Category: Mickey Loomis

Mickey Loomis has a terrible record without Drew Brees and Sean Payton

Mickey Loomis wanted everyone to know who was really responsible for the Saints’ success after Sean Payton left. Now, there’s no question about it:

Mickey Loomis wanted everyone to know who was really responsible for the New Orleans Saints’ success after Drew Brees retired and Sean Payton stepped away to pursue other jobs. Now, after Loomis picked Dennis Allen and the team ran into the ground, there’s no question about it. Payton soundly beating his successor in prime time only illustrates that point.

Before hiring Allen, the teams Loomis built without Payton had a record of 28-36 (a winning percentage of .438). Now, after Allen’s 18-25 run, Loomis has a record of 46-61 (.430) when Payton wasn’t coaching his team. That doesn’t count the 2012 season in which both Payton and Loomis were suspended, but that year’s 7-9 finish wouldn’t really help his case, either (putting Loomis at 53-70 without Payton, or .431).

Maybe things would have gone differently had Loomis hired someone who didn’t already have an 8-28 record as a head coach to replace the winningest coach in team history. Maybe this team’s foundation was just weaker than he thought. Either way, what matters now is whether the Saints can dig themselves out of this hole. And whether Loomis is the right man to oversee that job.

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Mickey Loomis clarifies Dennis Allen’s statement on young players

Mickey Loomis used Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis as examples of how good young players can develop into great talents, and stars, with time:

Dennis Allen recently said the New Orleans Saints don’t have any great young players, instead saying they have “young guys who are developing.” It was an odd comment for a head coach to make about his team, even when taken in context of the conversation.

So Saints general manager Mickey Loomis stepped in to expand on Allen’s comments by comparing young players to Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis. Those two players didn’t blossom into stars immediately.

Loomis pointed to the beginning of their careers, specifically the first four years where their tackles, sacks, and postseason honors were more pedestrian. It took some time but both Jordan and Davis developed into great players with the records and Pro Bowls to back it up. He then pointed to players such as Chris Olave, Bryan Bresee, Taliese Fuaga and Alontae Taylor as some of the players who could follow that same career arc.

While those players may not be stars yet, Loomis believes they could ascend and begin to get more accolades in the next four to five years similarly to Jordan and Davis.

Loomis ended up naming nearly every prominent young player on the team, but he understands they can’t all be stars. “Will they all do that? No. That’d be unrealistic. We don’t expect that. But certainly we have a lot of guys, and there’s others as well, who have that opportunity.”

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Mickey Loomis says he’s ‘bullish’ on young Saints quarterbacks

Jake Haener relieved Spencer Rattler vs. the Chargers, but Mickey Loomis remains ‘bullish’ on both of the Saints young quarterbacks:

Despite Jake Haener coming in in relief of Spencer Rattler against the Los Angeles Chargers, Mickey Loomis gave both of the New Orleans Saints’ young quarterbacks a vote of confidence.

Loomis joined the WWL Radio Coaches Show on Tuesday and expressed belief in both players saying, “I’m really bullish on Spencer and Jake both.”

It’d be reckless for Loomis say otherwise, but there is a likely a lot of truth in his statements.

Dennis Allen articulated how close the race for Derek Carr’s backup was coming into the season. Rattler’s struggles shouldn’t have changed that. Missing Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed left Rattler operating with an empty toolbox for multiple games. That doesn’t even begin to account for the protection issues.

Rattler definitely struggled, but asking a fifth round pick to perform well under those conditions in his first starts was a tall task. He didn’t hit the bar, but it would be too early to be out on the rookie.

As for Haener, he looked good in his limited action, so there’s no reason to not be bullish on him. The Saints should view their young quarterbacks similarly to how they did entering the year. These are players with potential but still in need of some refinement.

