Tag: Fired

Ohio State fired its head coach after loss to Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s win last night got Ohio State’s head coach fired

Wisconsin finally returned to the win column last night with a 62-54 triumph over Ohio State.

Greg Gard’s team improved to 17-8 on the season and 9-5 in Big Ten play, snapping a four-game losing streak that dated back to January 26.

Ohio State, meanwhile, fell to 4-10 in Big Ten play and fired longtime head coach Chris Holtmann earlier today, a mere 13 hours after last night’s game.

Related: Wisconsin basketball social media reacts to massive win over Ohio State

Holtmann went 137-86 in seven years in Columbus, Ohio. He made the NCAA Tournament each of his first five years, counting the 2019-20 season when Ohio State would’ve made it had the tournament not been canceled.

Things took a turn the last two seasons, with a 16-19 2022-23 campaign leading into this year’s disappointing 14-11 (4-10 Big Ten) record.

Holtmann was obviously on thin ice entering last night’s matchup against the Badgers. But if someone wants to start the narrative: Greg Gard, in a way, ended the Chris Holtmann era at Ohio State.

Saints dismiss veteran offensive line coach Doug Marrone

The New Orleans Saints are dismissing veteran offensive line coach Doug Marrone. Incoming OC Klint Kubiak will hire his own help:

The New Orleans Saints are dismissing veteran offensive line coach Doug Marrone, as first reported by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill. The Times-Picayune | Advocate’s Luke Johnson confirmed Marrone’s departure.

Marrone was the first assistant Dennis Allen hired in 2022; his arrival was talked up as a former two-time NFL head coach who first came to New Orleans with Sean Payton back in 2006. While Marrone’s influence was positive for right guard Cesar Ruiz’s development, left tackle Trevor Penning did not make enough improvement through his first two years and the New Orleans offensive line as a whole deteriorated.

Change was needed. We’ll see whether Marrone’s assistant coaches Jahri Evans and Kevin Carberry are retained moving forward.

So this means that incoming offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak hire his own help. In addition to hiring a new offensive line coach, the Saints must hire position coaches to work with the running backs and wide receivers after Joel Thomas left for a new job and Kodi Burns was let go. It remains to be seen whether quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry and tight ends coach Clancy Barone figure into Kubiak’s plans, but it’s worth noting Barone worked with him on the Denver Broncos in 2022.

Who could Kubiak bring in to take Marrone’s place? One name to watch is San Francisco 49ers assistant offensive line coach James Cregg, who previously worked at LSU. Another one is Rick Dennison, the former Minnesota Vikings offensive line coach who worked with Kubiak earlier in his career.

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Commanders fire head coach Ron Rivera after 4 seasons

Rivera finishes his time in Washington with a 26-40-1 record.

The Washington Commanders have fired head coach Ron Rivera one day after the team finished a 4-13 season with a 38-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. It was Washington’s eighth consecutive loss.

Rivera finishes his time in Washington with a 26-40-1 record and missed the playoffs the past three seasons. In Rivera’s first season (2020), he unexpectedly led the franchise to an NFC East title, albeit with a 7-9 record.

However, hopes were high heading into 2021. Washington spent in free agency, signing cornerback William Jackson III, wide receiver Curtis Samuel and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Jackson and Fitzpatrick moves proved disastrous and Samuel missed virtually his entire first season in Washington before becoming an integral part of the offense over the past two seasons.

Washington finished 7-10 in 2021, but Rivera believed the team would bounce back in 2022. The team became the Commanders in Feb. 2022 and attempted to trade for veteran quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers before settling on Carson Wentz.

It proved to be another disastrous move for Washington. Wentz struggled badly, starting only seven games, and Taylor Heinicke started for most of the season for a second consecutive year. Heinicke was signed in Dec. 2020 off the street as an emergency quarterback during COVID-19 and quickly became a fan favorite.

Despite Rivera’s best efforts to replace him, Heinicke would become his most dependable quarterback through his four seasons as head coach. In 2023, Rivera anointed Sam Howell Washington’s “QB1” shortly after the end of the 2022 season. Howell showed promise through 10 weeks but struggled mightily during Washington’s final seven games.

Rivera’s failure to adequately address the quarterback situation, in addition to his personnel blunders — in the draft and free agency — proved to be some of his biggest mistakes.

However, Rivera was the leader the franchise needed during some dark times, including the continuous drama and scandal involving former owner Dan Snyder and the team changing its name twice.

