Category: Dennis Allen

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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Former Raiders exec Amy Trask unsurprised by Saints’ Dennis Allen drama

The recent dustup between Dennis Allen and his Saints players didn’t surprise his former coworker Amy Trask, who saw the same thing with the Raiders:

At least one person wasn’t shocked by Dennis Allen’s very public split with  New Orleans Saints players in the final minutes of the 2023 season: Amy Trask, Allen’s former coworker with the Raiders and current co-host of the What the Football podcast with Suzy Shuster.

Trask spent 26 years in the Raiders’ front office, spending much of her career as the team’s chief executive officer before resigning midway through Allen’s three-year stint as head coach. She wasn’t a fan of the Saints promoting Allen to head coach in 2022, and she also criticized Allen’s decision to bring ex-Raiders coach Jon Gruden to training camp last summer.

Now she’s shared some insight on her experience with Allen, who Trask characterized as a “dismissive, derisive” presence. After Allen introduced himself to the organization in an early staff meeting, Trask says, employees lined up at her door with complaints.

That became a trend. Allen’s leadership style continued to rub people the wrong way, being described as “uninspiring” at best and “rude” at worst. As Trask reflected, Allen wasn’t someone even the Raiders’ veteran players were willing to embrace.

“It appeared to me, and I’m not putting words in a player’s mouth, but players would do the minimum for him,” Trask said, contrasting Allen with coaches that players would run through a wall for. “Nobody’s running through a wall for him.”

The incident this all centers on, of course, featured Saints backup quarterback Jameis Winston agreeing with his teammates to change the game’s final play call. After being told to kneel out the clock at the 1-yard line and seal a blowout win over the Atlanta Falcons, Winston and the rest of the offense went rogue, audibling into a run for Jamaal Williams to score a touchdown. It’s the kind of insubordination you don’t see in the NFL.

Shuster drew the comparison to other coaches who do connect with their players — whether that’s longtime leaders like Bill Belichick or first-year standout DeMeco Ryans. Trask continued, “I had the sense, and some players shared with me, that’s not what they experienced with Dennis. And look, we all grow up, we all grow, I thought he could be better in New Orleans. And I may be the only person to tell you this, but when I saw (the audible) in New Orleans, I was not the slightest bit surprised. Any other coach, I’d be surprised.”

Allen’s two-year run as the Saints’ head coach has been hard to watch. The team finished one game over .500 this year and still has a losing record with him on top of the organization, missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons after he took the job with a promise of continued postseason success. Unable to manage big egos, Allen has created rifts with fan-favorite players like C.J. Gardner-Johnson (traded last year), Marshon Lattimore (likely to be traded this year), Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara (who may also be on their way out).

But he’s here to stay. Allen has already said he expects to return as head coach in 2024, and general manager Mickey Loomis wouldn’t have let him go speak to reporters after the season ended if that weren’t the case. Stubborn to prove he didn’t hire the wrong coach, Loomis appears set to stay the course. Maybe it’s just going to take three years before Allen finds a way to win the worst division in pro football.

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Report: Saints considering Jon Gruden, but not for offensive coordinator

The Saints are reportedly considering Jon Gruden as an addition to their coaching staff, but not as a replacement for offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael:

This was obviously coming down the pipeline, right? Jeff Duncan reports for the Times-Picayune | Advocate that the New Orleans Saints are considering Jon Gruden for a role on their coaching staff, having wined and dined with him before their Week 17 road game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (in Tampa, where Gruden resides). Gruden was previously around the team as an unpaid consultant during their 2023 training camp.

Gruden got more out of Saints quarterback Derek Carr than any other coach when they were together on the Raiders, but here’s the catch: Duncan adds that Gruden “likely would” come on as assistant coach, not an outright replacement for offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael. He describes a possible situation similar to the one that Allen experienced as co-defensive coordinator with Rob Ryan back in 2015, when the Saints eventually dismissed Ryan midseason to give Allen full control of the defense.

