Tag: Dennis Allen

Derek Carr gave Dennis Allen a shoutout after Week 10 win

Derek Carr gave Dennis Allen a shoutout after the Saints’ Week 10 win. Even if he isn’t the coach anymore, Carr credits Allen with a crucial role in their success:

The first person Derek Carr gave a shoutout to after defeating the Atlanta Falcons was former New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen, who had been relieved of his duties prior to the game.

It was definitely a comment that caught most off guard and likely irritated some, but it’s important to realize that Allen was his guy, just as he was Allen’s. To a degree, the loyalty is almost commendable and is certainly respectable.

Still, Dennis Allen exited the building on a seven game losing streak, and Darren Rizzi had just won his first game. Many didn’t want to hear “shoutout to DA because he helped us build this. Shoutout to DA because he helped pave the way for us.”

Carr made it clear he loves Allen, but he’s happy for Rizzi. It wasn’t a complete Allen love affair, just statement towards the beginning. There are some fans who didn’t want to hear it at all. It did feel a bit forced because no one asked about Allen. Carr’s loyalty is unwavering, however.

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Alvin Kamara receives a new title for the rest of the season

Alvin Kamara wasn’t a team captain for the New Orleans Saints this year, but Darren Rizzi changed that ahead of his debut as head coach:

This may surprise some, but Alvin Kamara wasn’t one of the New Orleans Saints’ team captains to start the 2024 season. He’s undoubtedly one of the Saints’ biggest leaders. He just didn’t have the title of captain until Saturday. He will now be named a captain for the remainder of the season.

Kamara has been a captain in the past, but he didn’t possess that title this season. It’s rare you ever see captains change in the middle of a season, but moving on from Dennis Allen gives the team a bit of a reset.

Darren Rizzi hasn’t been the interim head coach for even a week, but he’s already making a boatload of changes. His changes to the locker room layout and the speed of practice are the biggest changes he’s made. Kamara becoming a captain feels the most appropriate.

So far, Kamara has a new contract and a new title. The last month has been kind to him

Report: Dennis Allen ‘had a lot to do with’ RB’s second stint on injured reserve

Kendre Miller went back on injured reserve soon after leaving it, with a minor hamstring injury. This report says that was largely Dennis Allen’s decision:

No one is more frustrated than Kendre Miller with his injury situation — after all, it’s his own body getting damaged and holding back his career. But former New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen’s frustrations boiled over. Not long after Miller returned from injured reserve with a hamstring injury, he exited another game after injuring the hamstring in his other leg.

It was described as a minor injury, expected to sideline him for a week or two. But this report from LouisianaSports.Net’s Ross Jackson says Allen “had a lot to do with” the decision to sideline Miller on injured reserve again. Now the running back has to miss four games before he’ll be eligible to return. The soonest he can play again is Week 14’s matchup with the New York Giants.

Miller had been in the doghouse with Allen for months. He suffered that first hamstring injury just minutes into their first training camp practice and didn’t return until almost midseason. Allen had questioned Miller’s comprehension of the playbook with so few practice reps and even suggested the former third-round draft pick could fail to make the team if he couldn’t stay healthy.

So it was a tense situation to say the least. But Allen is gone now, having been fired, and Miller is anticipating a heavy workload once he’s allowed back on the field. His career to this point hasn’t met expectations, but the young pro is determined to salvage it the next time he has the ball in his hands.

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How big a part did fans pay in Saints’ coaching change?

Saints fans were frustrated with Dennis Allen for a long time. Eventually, those frustrations became too loud for Gayle Benson to ignore:

When New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson, not Mickey Loomis, made the decision to fire Dennis Allen, she listened to the fan base, literally.

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer said, “Benson and her group was hearing from the fan base in a way they hadn’t before.” The fan base wasn’t the reason Allen was relieved of his duties, but their vocal opposition to him remaining as coach played a part. Breer reported Benson’s “resolve was strengthened through that.”