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Mickey Loomis’ stance on coaching changes hasn’t changed in 20 years

Mickey Loomis’ old quotes from 20 years ago about a head coaching change feel awfully similar to his sentiments about Dennis Allen today:

Mickey Loomis recently clarified to all New Orleans Saints fans that they have to look beyond the results when evaluating Dennis Allen. Well, let’s apply that same premise to Loomis himself.

Loomis said, “I think good organizations do is you look beyond the results. What’s the reason for the results, and how do you fix the reasons that keep you from winning? It’s not always about the head coach. Sometimes it is, but it’s not always about that.”

Hesitancy to look at the head coach is part of Loomis’ process. He did the same thing with Jim Haslett. ESPN’s Katherine Terrell dug up some old quotes from Loomis from an interview in Jan 2004 when asked about potential coaching changes.

At the time, the Saints were .500 in a three year span. Loomis felt firing the coach was the easy route but not the right route. “The right thing to do is to stay the course,” Loomis elaborated. “Often times that is the hardest thing to do. But I think that’s what we need to do.”

Haslett may have earned the benefit of the doubt at the time. He went 10-6 and won the NFC South before struggling the next three years. Allen, on the other hand, hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt beyond simply being around for years.

Regardless, if we’re looking at the process, this type of statement from Loomis seems on brand. He believed in weathering the storm 20 years ago. Every comment about Allen suggests Loomis feels the same way in the present day.

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Mickey Loomis digs in his heels in support of Dennis Allen

Mickey Loomis doubled down on his support of Dennis Allen, suggesting there’s more to evaluating a coach than all the games he’s lost:

Credit where it’s due: Mickey Loomis joined the Saints Coaches Show on WWL Radio this week for a tough round of questions about the state of the New Orleans Saints. But that’s about all we can say for it. When it came to answering those tough questions, the Saints general manager and top decision-maker doubled down in support of head coach Dennis Allen.

“Everything you said is accurate,” Loomis conceded after being asked about the team’s performance in a four-game losing streak. “Results matter. They do. But I think one of the things that good organizations do, is man, you look beyond the results. What’s the reasons for the result? How do you fix the reasons that keep you from winning?”

Respectfully, you play to win the game. Tossing out a horrible record to shift blame is laughable, but Loomis tried it anyway: “It’s not always about the head coach. Sometimes it is. It’s about a lot of different variables. A lot of things are involved in winning.”

Sure, anyone in his position should take the big-picture view. But at this point we know this story. Coming out of Week 6, Allen has guided the Saints to a 2-4 record twice with a 3-3 peak slotted in-between. His defense has collapsed, again, and he’s having to make another midseason effort to clean up missed tackles and blown coverage assignments. Again.

Look at the facts. Allen has driven the Saints to an 18-22 record since he was hired. They’re 2-9 against opponents with winning records. They’re the only NFL team to outscore their opponents and post a losing record in that span. Of the 13 teams with a positive point differential since Allen was hired, only the Saints haven’t made the playoffs. They’ve tried different quarterbacks, coordinators, position coaches, and play callers, but Allen has been the common factor. At some point Loomis must look at his performance with a critical eye. A more engaged owner would scrutinize Loomis, too.

Loomis acknowledged that’s something he may have to do someday, but not yet: “So we’ll look at that when the time comes. But the time is not right now. We have a lot of games left.”

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Mickey Loomis optimistic on Alvin Kamara contract talks

New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis expressed optimism on contract negotiations with Alvin Kamara:

New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis joined Sirius XM NFL Radio recently to review his team’s offseason and the first week of training camp, but the hottest topic of discussion focused on one of his team’s best players: Alvin Kamara. The star running back is expected to take point in new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s attack, on the ground and through the air, and there’s a ton of speculation surrounding his ongoing contract talks with Loomis and the New Orleans front office.

Kamara is seeking more guaranteed money in 2025 to avoid becoming a potential salary cap casualty in the future, but both sides need to find a number that makes sense for each of them when deciding things like per-year salary. So what’s the latest news on this front?

“Generally I don’t answer questions like you just asked me,” Loomis laughed. “Generally I don’t like talking about player’s contracts in a public forum.”