On top of that, Gruden is actively suing the NFL and league commissioner Roger Goodell while seeking damages to his personal reputation and professional career. Gruden resigned as the Raiders head coach in 2021 after emails he wrote while an employee at ESPN from 2011 to 2018 were leaked, containing sexist, racist, and homophobic content led to public outcry. The documents were discovered during an NFL investigation into workplace misconduct allegations against former Washington executives. A hearing in the Nevada Supreme Court is expected later this week.

The Saints offense improved greatly down the stretch in 2021, with Carr throwing 15 touchdown passes against 3 interceptions through six games in December, while the unit averaged 28.8 points per game. Once Carmichael picked up recent trends and started utilizing more frequent play action, pre-snap motion, and more favorable targets for the tight ends, Carr flourished.

But it was still too little, too late for the Saints to reach the playoffs. If Dennis Allen believes that Gruden can help Carr and the offense start hotter and maintain consistency, they’ll likely make a run at him, even if it’s unclear how he’d fit into the offensive coaching structure (to say nothing of whether the NFL would allow it while he’s actively suing them). Duncan’s report says there’s mutual interest, so stay tuned.

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Dennis Allen says he expects to return as Saints head coach in 2024

Dennis Allen says he hasn’t discussed it with Mickey Loomis, but he expects to return in 2024 after missing the playoffs in his first two years as head coach:

This isn’t very surprising, but here’s confirmation from Dennis Allen that he expects to return as head coach in 2024. He told reporters Monday that he hadn’t discussed the matter with New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, yet it’s hard to believe that Loomis and other members of the team leadership group — like owner Gayle Benson and president Dennis Lauscha — would trot him out for an end-of-year press conference before choosing to fire him.

So all of the reporting in previous weeks saying the Saints were inclined to retain Allen for 2024 appears to be on the money. That’s despite him failing to reach the playoffs in both of his first two years on the job and barely achieving a winning record in his second season in this role. He still has a sub-.400 record as a head coach in his career.

Despite having a host of factors in his favor, Allen has underachieved. He had the easiest strength of schedule and healthiest roster in the league this year and couldn’t win enough games to secure the worst division in pro football. He hired his own staff last year, clearing out more former Sean Payton assistants, and convinced the front office to invest $150 million in a Pro Bowl quarterback who underperformed for the first three months of the season.

There isn’t a rational decision for the Saints retaining Allen, but Loomis, Lauscha, and Benson don’t appear to be interested in entertaining any rational arguments. He’s who they want leading this team, so that’s who is going to be doing it. All fans can do is watch and support the team as best they can.

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Dennis Allen has already lost the Saints locker room

It’s bizarre to say this after a blowout win, but the lack of respect between Dennis Allen and his players makes it clear: he’s lost this locker room

This is an atrocious look for Dennis Allen: the New Orleans Saints head coach led his team to a blowout win over the division-rival Atlanta Falcons on Sunday to end the 2023 regular season, but he undercut himself afterwards by apologizing for all the fun his team was having. Instead of reveling in a victory of a hated nemesis, Allen was busy apologizing to his opponents and calling out his players for insubordination.

Respect is a two-way street. It has to be earned. When Jameis Winston and the Saints offensive line chose to override Allen’s directive to kneel out the clock and get their teammate his first touchdown of the year, it’s a direct reflection on the lack of respect they have for Allen — and how little he’s done to earn their respect in turn.

This is a wildly revealing moment. As former Saints tight end Benjamin Watson observed on social media, “If your players or assistant coaches don’t run the plays you call, you’ve already lost your team. If you’re comfortable enough to tell the world about it, there’s no turning back.”

