who can run like Lattimore and make plays on the football when he’s in good health. The team is better with him on the field and it’s in everyone’s interests to cross whatever divides have opened up. But the speculation about trading him isn’t going to go away until that September deadline passes us by.

“I think the biggest thing is, let’s get Marshon healthy and let’s see where we’re at as a football team, we’ll get the right guys out there that give us a chance to win,” Allen finished.

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Dennis Allen lays out how Saints revamped their coaching staff

Dennis Allen reviewed the Saints’ offensive coaching changes with what he calls a mix of forward-thinkers and veterans who have “been there, done that” in the NFL:

Dennis Allen’s appearance on NFL Network this week was informative. His description of the New Orleans Saints’ revamped offensive coaching staff is exactly what the team needed. Allen described the staff as a “mixture of some older, veteran coaches that have ‘been there, done that,’ with some younger, progressive mindset kind of guys” led by new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.

The Saints have been in desperate need of youthful energy, so younger coaches like quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko and running backs coach Derrick Foster are welcome additions. But revamping their offensive line development with a couple of experienced Gary Kubiak assistants like John Benton and Rick Dennison is a smart move, too.

For the past two years the Saints have felt like a poor rendition of Sean Payton’s offense. The problem is you didn’t have Sean Payton running it, so the offense felt outdated. Hiring Kubiak was a great first step towards a more modern NFL offense. The “Shanahan System” will feature more pre-snap motion, more movement during the play, and innovative aspects you see in the prolific offense now.

Regardless of it was Kubiak or someone else the Saints needed to be progressive. Grabbing multiple coaches with that forward-thinking mindset was necessary. This will be a drastically different offense aesthetically in 2024. Allen identified how the Saints needed to change their offense and has made the proper steps towards that change.

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Dennis Allen issues statement on hiring new OC Klint Kubiak

New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen issued a statement on the team hiring its new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak:

The New Orleans Saints have announced that Klint Kubiak will be officially hired as their new offensive coordinator, replacing Pete Carmichael — who had been the longest-tenured OC in the league. But change was needed, and it falls on Kubiak to install a new system that can maximize the talents of players like quarterback Derek Carr, running back Alvin Kamara, and wide receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed.

One person who’s jazzed about the pickup: head coach Dennis Allen, who laid out Kubiak’s qualifications and expectations on Wednesday afternoon.

“We are excited to announce Klint Kubiak as our offensive coordinator,” Allen said in a team statement. “I want to thank the various impressive candidates that we interviewed throughout this process. Klint has done an excellent job in a variety of roles in ten years in the NFL and has valuable play-calling experience. He has played an important role in the growth of many players throughout his career, starting with the quarterback position. I look forward to us getting to work as we form our offensive staff and to see Klint lead that group, play a pivotal role in the development of our players on offense and maximize our strengths on offense.”

The Saints met with at least eleven different candidates before selecting Kubiak for the job — some of their first choices were hired by other teams, but their interest in Kubiak started early, and he chose New Orleans over some other opportunities. It’s clear that Allen has confidence Kubiak can modernize their offense and compete each week.

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Cameron Jordan on Saints’ controversial TD vs. Falcons: ‘Say sorry we didn’t go for 50’

Cameron Jordan doesn’t see the problem with running up the score on the Falcons, much less apologizing for it: ‘Say sorry we didn’t go for 50’

The New Orleans Saints ended their season with a flourish — and then some controversy. When the second-string offense and backup quarterback Jameis Winston went rogue to get Jamaal Williams a late touchdown run over the Atlanta Falcons, Saints head coach Dennis Allen responded by apologizing to the other team for their actions.

It was a move that got him lambasted by the Saints fanbase. And one of Allen’s captains and the longest-tenured player on the team, Cameron Jordan, wants it known that he disagreed with Allen’s decision to apologize for scoring too many points on their greatest rival.

“I’m so sorry the locker room really enjoys being a brotherhood,” Jordan joked during an appearance on the Around the NFL podcast this week. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry we punished a rival team. I would do it again. In fact, I would’ve gone for two. The only thing I’m gonna have a discrepancy with is I didn’t understand the ramifications of like, ‘No, they were taking victory formation.’ The ‘Can’tlanta Failcons’ had already acquiesced. They were just trying to get it out there just like their head coach was about to get out there.”