Loomis said that he’s hesitant to make these kinds of public comments because he believes contract discussions are highly personal, and the more confidential and intimate those talks are, the better.

“Because you take offense when,” Loomis added, pausing for thought. “Here’s the thing, part of our job (as the team) is to get the deal right. And sometimes you have tell the player he’s not as good as he thinks he is. Or you tell the agent that, right? And that’s what I mean, by ‘How does that get communicated?’ That’s a hard thing to do because these guys are valuable players.”

Still, he acknowledged that Kamara’s camp has negotiated in good faith, and he expressed optimism that the two sides can eventually shake hands on a new deal. Loomis spoke highly of Kamara as having been a great contributor to the team’s success and a great representative of the organization in the community, but threading that needle between the financial considerations and personal respect is difficult. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t think they’ll be stuck at this impasse forever.

Loomis continued: “I thought Alvin did a great job the other day, he wants to be with the Saints, that’s who he wants to play for. And I appreciate that and I want him to play for us. I think eventually this will just work out.”

These contract talks didn’t bear fruit before the start of training camp, but Kamara still chose to report for work (avoiding what would have been a costly holdout). In-season extensions are rare for the Saints, so there is a clock ticking here, but there’s still time left to reach an agreement. Extensions for veteran players have been signed in the opening weeks of recent seasons; Demario Davis inked his extension on Sept. 12, 2020, the night before their season opener with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while Carl Granderson’s deal last year was announced on Sept. 23, the day before their third regular season game. Maybe Kamara’s pursuit of a new contract extends into September, too.

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Saints’ explanations for lack of fans at California practices don’t add up

The Saints are the only team closing their training camp to the public this summer, and it isn’t due to NFL rules. Mickey Loomis says he never bothered to check:

32 NFL teams are practicing at training camp on Wednesday, and 31 of them will have fans in attendance in some form or fashion. The New Orleans Saints are the only team that has totally closed its training camp to the public this summer. We’ve gotten a couple of different answers from team leadership on why that is, but their responses don’t add up to a cohesive statement.

Let’s start with Dennis Lauscha. The Saints team president was the first to answer the question when asked about it back in May, saying that as far as he was aware NFL marketing rules wouldn’t be a problem for having fans at training camp.

“I think that (rule) maybe pertains more to sponsorship,” Lauscha said during a recent press conference. “I can tell you we have a great relationship with the Rams and the Chargers, and that’s not an issue for us that I’m aware of. I think there is some plans (to have fans at training camp), I don’t know if it’s going to happen based on the layout (at UC Irvine) and what’s happening there.”

Fast-forward a few months and the Saints never got around to revealing those plans Lauscha hinted at. They did announce that they’ll hold two open practices at the Caesars Superdome and Yulman Stadium upon returning to New Orleans in August, but it’s not the same. When head coach Dennis Allen was asked about moving training camp to Los Angeles, he mainly focused on the weather and construction in Metairie rather than any fan considerations.

“Obviously, being away from home and away from our fans in New Orleans, obviously that’s the tough part about being out here in California for this training camp,” Allen answered. He acknowledged that moving camp to a new environment can help with a team-building culture, but ultimately the work in Metairie was what forced their hand. “But yet I don’t think you have to come out to California to change the culture.”

He continued: “Certainly the facility upgrades was going to be a challenge to hold a training camp with all the things that are going on. I mean we’ve got a fence in our indoor facility that makes it difficult to use the indoor. I looked at the forecast, I think it’s going to rain for the next month in New Orleans. So that would have made it even more challenging. All those things came together and led us to this.”

And then came Mickey Loomis, who most directly addressed the issue. He says the Saints decided early on that they wouldn’t be hosting fans at the UC Irvine practice fields:

“I think for us here, you know we’re away from our home market, we’re not expecting a lot of fans. We weren’t expecting a lot of fans. It’s just the venue, all the logistics that are involved. It’s significantly more logistics that are involved when you open it up to the public as to when you don’t. So all those factors came into play.

