Category: Mickey Loomis

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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What do Saints’ draft tendencies under Mickey Loomis look like?

What do the New Orleans Saints’ draft tendencies under Mickey Loomis look like? Lots of picks spent at defensive end and cornerback:

The New Orleans Saints have been known to take a similar approach to the NFL draft on a year-to-year basis, but does that match what the tendencies say on paper?

Arjun Menon, an NFL analyst, put together a spreadsheet to see which positions each NFL general manager has spent their top-100 draft picks on over the past 13 seasons. Here are that the results say for each of them, including Saints decision-maker Mickey Loomis:

The most commonly drafted position for Mickey Loomis over that time period was actually a tie between defensive end and cornerback.

Despite spending so much capital on the defensive end position over the past few years, it’s one that the Saints still need to spend more on to get better. Their investments at cornerback have paid off more often, though.

The only positions listed that the Saints haven’t spent a a 100 pick on is tight end and offensive guard. Cesar Ruiz was listed as a center when he was drafted, but has really only played guard in New Orleans though.

Wide receiver, offensive tackle, interior defensive linemen, and linebackers were all tied for second place. The draft capital is pretty evenly spread out, as none of the position groups were nearing a 30% number unlike some general managers on the list. But the stuff the Saints do spend the most on aren’t very surprising.

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Where Mickey Loomis ranks among the NFL’s 10 longest-tenured general managers

How Mickey Loomis compares among the NFL’s 10 longest-tenured general managers in win percentage, playoff records, and championships:

Mickey Loomis has been calling shots for the New Orleans Saints for a long time. There isn’t another general manager — or at least no one who share that title — who has held the job as long as he has in pro football. But how much more experience does he have than his peers?

Sure, there are de facto GM’s like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown, but they ceded personal control to trusted assistants years ago. At the end of the day Loomis is involved with every decision the Saints make in free agency and on draft day, either okaying the suggestions of his staff or making the call himself. With contemporaries like Bill Belichick and Kevin Colbert leaving storied franchises the Saints try to emulate, Loomis is left alone.

And the gap between him and the next generation of GM’s around the league is staggering. Here’s how Loomis stacks up among the NFL’s 10 longest-tenured executives:

Mickey Loomis on Saints’ 2017 draft stars Lattimore, Ramczyk

Mickey Loomis shared few details (but differing outlooks) on Saints 2017 draft stars Marshon Lattimore and Ryan Ramczyk:

You can point to some moments in the New Orleans Saints’ recent history as important milestones or turning-points — one of them being the team’s historic 2017 draft class, which started with a pair of future Pro Bowlers. The Saints owned two picks in the first round that year and spent them on two instant starters in cornerback Marshon Lattimore and offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk.

But both players’ futures with the team are in doubt. Time and injuries and drama behind the scenes have prompted speculation that neither of them could be long for New Orleans. And when Saints general manager Mickey Loomis spoke to reporters on Wednesday in his end-of-year press conference, he was short on details, but offered vastly-different messages on each of them.

Let’s start with Ramczyk. He’s missed 13 games over the last three years with a persistent knee injury, including the last three matchups in 2023. Ramczyk has been dealing with a degenerative cartilage condition and said earlier this year that career-ending surgery is an option in the offseason, and while Loomis didn’t go into details, he did share a more-uplifting perspective on the right tackle’s outlook.

“I have a positive feeling about where he’s going to end up,” Loomis said. “And I think he does as well.”

That sure suggests Ramczyk will be back in 2024, even if Loomis didn’t spell it out clearly. But what about Lattimore?

Lattimore has missed a full 17-game season’s worth of matchups over the last two years, but the injuries were unrelated. This year he got rolled up on by a teammate while helping finish a tackle, and missed the final seven games with a slow-to-heal high ankle sprain (which typically sideline NFL players for six to eight weeks). The year before, Lattimore suffered internal organ injuries in a freak accident when he collided with other players while rallying to the ball. Both times he got hurt while cleaning up someone else’s mistake.

Rumors have swirled about discord between Lattimore and Saints head coach Dennis Allen leading to a possible trade. And the Saints made that more likely by restructuring Lattimore’s contract for 2024 to center on an option bonus, not a signing bonus, which his new team would be responsible for paying.

But when asked about that decision, Loomis kept his hands close to his vest, saying the restructure was about cap management. On the unique option bonus maneuver, he responded: “There’s a reason but I’m not going to get into it.”

That’s not exactly telling the world that Lattimore is available and the Saints are open for business, but it’s awful close. Trading one of the best defenders in pro football wouldn’t make a lot of fans happy, and the optics of giving Lattimore the boot while keeping a head coach with a career-losing record would be awful. But that appears to be a path Loomis is willing to tread even if it’s expensive and unpopular.