Local and national reports say Saints will bring Dennis Allen back for 2024

Local and national reports are in lockstep, saying the New Orleans Saints will bring Dennis Allen back for 2024 — barring a catastrophic finish to the 2023 season:

This seemed to be the way the wind was blowing, but it’s appearing increasingly certain that the New Orleans Saints will run it back again with Dennis Allen as their head coach in 2024. Local reporting from NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill and national reports from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero are in lockstep: barring a complete collapse in the final two weeks of the regular season, Saints leadership is planning for Allen to remain the team’s head coach next season.

While Allen has come up short in both of his first two years as New Orleans’ head coach — mirroring his ugly start with the Raiders a decade ago — the Saints are all too eager to make excuses for him. Last year it was the challenges of an injury-ridden roster and poor quarterback performance.

This season, Rapoport shares that the Saints are giving Allen a mulligan for having had to navigate “a suspension of their best offensive player Alvin Kamara, included a variety of injuries to starting quarterback Derek Carr, and featured countless variations to the offensive line and front-seven looks due to more injuries.”

Now, that doesn’t mean change isn’t on the way; Carr’s struggles to elevate the offense beyond what Andy Dalton and Jameis Winston achieved with it last year have the Saints looking critically at their coaching staff and some veteran players, so more turnover on that side of the ball could be a point of emphasis. But it’s not like they haven’t shuffled the offensive coaching staff already. Allen has replaced the offensive line coach, wide receivers coach, tight ends coach and put quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry in a more prominent position as the passing game coordinator through his first two offseasons. Maybe the third time’s the charm for upgrading offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael.

Either way, Allen will be back, bring his 152nd-best career win percentage with him. It’s very plausible that the Saints viewed the Allen-and-Carr experiment as a two-year process all along. Carr’s heavy contract guarantees run out after the 2024 season, which is the third year of Allen’s contract. If they fail to reach the playoffs again it would be much easier to jettison them both and, maybe, install a new regime with a high draft pick in 2025. But that’s a tough vision to sell to a fanbase that’s been let down by Loomis and his leadership team before. Hopefully the Saints can just get back to winning games and entertaining fans sooner rather than later.

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9 potential replacements for Saints head coach Dennis Allen

The Saints may not be preparing to fire Dennis Allen, but they should be. Better head coach candidates are out there like Jim Harbaugh, Ben Johnson, and Brian Flores:

Will the New Orleans Saints move on from Dennis Allen after this season? They probably should. He hasn’t met the expectations set for him in either of his first two years as their head coach, and he’ll need to to beat two NFC South rivals that defeated him soundly earlier this season just to finish the 2023 campaign with a winning record.

The Saints went all in on his vision for the team by signing his preferred quarterback Derek Carr to a lucrative contract and repeatedly trading up in the NFL draft for prospects he wanted the most, costing them much-needed picks that could have been used to restock an aging roster. And Allen hasn’t had anything to show for it. It’s time to move on from the coach with the 184th-ranked career winning percentage in NFL history whether the Saints’ brass wants to admit it or not.

So who are their options if they do dismiss Allen from his post? Years of poaching have thinned out the crowd of candidates ahead of the latest coaching carousel, but there are some intriguing names on the market. Here are five coaches we’d like to see wearing black and gold:

Report: Dennis Allen ‘is in a good spot’ after 14-18 start with Saints

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that Dennis Allen ‘is in a good spot’ with the Saints despite his 14-18 start as their head coach. He isn’t on the hot seat:

There’s no rational explanation for the New Orleans Saints to stand by Dennis Allen as their head coach, but general manager Mickey Loomis and team president Dennis Lauscha appear to be manufacturing one anyway. All they have to show team owner Gayle Benson is another losing record after investing $150 million in quarterback Derek Carr to support Allen’s vision for the team. There are two games left to play against NFC South rivals that soundly beat Allen’s team earlier this season.

But change isn’t on the horizon, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Rapoport’s sources have found little to complain about Allen during his 14-18 run as Saints head coach through two years.

“My understanding is that Dennis Allen is in a good spot,” Rapoport said. “Obviously if it goes horrific at the end of the year, this is always subject to change, life is subject to change, but that is where it stands right now.”

This news come off the heels of the Saints’ inept performance in a Thursday night loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Both teams may have entered the game with matching 7-7 records, but the Rams left no doubt that they were the better team. The Saints didn’t lead on the scoreboard for a single minute in their 30-22 loss, which wasn’t as close as that final tally would imply.

So why stick by Allen? What does he bring to the table when his handcrafted defense is allowing a 95-yard touchdown drive? Rapoport’s explanation reeks of the sunk cost fallacy.

Rapoport continued, “One of the reasons is they’re not getting out of where they are any time soon. Derek Carr is fully guaranteed for next year. Could they move on, I don’t think they want to, it’s expensive if they decide to. You have a roster that’s getting a little older, getting a little slower, it’s still really expensive. Off the edge it’s not as fast or twitchy as you’d like.”