Maybe Allen believes he’ll recover that lost standing in the offseason by cutting vocal players like Winston and Michael Thomas while trading Marshon Lattimore (and, maybe, Alvin Kamara). But it’s all just a delaying action. They know who he is. He’s going to get exposed next year against a tougher schedule. Other players are going to speak up and challenge him and the cycle will repeat until there isn’t anyone left. There’s a vacuum of leadership at the top of this organization.

Leave it to Dennis Allen to spoil what should have been a celebratory blowout win to usher in the offseason.

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Saints players changed the play call to score late touchdown vs. Falcons

Saints players changed the play call to score a late touchdown for their teammate Jamaal Williams:

Sunday’s New Orleans Saints game stumbled into some late-afternoon dramatics when Jameis Winston and his teammates agreed to change the team’s play call. As head coach Dennis Allen said after the game, they wanted to score a late touchdown for their teammate Jamaal Williams.

It’s a nice gesture, but it undermined their coaches, and it goes to show little respect there is for Allen in the locker room — as well as how weak his grasp on what’s important to his players is. They first asked Allen if they could call a run for Williams, but were shut down, at which point they chose to take matters into their own hands.

Quarterback Jameis Winston and the offensive line agreed to audible into a run instead of the kneel-down as called. Right guard Cesar Ruiz shared his perspective to Nola.com’s Rod Walker, saying “I couldn’t go home without getting him one. Whatever heat that comes with that, put that on the O-line.”

Winston told ESPN’s Katherine Terrell that he apologized to Allen after the game for undermining his authority, though not all of his teammates felt the same way. To Walker, Winston said “We made a collective decision.”

It was a popular decision for some players like Cameron Jordan, who questioned the pushback when speaking with Terrell: “What do you mean? I loved it! I was mad Tyrann took so long to decide whether he wanted to score or not. Then we wouldn’t have had the little ‘How dare you score on us.’ It’s Atlanta Saints hate week”

It’s disappointing that Allen has had his job for two years — and spent much longer than that in the organization and in the city of New Orleans — and he still is so far off from being on the same page as the players and coaches. He’s out of touch. What the consequences of that may be are unclear. For now, Allen can take some solace in the fact that he’s finally ended a season with a winning record after five years as NFL head coach.

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Dennis Allen had the least-respectable response to Arthur Smith’s complaint

Dennis Allen had the the least respectable reaction to Arthur Smith’s postgame criticism, apologizing for his players running up the score:

It’s safe to say that Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith wasn’t happy with the New Orleans Saints punctuating their blowout win over his team with a short touchdown run near the end of regulation. He got into an altercation with Saints coach Dennis Allen after the game to express his displeasure, but Allen’s response to the situation couldn’t have gone worse.

Allen threw his players under the bus, telling reporters afterwards that they audibled out of the kneel-down as called and into a run for Jamaal Williams, The play scored the veteran running back’s first touchdown of the year. As Allen told it (with the players themselves confirming it during locker room availability), the offensive line and backup quarterback Jameis Winston wanted to see Williams score before their season ended.

“That’s not who we are,” Allen said, disapproving of the situation. “That’s not how we operate. We should’ve taken a knee. I want to apologize to (Smith and the Falcons). We’ve got a good rivalry, and it’s a heated rivalry, but there’s a way we going about doing our business, and I wasn’t happy about that.”

Repeat after me: You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to the Falcons. You certainly do not have to apologize to them. Sean Payton didn’t apologize to Mike Smith when he dialed up a Texas route for Darren Sproles on Dec. 26 back in 2011 to help Drew Brees break the single-season passing yardage record, going up 45-16 in the process.

Even if the players rebelled against the play call (which speaks volumes about the lack of respect Allen commands in the locker room), this is something Allen should own up. That’s his job as the head coach, and as a face of the franchise. Allen’s players understand the spirit and gravity of this rivalry better than he does. Even if Allen was trying to be honest here, the result is that he’s chastising his players in a very public space. He’s throwing them under the bus and coming off as soft (at best) or disloyal (at worst). He should stand with his players.

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