So while we’re reading the tea leaves here, Loomis’ comments suggest that Ramczyk will be back in 2024, but Lattimore may not be, if the team can find a trade partner. Or at least the team is prepared for life without their star cornerback. Or maybe we’re reading his words all wrong. Either way, it’s shaping up for another eventful Saints offseason. Hopefully a successful season and return to the playoffs is waiting on the other side of it.

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Mickey Loomis shoots down rumor, says he isn’t stepping down as GM

Mickey Loomis shoots down rumor, says he isn’t stepping down or changing his title as Saints general manager and executive vice president:

Forget what you read on social media: Mickey Loomis isn’t going anywhere. The New Orleans Saints general manager and executive vice president was asked about a rumor going around in fan communities online that he would be moving to a different role in the organization, freeing up one of his top assistants to succeed him as general manager.

And Loomis dismissed it as just that: a rumor.

“Somebody just made that up,” Loomis said. “That’s never been discussed or talked about.”

Loomis added that he could wake up one day and feel differently about his place in the organization, but as of now the course is set. He’ll remain in place as the team’s top decision-maker both in title and in practice.

That’s all happening in the wake of interview requests from other teams hoping to poach talent from the Saints’ front office. Loomis acknowledged that assistant general managers Khai Harley and Jeff Ireland were sought out by the Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Chargers, respectively, and he added that pro personnel director Michael Parenton is someone else he regards highly within their organization. Harley manages the salary cap, and Ireland covers the college scouting department, and there’s a chance both of them leave town in the near future.

That would be a mistake. Loomis might be the longest-tenured general manager in the league but he doesn’t have much to show for it without Sean Payton and Drew Brees. His Saints teams have gone a combined 44-54 from 2002 to 2005 and 2022 to 2023, before and after Payton was leading them. A lot was made of Loomis guiding the Saints to 200-plus career wins this season but Payton takes credit for 152 of them (and Super Bowl XLIV).

Losing talented executives like Ireland and Harley to protect Loomis’ job security is, well, laughable. But Loomis was all laughs at his end-of-year press conference on Wednesday. He isn’t going anywhere until he’s good and ready, and he took this opportunity to remind everyone watching that he’s in control here. Ownership won’t force him out, and he isn’t about to give up his title to benefit someone else. He wants to prove he can win without Payton. If that means standing by a coach like Dennis Allen, well — good luck.

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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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Fans on Twitter push back as Mickey Loomis tries to revise Saints history

Mickey Loomis attempted some revisionist history when comparing Derek Carr’s first year with the Saints to Drew Brees’ debut as the league-leading passer:

New Orleans Saints general manager earned some ire from his team’s fans on social media during his latest appearance on WWL Radio, having tried his hand at some revisionary history. When recapping Derek Carr’s up-and-down first year in New Orleans with WWL’s Jeff Nowak, Loomis made an impressive misstep in comparing Carr’s lack of success to the challenges Brees experienced in his first year on the job as the Saints’ starting quarterback.

“I mean, this is Derek’s first year with us and if we went back to 2006 and looked at Brees’ first season or with us, you wouldn’t say, ‘Wow, that guy is going to the Hall of Fame’ after season 1 or season 2, so sometimes it takes a while for us to be familiar with him,” Loomis mused. “For him to have a real grasp of the offense, in terms of being reactive instead of thinking and making a play and getting on the same page with our staff, our coaches as well as our players.”

Archival materials aren’t as common dating back to 2006 — which makes sense given the Saints’ status in a smaller market with a decreased media presence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — but here’s what one of the longest-tenured analysts on the beat had to say at time.

Writing for the Houma Courier, Mike Detillier recapped Brees’ first 13 games as such: “Brees has been just what the football doctor ordered for the Saints as far as intelligence, leadership, production and gamesmanship is concerned. … The former Purdue All-American and his former teammate in San Diego, halfback LaDainian Tomlinson, should be the co-MVP’s in the league this season.”

And speaking as someone who lived to experience it, no one was calling Brees a future Hall of Famer after his first season. But even the critics who had called him damaged goods over the summer were won over by the time he ended the year with Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro recognition, having lead the NFL in passing yards (4,418). When Brees followed up that performance with more sky-high passing numbers (and, critically, winning seasons and a Super Bowl title) he was being discussed as a Hall of Fame lock by the 2011 record-breaking campaign.

But back to Loomis’ point and the comparison to Carr. It’s true that few fans were putting Brees in Canton going into the final week of the 2006 regular season or even in 2007. At the same time, Brees had done much more to give fans reason to think this team had a future with him under center than Carr has this year.