Saints fans have been frustrated with Allen for a while. Many fans hoped for his termination at the end of last season. Allen was .500 as the Saints head coach coming into 2024, but with context it wasn’t impressive. The inability to take advantage of a weak schedule or defeat quality teams over two years had taken its toll.

Things improved to start the season. The addition of Klint Kubiak had the Saints looking like a high flying offense and one of the best teams in the NFL. That may have made the seven game losing skid hurt even more because those first two weeks were essentially false hope.

Being embarrassed at home in back to back weeks against the Buccaneers and Broncos only incited fans more. The chants for change weren’t always vocal, but the volume was louder than ever. Loud enough to reach ownership.

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Internal and external pressure led Gayle Benson to fire Dennis Allen

Internal feedback from players and external pressure from frustrated fans led Gayle Benson to fire Saints head coach Dennis Allen:

Gayle Benson made an unprecedented decision to fire New Orleans Saints coach Dennis Allen this week after the team’s 2-7 start to the season, and it took a combination of internal feedback from players and external pressure from frustrated fans to sway her mind.

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported that Benson and her ownership group “was hearing from the fan base in a way they hadn’t before, and their resolve was strengthened through that, to the point where perception inside the building holds that Allen might’ve been fired Monday even if he’d beaten the Carolina Panthers.”

That lines up with reporting from NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill, who wrote that Benson had spoken with several players to gauge their feel for the team’s direction. And what they told her wasn’t good.

Benson, who inherited the team from her late husband in 2018, had been content to trust Loomis on football decisions. But his trust in a coach with a losing record even before the Saints hired him warranted reevaluation. Loomis later told NOF’s Mike Triplett that he characterized it as more of an “organization decision” than a serious disagreement with Benson.

Still, at the end of the day this is Benson’s team, and this was her decision to make. Allen was a big part of their success in the playoff pushes of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, but by now it’s clear he wasn’t cut out to be a full-time head coach. He’ll be searching for his next opportunity elsewhere. Loomis and Benson will be looking for their next coach.

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Derek Carr on Dennis Allen’s second firing: ‘This one was harder’

Derek Carr has seen Dennis Allen get fired in the middle of the season twice, but the pill was tougher to swallow the second time:

Derek Carr is far from unfamiliar with the process of changing head coaches. Darren Rizzi will be the seventh head coach of Carr’s career. This is the third time he’s witnessed a midseason coaching change.

This one in particular hits a little different because it’s the second time he’s seen Dennis Allen be fired in the middle of the year. First time it happened was as a rookie with the Oakland Raiders, and the second time was obviously this week with the New Orleans Saints.

“This one was harder. The first one was like three games into my rookie year,” Carr said. That first moment was kind of like a welcome to the NFL moment and left Carr thinking “Dang, this is the NFL?”

It may not have been just four games, but Carr felt like this run was short too. Over the course of three seasons, Carr has played a total of 27 games under Dennis Allen. The pairing hasn’t equated to success, but they’ve closer since Carr’s rookie season, making this a tough pill to swallow.

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Todd Grantham’s responsibilities are changing under Darren Rizzi

Todd Grantham’s responsibilities are changing under Darren Rizzi. He’s moving from defensive line coach to an advisor role:

Todd Grantham’s responsibilities are changing under New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi. He’s moving from defensive line coach to a senior advisor role after the team dismissed Dennis Allen. Rizzi says Brian Young, a 15-year coaching veteran on staff as a pass-rush specialist, will run the defensive line room.

“It’s a shuffle. Shuffle the deck there a little bit on defense,” Rizzi told reporters Wednesday, when asked whether he would characterize these  changes as a demotion and promotion. “You have to understand the workload change because Dennis got removed. Dennis was, daily, in the defensive staff rooms so we quote-unquote lost a defensive coach. Not only a head coach, we lost the play caller. Now Joe, who is doing his stuff, he’s now coordinating, his workload changes. His day-to-day workload the fans may not understand completely, we just re-divvy it up. I just felt this was the best way to shuffle the deck there.”