Already unpopular among Saints fans, Allen’s determination to take a stand and tell them to stop enjoying themselves rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Whatever goodwill he earned for his first winning season in five years as a head coach went with the wind. He has more work to do to convince the team’s supporters that he’s the right man for the job, even as general manager Mickey Loomis continues to cook up bad arguments favoring Allen.

But this isn’t going away. Jordan finished his piece with “Half of my gripe was Dennis ended up saying sorry. And I’m like why would you say sorry? Say sorry we didn’t go for 50.”

It’s unfortunate, but it makes sense that Allen still doesn’t get this rivalry. He doesn’t understand why Saints players and fans dislike the Falcons because his heart’s not in it. He was born in Atlanta as the son of former Falcons linebacker Grady Allen. He grew up and into life with Texas A&M as a student, college football player, and assistant coach; the Aggies have built an unhinged program with strange culture and ideas of sportsmanship, which has defined its relationship with its biggest in-state rival by running from the Texas Longhorns to join a new conference (only for Texas to get the jump on them anyway in the expanding SEC). The sense of rivalry and bone-deep hate isn’t in him.

And Allen’s reluctance to lean into that rivalry and engage with Saints fans (and, apparently, his own players) is going to be a storyline until something bigger happens to overshadow it. Hiring an entirely new offensive coaching staff will help. But Allen has a lot of work to do to convince fans the team he’s leading is worth lending their time and money to support. All we can do is it and see whether he can deliver.

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Dennis Allen disagrees with Peyton Manning on the ‘halftime adjustments’ myth

Peyton Manning insists that ‘halftime adjustments’ are a myth in the NFL. While Dennis Allen doesn’t fully agree with that take, he does think they’re overrated:

Tune into an NFL broadcast and you’ll hear the same line whenever teams head to their locker rooms at the end of the second quarter: it’s an opportunity to make some adjustments at halftime. Coaches will grab a whiteboard and some markers and get into the X’s and O’s to explain what they’ll be doing differently after the break. Captains stand up and fire up their teammates with a passionate speech.

But there’s just one problem: this rarely happens. And there isn’t a bigger critic of the scene than Peyton Manning.

“I don’t think I ever made a halftime adjustment in my entire 18 year career,” Manning said during a recent appearance on the Monday night Manningcast with his brother Eli. “I think that’s the biggest myth in football. You go in, use the restroom, eat a couple of oranges, and then head coach says ‘Alright, let’s go.'”

And a lot of coaches and players agree with him. Logistically, there isn’t enough time to sprint from the field to the locker room and break down film or analyze big plays — if any coaches or coordinators are working from the booth eight or nine stories above the field, they have to hustle into an elevator and work their way through the stadium’s inner corridors to meet the rest of the team. Getting all of that done in 13 minutes is a tall order.

But you’ll find some peopole in football who feel differently, or at least they don’t agree with Peyton’s stance. One of them is New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen, who told NFL Films: “Well I don’t know if I totally agree with ‘halftime adjustments are a myth,’ I think they’re overblown.”

Allen is known for coaching a strong second half. Last year his defense allowed 0.57 fewer yards per play in the second half, a difference of 447.8 yards over the course of the season. They gave up 10 fewer touchdowns after the halftime break than before it. Opposing offenses converted 45 fewer first downs in the second half against the Saints in 2023.

So if it’s not a big sit-down and film study during the break, what is it? Why are the Saints such a strong second-half defense with Allen at the helm? One of Allen’s mentors clarified the point — his predecessor Sean Payton says that while there isn’t a big shift at halftime, coaches are talking on headsets all afternoon. They’re consistently in each other’s ear sharing information and communicating about what’s working and what isn’t. That continuous flow leads to adjustments throughout the game, not just at halftime.

Unless they’re playing in the Super Bowl, anyway. Payton reflected on his and Allen’s win in Super Bowl XLIV, and the 30-minute halftime that came with it. He says that extra time gave players time to change into clean socks and shirts and, most importantly, it afforded him time to think over his approach to the second half. Which meant the iconic “Ambush” onside kick to start the third quarter and a designed drive ending with a Pierre Thomas screen play that saw the running back dive into the end zone for a touchdown.

And who did Payton, Allen, and the Saints beat for that Super Bowl victory? None other than Peyton Manning. Maybe he and his coaches should have spent more time going over their plans at halftime after all.