In 2006, Brees conducted an offense that ranked fifth in scoring, third on third downs, and third in yards per play. Carr’s version of the offense ranks 14th, 16th, and 18th in each of those same categories. And let’s not forget that, at the time, Brees was a 27-year old coming off of reconstructive shoulder surgery with 59 career starts behind him. Carr joined the Saints with five years and 83 more games’ worth of experience behind him.

Sure, Pete Carmichael isn’t the play caller that Sean Payton was, but when you’re comparing players like Loomis is trying to do you’ve got to keep focus limited to those players. Loomis might be trying to pull a fast one on a disgruntled Saints fanbase, but fans on social media rightfully didn’t let it slide. Here’s what they’re saying in response on Twitter, the platform currently known as X:

Saints award Mickey Loomis a game ball for his 200th win as their general manager

The New Orleans Saints awarded Mickey Loomis a game ball for his 200th win as their general manager after taking down the Carolina Panthers:

The New Orleans Saints recognized Mickey Loomis for his 200th career win as their general manager on Sunday after taking down the Carolina Panthers, and it’s quite an achievement. Loomis is the longest-tenured general manager in the league (not counting owner-GM’s like Jerry Jones and head coach-GM’s such as Bill Belichick), and he’s joined rare company after seeing the team’s he’s built win 200 games.

Look at the names on the list of executives to see 200 wins: Tex Schramm, Bill Polian, Kevin Colbert, and Ozzie Newsome, plus Jones, Belichick, and Al Davis. That’s the kind of company Loomis keeps with his impressive longevity.

Saints owner Gayle Benson awarded Loomis a customized game ball for this achievement in the locker room after Sunday’s win.

“We’ve been waiting a little while to get this done,” said Saints head coach Dennis Allen in the locker room after the game, leading up to the presentation. The team first put out notice of Loomis closing in on this accomplishment after their Nov. 5 win over the Chicago Bears (his 199th victory), so they’ve presumably been waiting for a month during their three-game losing streak and bye week to put a pin in it.

So how much longer will Loomis lead the organization? Most executives retire or step into less-prominent roles at this stage in his career, but it’s anyone’s guess when Loomis will be ready to make a move. With promising GM candidates in the building like Khai Harley and Jeff Ireland, it feels like the Saints risk losing some talented people if this decision is put off for too long.

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Mickey Loomis shares out-of-touch takeaways on Saints’ ailing offense

Mickey Loomis has nothing but out-of-touch commentary on the state of the Saints offense. It doesn’t matter if you gain yards if you can’t score points:

Proponents for change won’t like this commentary from Mickey Loomis. The New Orleans Saints general manager made his regular appearance on the Saints Hour with WWL radio and was asked about the state of the New Orleans offense — a unit that ranks 18th in points scored this season.

But to hear Loomis tell it, the Saints are right up there with the elite offenses of the world. After prefacing his statement with the importance of focusing on the positives (not the negatives, Loomis emphasized) in reviewing performance, Loomis pointed to the team’s yardage stats as proof of their success.

“There’s too many other things that are good signs. We’re 12th in the league in offense,” Loomis said, referring to their average of 347.1 yards per game. “We just had a game where we had 444 yards. We had five trips into the red zone. We’re top-10 in our league in trips into the red zone. So it’s hard to score if you’re not getting into the scoring area. We’re getting into the scoring area, and historically we’ve done a good job in that area for lots of different reasons, lots of different variables. We’re not doing that as well this year and yet I think we can.”

The problem is that success hasn’t materialized on the scoreboard. As Loomis said, the Saints are getting inside the opposing 20-yard line often (their 40 trips rank 8th-best around the league). But they’re stalling out with just 17 of those drives ending in touchdowns. That’s a conversion rate of 42.5%. Only three teams are worse. They went 0-for-5 on those trips into the red zone last week.

Much of the blame falls on Derek Carr’s shoulders. The nine-year veteran has been the least effective quarterback in the NFL in the red zone this season. 18 different quarterbacks have thrown 40 or more passes in the red zone this season, and Carr (47 attempts) ranks 17th in completion percentage (44.7%) and 18th in touchdown passes (8). He’s a liability.

Of course there are others at fault here. Pete Carmichael has been ineffective when his offense has gotten in scoring position. Penalties on normally-reliable players like right tackle Ryan Ramczyk and dropped passes by receivers known for good hands like tight end Foster Moreau have cost the team points.

But Loomis isn’t worried, or at least he isn’t expressing that publicly. Maybe Carr can just flip a switch and suddenly learn how to hit those tight-window passes in the red zone that he’s struggled with throughout his career.

Still, pointing at the box score instead of the scoreboard rings hollow. The Saints must end drives with touchdowns, not field goals. Otherwise they’re just going to keep getting outscored and keep losing games. If that’s the future Loomis is determined to see through, well: it’s his legacy on the line for guiding the Saints here.

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