It shouldn’t be a hot take to say Dennis Allen should be on the hot seat going into 2024. The New Orleans Saints have tolerated too much mediocrity under his watch, having missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons while wilting in their biggest games. Allen has not delivered on the expectation general manager Mickey Loomis outlined when he was hired, envisioning a coach who could field a competitive team each week.
And it’s not just us saying it. That’s the word from Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay, who started with Allen when listing head coaches whose jobs could be in jeopardy this season:
The New Orleans Saints resemble little more than a shell of the powerhouse they were during the franchise’s golden era that featured Drew Brees under center and Sean Payton at the helm.
Dennis Allen, the head coach promoted to his position following Payton’s retirement after the 2021 campaign, and the three different starting quarterbacks he’s churned through since taking over simply haven’t done an acceptable job emulating their predecessors. While Allen’s regular season record isn’t atrocious—he’s gone 16-18 in his two years at the helm—he’s struggled to compete in a wide-open NFC South and hasn’t done much to inspire confidence that he can oversee a contender.
New Orleans attempted to take a shortcut to find a capable quarterback after it became clear that neither Jameis Winston nor Andy Dalton were adequate replacements for Brees. Derek Carr was brought on as a free-agent last season but couldn’t elevate this squad to its first playoff berth since 2020.
The team’s 9-7 record was too strong to allow it to acquire a blue-chip passer in the draft, however, and the Saints are now in grave danger of finding themselves stuck in the NFL’s version of purgatory—not bad enough to bottom out and get a top pick but not good enough to even reach the playoffs.
Kay also pointed to the season-ending debacle against the Atlanta Falcons in which Allen’s players undermined his authority to score one last touchdown in a blowout win over their oldest rivals; Allen earned a lot of enmity from Saints fans for apologizing to his Atlanta counterpart afterwards. If he’s lost the locker room, Kay writes, and as that incident suggests, it’s fair to ask how much longer Allen can stay in place.
Another year without the playoffs should be the end of it. Allen has been given every opportunity and every advantage but he hasn’t shown he can make use of it. He’s failed to stack up wins with the easiest schedule in the league or consistently win matchups against backup quarterbacks, or rise to the occasion when competing with a playoff team, or even an opponent who just has a backbone.
Now he has his $150 million quarterback, he has his handpicked offensive coaching staff, and he has the NFL’s weakest schedule again. If he can’t win in these circumstances, he’ll never be able to. The question is whether Loomis and the Saints’ leadership team agrees.
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