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This chart says Dennis Allen is the NFL’s best defensive play caller

This chart says Dennis Allen is the NFL’s best defensive play caller. He’s good, and we don’t need advanced analytics to know that, but he isn’t infallible:

You won’t have a hard time convincing New Orleans Saints fans that Dennis Allen calls a mean defense — that’s his best strength, and it was the number-one reason so many people bought into the idea of promoting him to replace Sean Payton back in 2022. It’s Allen’s shortcomings as a leader and team-builder that drew criticism at the time and during the years since.

Still, it’s validating to see information like this plotted out to highlight Allen’s best qualities. NFL analyst Steve Patton ranked every defensive play caller from the 2023 season based on what he calls “coverage and market efficiency with team constraints” which examines how each defense performed relative to absences (for injuries and suspensions) and quality of opposition, among other factors.

And Allen came out on top. You don’t need to invent new metrics to see why. He fielded the league’s fourth-best defense on third downs (allowing a conversion on just 34.5% of downs) and the third-best unit on fourth downs (42.3%, with opponents going 11-for-26). Despite getting little production from his pass rush — the Saints finished with the NFL’s second-lowest pressure rate (15.1%) and fourth-worst sacks rate (5.7%) — Allen’s secondary held up even with Marshon Lattimore missing seven games to an injury. They allowed the 10th-fewest passing yards per game (207.3) and tied for the third-most interceptions (18).

But they weren’t perfect. Allen hasn’t been able to micromanage the run defense after being promoted to head coach, and it shows: even after drafting a first-round defensive tackle and signing two veteran free agents, New Orleans finished inside the bottom-10 in both yards per carry (4.4) and rushing yards per game (119.9). And he has to take the blame for a Saints pass rush that was asleep at the wheel for much of the season. Of their 34 sacks on the season, 15 came in the last five games. Allen’s reluctance to use undersized pass rushers like Zack Baun until the season was effectively over is a major blind spot in his coaching philosophy.

So take this chart’s findings with a grain of salt. Allen’s defensive play calling is an asset, sure, but he isn’t invincible. The Saints lost a pivotal early-season game to the Green Bay Packers when his defense gave up a pair of 80-yard touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. Sean McVay got the better of him in a late-season loss to the Los Angeles Rams that started with a 95-yard touchdown drive, and which got away from him when the Rams scored 20  unanswered points in four possessions before and after the halftime break. In this league, even a good defensive play caller can be outfoxed by an offense firing on all cylinders.

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Saints eligible to be forced into ‘Hard Knocks’ feature in 2024

The Saints are eligible, again, to be forced into this year’s ‘Hard Knocks’ feature. But so are Sean Payton’s Broncos:

Is this the year the New Orleans Saints spend training camp in front of cameras? Dennis Allen’s team is one of three teams who can be forced into a feature for the annual “Hard Knocks” documentary series from HBO and NFL Films.

Of course the league would prefer a team volunteer for some time in the spotlight. But many organizations view the “Hard Knocks” experience as an unneeded distraction during a pivotal time of the year, so it’s not often that anyone steps up.

And there are rules defining which teams are eligible for forced coverage: teams that do not have a first-year head coach which missed the playoffs in either of the last two seasons, and who have not already been featured on the documentary series during the last decade.

That leaves the Saints as one of three squads for it, along with the Chicago Bears and the Denver Broncos. We’re guessing Sean Payton is going to reject any overtures from the “Hard Knocks” producers with vehemence. The Bears could be a better fit than the Saints, but we’ll have to wait and see how things shake out over the summer.

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Mickey Loomis can’t stop making bad excuses for Dennis Allen

Mickey Loomis can’t stop making bad excuses for Dennis Allen, comparing his second head coaching gig to rough starts from a couple of Hall of Famers:

Is Mickey Loomis proud of the turnaround the New Orleans Saints achieved back in 2006? Everything the longtime general manager has said in recent weeks would suggest he isn’t. First, Loomis compared Derek Carr’s ugly first season with the Saints to a fictitious retelling of Drew Brees’ debut way back when.

Then, on Wednesday when speaking to local media, Loomis tried to get clever and compare head coach Dennis Allen’s lack of success to similar rough starts for a couple of Hall of Fame coaches like Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll, and Bill Belichick — and Sean Payton, who Loomis recalled facing public outcry after underwhelming performances in 2007 and 2008.