“I didn’t really do much inquiry about what we were allowed to do with fans or not allowed to do,” Loomis admitted during his opening press conference. “Because pretty quickly we determined that, hey, it’s going to be a limited amount of people at practice.”

That’s a wrongful assumption. It’s a couple of wrongful assumptions. Saints fans were so well-represented at joint practices with the Chargers in 2019 that they weren’t allowed to attend the next round of exercises in 2023. Sure, maybe only a couple hundred fans would be willing and able to make it to Saints training camp every day this summer — but Loomis couldn’t be bothered to make it happen.

The logistics he’s talking about, like paying for onsite security, medics, food and beverage vendors and other amenities, weren’t something Loomis was interested in. The Saints were valued at more than $4 billion last year and they’re currently paying north of $41.4 million in dead money for players not on their roster. But Loomis couldn’t find room in the budget for a couple of Los Angeles food trucks and some daytime security service, and maybe a standby ambulance if someone gets overheated?

The Las Vegas Raiders are under similar restrictions while holding camp in the area but at least they put the effort into compromising with the Rams and Chargers to bring in 140 to 200 fans (all season ticket holders who live in the Los Angeles area) per day. The Saints could have done something. Loomis acknowledged that he chose not to do anything for the team’s supporters in California or those who would have made the trip from further out.

And it’s not like UC Irvine can’t host a crowd. The Saints specifically chose this venue because the Rams have been using it for training camp for many years. The Rams estimated that almost 100,000 spectators visited their 10 open practices in the summer of 2022.

Even if the NFL’s marketing rules were a problem — which Lauscha says he didn’t know about, and which Loomis says he didn’t care about — and even if UC Irvine’s campus would have restricted attendance (which didn’t stop nearly 10,000 Rams fans from showing up every day), this all could have been avoided by not going there in the first place.

The Saints could have gone anywhere in America for training camp. And when they were deciding on that, their fans were not a priority. Mild weather in Southern California was the concern, not whether the people who invest in their team can make the trip. If Loomis, Lauscha, or Allen would just say that, at least you could respect the honesty. Instead it’s being spun as something that was mostly out of their hands, or far enough out of their hands to where they didn’t feel compelled to fight for it.

A lot of questions have been raised about the Saints’ quality of leadership inn their three-year playoff drought. Unforced errors like this one, alienating the team from its fanbase, suggest those leadership questions extend to the front office.

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Mickey Loomis: Saints not shopping Marshon Lattimore

The Saints picking Kool-Aid McKinstry sparked speculation they could soon trade Marshon Lattimore. But Mickey Loomis debunked those rumors:

The New Orleans Saints drafted Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry in the second round a few days ago, which led to speculation that Marshon Lattimore may be the target in trade talks with other teams. However, according to general manager Mickey Loomis, this is most definitely not the case, and the Saints are not currently looking to trade Lattimore at all.

In an interview with Adam Schein on his SiriusXM “Schein on Sports” podcast, Loomis discussed the topic of Lattimore and any considerations he is currently making.

“I’m not actively trying to trade Marshon, Marshon, you know, such a good player, he’s an elite corner,” Loomis said. “He’s had some injuries the last couple seasons that have kept him off the field, and we gotta get over that. It’s not his fault, it’s just circumstances, and so that’s just where we’re at.”

He also spoke about what Lattimore brings to the table for New Orleans with the current roster structure.

“Marshon’s been a really good player for us for a good period of time. He’s one of the leaders of our team. We can use as many corners as we can get,” Loomis added.

Ultimately, this settles things at least for a little while. While Loomis did mention that he always considers a Godfather “offer you can’t refuse,” he made it clear that this is the case with any player on the team, and only if it makes sense.