Loomis invested a ton of draft picks in Allen’s vision for the team, with little to show for it. He was fleeced in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles aimed at getting left tackle Trevor Penning last year and Penning has hardly played since getting benched early this season. Loomis traded up for both of the Saints’ picks in the fourth round this year (offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri and quarterback Jake Haener), and those two players have combined for 18 snaps across 15 games.

The cupboard is looking awfully bare. With a complicated salary cap situation and few draft picks to spend on young talent, the Saints are stuck with the roster they’ve built for themselves — and for Allen. He got his quarterback, who hasn’t met expectations, and the defense he’s spent years cultivating is withering. So is there a light at the end of the tunnel if Allen and this group are returning for 2024?

“If they’re going to rebuild, they’re going to have to actually rebuild, and it just doesn’t feel like that’s something you do with a completely new coach,” Rapoport mused. “And you can’t do it next year basically anyway, so it does seem primed for a reboot in New Orleans.”

That’s not the most inspiring message, but it’s the reality the team is in. Rather than bring in a new coach with fresh ideas who can try to rally the group they have, they’re looking to ride it out with Allen and Carr through 2024 and then consider wholesale changes when it’s more affordable. That isn’t going to be a popular move with a fanbase that has already had its fill of Allen and Carr, but that’s the course Loomis and Lauscha must feel is best for their team. They’ve been wrong on almost every decision since hiring Allen so far. Maybe they’re due for getting something right.

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How long of a leash does Dennis Allen have with Saints ownership?

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler thinks the Saints don’t want to make a change at head coach after the season, but Dennis Allen’s poor performance is hard to ignore:

Who is going to be coaching the New Orleans Saints in 2024? Could Dennis Allen return after struggling to reach (much less hold on to) a winning record in either of his two years as their head coach?

That’s no sure thing, but some recent scuttlebutt suggests the Saints are at least hesitant to consider making a move from Allen just yet. The latest buzz comes from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, who shared what he’s hearing in a back-and-forth with his colleague Dan Graziano:

“I don’t think the Saints want to make a change on Dennis Allen, but another losing season would mark two in a row, which wasn’t the norm in the Sean Payton era (though he did have a stretch of three consecutive 7-9 seasons from 2014 to ’16). It still needs to be seen how much grace New Orleans’ front office and ownership is willing to apply.”

Honestly, it’s odd that the situations would be compared; Payton earned his goodwill with a Super Bowl XLIV championship and a record-setting run with Drew Brees, helping the quarterback not just reinvent himself after a career-threatening injury but build a Hall of Fame resume.

Allen fixed Rob Ryan’s mess of a defense, which was no mean feat. Then he developed it into an elite unit. That was enough to give general manager Mickey Loomis and team president Dennis Lauscha the confidence to back Gayle Benson’s decision to hire him despite his historically poor run as a head coach a decade earlier with the Raiders. But when you look at the Saints’ fortunes since Allen was promoted to head coach, there’s little logic behind sticking with him.

An admittedly injury-ridden Saints team limped out of their Week 14 bye last year with a 4-9 record. They gave Allen free rein to recruit Derek Carr, investing $60 million guaranteed in a passer whose last team ditched him and whose free agency experience was lukewarm at best. What does Allen have to show for it a year later? The Saints are coming out of Week 14 with a 6-7 record. They’ve improved by just two wins.

There’s no valid reason to stick with Allen. His defense — his defense, the unit he’s drafted and developed and filled with veteran free agents — is eroding by the week. What was supposed to be the strength of the team has allowed the seventh-most rushing yards and tied for the third-fewest sacks in the NFL this season. They can’t stop the run or rush the passer. Allen’s offense still can’t score points between Carr panicking in the red zone and rookie kicker Blake Grupe shanking 29-yard field goals. Visiting fans are taking over the lower bowl in the Caesars Superdome, and Carr is being met with boos whenever he jogs off the field after another stalled-out drive. The team is in a bad place even after a lopsided (yet unconvincing) win over a division rival last Sunday.

So we’ve got two reasons for the Saints to keep Allen. In the first scenario, they’ll outlast their rivals in the NFC South and win the division to host a home playoff game (likely against a Super Bowl contender like the Dallas Cowboys), which likely won’t go well. It’ll also drop their first-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft away from the best prospects, which could be devastating when bad trades from Loomis cost them their second-, third- and fourth-round picks. But, Loomis can say, they did reach the postseason after falling short last year. And that’s tangible progress.