Grantham’s focus will be advising defensive coordinator Joe Woods as he begins calling plays in Allen’s stead; it’s a less hands-on role than what he’s had here before. That isn’t the only change on the defensive side of the ball, but it is the most notable. Young will work with linebackers coach Michael Hodges to coordinate the defensive run game each week.

But change was needed. The Saints were on pace to set an NFL record for the most yards allowed before contact on running plays, which was a direct reflection on Grantham’s unit. The defensive line was getting pushed off the ball and not making plays. The lack of development for young draft picks like Payton Turner and Isaiah Foskey speaks for itself, even if Rizzi took the high road here.

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Darren Rizzi is changing the Saints locker room layout

The Saints locker room used to be grouped by position groups until 2020 shook it up. Darren Rizzi is bringing it back as interim head coach:

Darren Rizzi’s first public move as New Orleans Saints interim head coach is to change the setup of the locker room back to how things used to be. Instead of being grouped by positions, players were just randomly placed at lockers throughout the locker room. You could have an offensive lineman next to a safety and wide receiver.

This began in 2020 due to the league’s COVID protocol. The thought process behind the alteration was logical. They didn’t want one player to pass it to the entire position group. Dennis Allen kept this going when he became head coach.

As time passed, this became the standard locker room layout and just never changed back until this week. The Saints locker room is once again sectioned by position groups in hopes of building more togetherness. We’ll see if it makes a difference.

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Will Sean Payton find a role for Dennis Allen on Broncos’ staff?

After being fired by the Saints, perhaps Dennis Allen could land a role with Sean Payton’s Broncos?

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has 14 former New Orleans Saints coaches and staff members on his staff in Denver.

Perhaps another name will soon be added to the list.

The Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen earlier this week. Allen, 52, had two different stints under Payton with the Saints, including a run as the team’s defensive coordinator from 2015-2021.

The Broncos already have a defensive coordinator in Vance Joseph, but Payton could probably find a role for Allen.

On offense, Payton hired ex-Saints quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi in 2023 to serve as Denver’s offensive coordinator. One year later, New Orleans fired offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael. The Broncos already had a coordinator in Lombardi, so Payton hired Carmichael as a “senior offensive assistant.”

It wouldn’t shock anyone if Payton now created a defensive assistant role for Allen.

Earlier this season, the New York Jets fired Robert Saleh and he quickly landed as a consultant with the Green Bay Packers. Time will tell if Allen might land a similar gig in Denver.

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Former Saints player details the beginning of the end for Dennis Allen

Dennis Allen’s actions in the 2023 season finale vs. the Falcons was a tough pill for fans to swallow. James Hurst says many players felt the same:

James Hurst retired this offseason, but he saw the separation between Dennis Allen and the New Orleans Saints locker room last year. He even went as far as to say some players wondered if Mickey Loomis would fire Allen at the end of the 2023 season.

Hurst reflects on the aftermath of players going against Allen’s wishes to kneel the ball out against the Atlanta Falcons in the season finale. Hurst was among the crew that opted to get Jamaal Williams his first touchdown of the season. He admits they were wrong but players were disappointed Allen apologized to Arthur Smith instead of having their back publicly.

“Many of the players felt he missed an opportunity there to have our backs, to defend us, even though what we did was wrong, admittedly,” Hurst relayed. Fans were upset Allen didn’t embody what they believed was Saints culture, but players were upset he hung them out to dry. Their preference was a public backing to show a unified front and being reprimanded in private.

Those emotions continued into the next day as players talked negatively among themselves. It was to the point to that when Loomis called a rare post season meeting, players thought it was to announce Allen’s departure.

Hurst capped off his statement by saying, “maybe that was the beginning of the end. That was definitely tough for the players to swallow and something surely some of the guys hadn’t quite gotten over.”

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