A secondary involving Lattimore, McKinstry, Paulson Adebo, Tyrann Mathieu, Jordan Howden and Alontae Taylor certainly looks stout on paper, and the utilization of these players would be more possible as they could play in specific roles to tailor to their strengths more often. Keeping Lattimore around to mentor the younger guys in the room, especially McKinstry, is something that you would think the Saints would prefer to do in the end. Their deadline to trade Lattimore is one week before the regular season starts. Let’s see if Loomis changes his tune.

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Trevor Penning not yet an option at guard for the Saints

Trevor Penning isn’t yet an option at guard for the Saints. Mickey Loomis says he’s still seen as an offensive tackle:

Trevor Penning’s NFL career has not gone as planned. The 2022 first-round pick only started one game in his rookie year, and the New Orleans Saints benched him after just six starts last season. Now he’s going into Year 3 without a spot guaranteed in the starting lineup. So what’s the plan for him? What can he do to ditch the dreaded “bust” label?

Will Penning move inside to guard in 2024, or is he still training to play at left tackle? Is he still seen as a tackle at all? How does Mickey Loomis answer that question?

“Yeah,” Loomis confirmed when asked exactly that during Tuesday’s pre-draft press conference. He continued, reflecting on the start to Penning’s offseason: “Yeah, it’s gone well. There’s a lot of offseason left here. We have a new offensive staff, new offensive line coaches, I think they’re anxious to get to work with him once we’re able to get on the field.”

Penning made gradual improvement last season in pass protection, but he didn’t improve quickly enough to stick in the starting lineup. What’s more concerning is that he never found his footing when blocking for run plays. That was supposed to be his strength coming out of college but the Saints struggled to run behind him.

But moving him to a new position isn’t the answer — at least not yet. If Penning can’t find his way in Klint Kubiak’s outside zone-heavy offense with tutelage from veteran coaches like John Benton and Rick Dennison, and Jahri Evans, then it’ll be time to try a different approach. At the same time, if there’s any chance he can develop into a reliable starter at left tackle, it’s worth pursuing. The Saints are in very rough shape at both tackle spots right now and Penning being able to put out one of those fires would do a lot to help. And as Loomis said, it all really starts when coaches and players kick off field work in just a few weeks.

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Mickey Loomis walks back response to Marshon Lattimore trade question

Mickey Loomis walked back his response to questions focusing on a possible Marshon Lattimore trade at Tuesday’s pre-draft press conference:

Just how confident is Mickey Loomis that Marshon Lattimore will be playing for the New Orleans Saints this year? The team’s general manager fielded questions from local media during his pre-2024 draft press conference on Tuesday, and the topic of Lattimore’s status came up.

So how did Loomis react when asked whether he was confident Lattimore would be on the roster this year?

“Yeah,” Loomis said, but when asked if he’d have responded with anything but a positive confirmation, he replied with “What do you think?”

When asked a follow-up question, Loomis tried to tamp it down, saying that he was “trying to avoid” the topic of player availability. But his next observation was a little more telling.

“Everybody is tradeable,” Loomis continued, “It depends on the offer you get. I don’t like trading players that have been contributors. There’s too many variables.”

That sure doesn’t make it sound like the Saints are open for business and shopping Lattimore around. They set the stage for this speculation back in January with a unique contract restructure that made Lattimore’s contract easier to trade, following reports of friction between the team and its star cornerback behind the scenes.

After he averaged 14.6 starts per year with four Pro Bowl appearances in his first five seasons, separate injuries have limited Lattimore to just 17 games over the last two years. Sources within the organization let it be known to the media that they were frustrated with a player they perceived as being injury-prone and slow to recover. Fair or not (we’re inclined to downplay it; a lacerated kidney and sprained ankle have nothing to do with each other), that’s how the relationship began to fray.

So it’s relieving to see that things have settled down now. The trade market for veteran corners is terrible right now and the Saints would be moving Lattimore at a big loss. It’s still possible they could trade him, as Loomis acknowledged, but it doesn’t appear to be as likely as it did a few months ago. We’ll see if that changes on draft day or in the summer months ahead.

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