Hoo boy. The New Orleans Saints bet big on Dennis Allen’s vision for their team as head coach, and hired him with visions of grandeur — fielding a highly competitive roster, running away with a division title in the weak NFC South, and making some noise in the playoffs. Now past the season’s halfway point, it’s looking more like his stewardship will have cost them a top pick in the 2023 NFL draft.
Tankathon’s latest projection after Week 10’s games (except for prime-time matchups on Sunday and Monday night, which won’t affect most of the projected draft order) now has the Saints sending the No. 4 overall pick to the Philadelphia Eagles, stemming from New Orleans’ predraft trade in 2022. That’s a valuable asset that the Saints could have used to target a potential franchise quarterback or a difference-maker at another position of need. Instead, it’s going into the hands of a Super Bowl favorite.
That should be enough to convince the Saints’ decision-makers to part ways with Allen. He was hired for his ability to keep the team together, win a lot of games, and get them into the playoffs. He’s failed on all three counts and a path towards recovery looks uncertain at best. Odds are the Saints are going to send a top-5 pick to Philly when it’s all said and done. If this losing streak stretches out further, that pick’s value only grows stronger, and the decision to trade it only looks worse. The Saints made a bold gamble and got burned. Now they have to pay up.
Allen and the Saints can talk about their still-wide-open division and the talent currently healing up from injuries, but the reality is they’re running out of time. His team looks just as prone to mistakes, errors, penalties, missed tackles, and other negative plays after Week 10 as it did after Week 2. If he hasn’t turned things around yet, he probably isn’t going to figure it out in another two, four, six, or eight weeks. The best thing the Saints could do for themselves at this point is start mitigating the damage.
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