“I think sometimes the easy thing to do, the lazy thing to do is look at the results of the season and say ‘ah it’s the coach’s fault, it’s the quarterback’s fault.’ I think sometimes you have to look beyond that,” Loomis said, pointing to the records each of those coaches achieved in their first two years on the job. Walsh went 8-24 in his first two years with the San Francisco 49ers. Noll was 6-22 with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Belichick had a 13-19 showing after his first two years with the Cleveland Browns. Payton went 7-9 and 8-8 in his second and third years on the job.

But it’s a bogus comparison. Allen may be 16-18 after two seasons with the Saints, but you can’t compare these situations the way Loomis is trying to. It isn’t like Allen is new to the responsibilities of being a head coach. He had three years to figure these things out a decade ago with the Raiders. Walsh, Noll, Belichick, and Payton were all first-timers. Allen has been here before but he doesn’t have the results to show for it.

To be clear, Loomis should believe in Allen seeing that he brought the coach back for a third year at the helm. Loomis, however, doesn’t need to make ridiculous comparisons to attempt to defend his guy. The comparisons are meant to express things haven’t gone well but can get better, and Dennis Allen’s record isn’t a full reflection of his ability Comparing Allen to Payton and Belichick, and multiple Hall of Famers, dilutes the point.

And Payton, specifically, accomplished much more than Allen had to this point in his career. Has Loomis forgotten that he led the Saints to the NFC championship game in his first season with New Orleans? That he won more games in his first year as a head coach than Allen has ever managed in five? Allen can’t even win the weakest division in pro football two years running.

But Loomis hired Allen, and he’s going to keep making excuses for Allen’s shortcomings until things change. And hopefully they will. There’s enough talent on this roster to get into the playoffs. Maybe the Saints can make enough changes to the coaching staff this offseason to get over that hump. But they can do that without having their general manager embarrass himself whenever he gets in front of a microphone.

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Saints’ cultural problems are a direct reflection on Dennis Allen

The Saints feel they have cultural problems in the locker room, but they must acknowledge Dennis Allen’s role in this decay. He isn’t a leader players believe in:

There’s no secret that the New Orleans Saints had some problems in 2023; the product on the field spoke for itself, as did head coach Dennis Allen’s sometimes-awkward press conferences. For a team that pledged continuity to the success of Sean Payton’s regime and the furtherance of a winning culture, the Saints sure don’t look like themselves.

And here’s a good look into why that is. The Times-Picayune | Advocate’s Jeff Duncan explored the various cultural problems the Saints experienced this season for Nola.com, but there’s an alarming through-line for all of this: Allen’s role in this decay.

It isn’t that Allen has had an influence in players showing up late for meetings or parking in handicapped spots, which Duncan reported. It’s that his lack of influence has let all of this slide. He is not a leader who inspires his players to be better. As his former coworker and Raiders CEO Amy Trask observed earlier this week, Allen is a coach that players do the minimum for, not someone they’d run through a wall for.

That extends to dedicating time at home watching tape on their Microsoft tablets instead of spending time with friends and family, which Duncan reports was something dozens of players slacked off on midway through the season. Now, to be clear, professional football players should be making time to study game film and improve on their own. They deserve some blame for not doing that. But this still goes back to Allen. A better coach would compel his players into being responsible and putting in the extra effort to prevent this from happening in the first place. That Saints players were comfortable checking out when away from the facility speaks volumes about how little respect Allen commands from them.

To his credit, Allen acknowledged that he and the rest of the coaching staff needs to be better, just like the players and everyone else in the organization during his end-of-year press conference: “Everyone in the building is part of the culpability. All of us, coaches, players, everybody. And so we have to look at, ‘What do we need to change?'”

That calls for changes in their behavior and teaching practices. It also means changes are needed for the coaching staff and the depth chart. There is going to be personnel turnover in New Orleans, but it isn’t starting at the top. All of this decay and erosion of the winning culture and self-accountability that Payton and Drew Brees cultivated starts with Allen. It accelerates when, Duncan reported, other players voiced complaints about Allen coddling Derek Carr and ignoring his on-field mistakes.

He might be able to call a good defense, but Allen doesn’t have the magnetic presence to get players to buy in and put forth extra effort. He doesn’t have the emotional intelligence to see why scoring one more touchdown on a hated rival for a popular teammate matters. He doesn’t have the connection with the community and with Saints fans to earn their loyalty. It’s possible that Allen could cultivate those skills and grow into this leadership role, but if he hasn’t done it by his fifth year as a head coach how likely is it he’ll figure it out in his sixth season?

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