What if the Saints miss the playoffs and still keep Allen? That’s when the excuses might start rushing out: injuries to star players like Michael Thomas and Marshon Lattimore (just like last year) plus Carr, who is valiantly playing through a sprained throwing shoulder, three injured ribs and two concussions. That’s an easy way to wave off his poor performance this season.

The rebuttal to that is the Saints having the healthiest roster in the league through the first 10 weeks and still idling at 5-5 before the injuries hit. But if the team leadership group has seen Allen’s team get worse by the week and find new ways to lose football games into mid-December, odds are strong that Benson, Loomis and Lauscha aren’t going to acknowledge that criticism in January. It would take something drastic to convince them that hiring Allen and committing harder to his vision for the team was the wrong move.

Allen is two years into his four-year contract. Carr’s heaviest guarantees extend into 2024. Maybe the plan all along has been to give Allen those two years with his quarterback and see if he can make something happen before kickstarting a reboot in 2025 (maybe without Loomis, the longest-tenured general manager in the NFL) once the salary cap has skyrocketed to wipe out years of financial maneuvering and cost deferments. All fans can do is stand by, see how this all plays out, and hope the team gives them a product worth cheering for.

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Report: Pete Carmichael could be on the hot seat if Saints continue to struggle on offense

The Saints aren’t in any hurry to move on from Pete Carmichael. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that their struggling OC isn’t on the hot seat just yet:

The New Orleans Saints haven’t seen enough out of Pete Carmichael’s 21-game run as offensive coordinator to warrant a change. Despite ranking 22nd in scoring last season and 25th through four games this year with their handpicked quarterback under center in Derek Carr, the Saints are determined to take their time in making a move at play caller.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans are experiencing the same frustration with Matt Canada at the helm of a futile offensive effort. Both teams are in a similarly tough spot, and they’re facing similar stakes in the weeks ahead. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports of Carmichael and Canada that “if production doesn’t ramp up, their respective seats will be hot, based on conversations with sources close to the situation.”

But how many more weeks of poor performance do the Saints need to see before they’re ready to give someone else a shot? Two more weeks? Three? Four? The Saints are 2-2 because Carmichael can’t manage the offense effectively and put points on the board. They’re lucky to be 2-2 seeing as their margin of victory in those two wins was just four points altogether; a couple of kicks go differently and this is an 0-4 team.

Carmichael’s tendencies and shortcomings have been well documented. As observed by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill, his offense ranks last in the NFL in using pre-snap motion and play action on passes, teeing up the opposing defense for easy reads to react to. Take out Rashid Shaheed’s punt return score and the Saints are tied with this week’s opponent, the also-lambasted New England Patriots, for the third-fewest points scored (55) across the league. Only the often-mocked New York Giants (46) and banged-up Cincinnati Bengals (49) have scored fewer.

But maybe Carmichael just needs more time to add more variety to the offense and get better production out of his personnel. Surely an offense with a Pro Bowl quarterback, the league’s best receiving running back in Alvin Kamara, a number of talented tight ends (plus do-it-all weapon Taysom Hill), a wide receiver trio that fans spent all summer hyping up, and an offensive line that’s improved each week will be this bad for much longer? Right?

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Bears fans are ready to fire Matt Eberflus after this loss to the Chiefs

It’s not even October yet, but the 2023 Bears season might already be over. That has fans ready to move on from head coach Matt Eberflus.

It’s not even October yet, but the 2023 Chicago Bears season might already be over, and that has fans ready to move on from head coach Matt Eberflus. The Bears wrapped up a tumultuous week with one of the worst losses in recent memory, falling to the Kansas City Chiefs 41-10 to begin the season 0-3 and give Eberflus an overall record of 3-17 since he was hired as head coach. The defense was dominated by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense until the starters were pulled midway through the third quarter.

The Bears offense, meanwhile, continued to play with very little rhythm and had costly turnovers that turned this game from a lopsided affair to a complete blowout before halftime. Their first points didn’t come until the fourth quarter, and no one seemed interested in playing out the rest of the afternoon. That lies with the coaching staff, and Bears fans have already seen enough from them to want a change.

During and after the game, Bears fans took to social media to express their disdain for the team’s early-season failures. The general message? Fire Eberflus and the coaching staff.

Russell Wilson implored Seahawks to fire Pete Carroll, hire Sean Payton

The Athletic reports that, prior to last year’s blockbuster trade, Russell Wilson implored the Seahawks to fire Pete Carroll and hire Sean Payton:

Here’s some bombshell reporting. The Athletic’s Kalyn Kahler, Mike Sando and Jayson Jenks broke the story on Russell Wilson’s high-stakes split with the Seattle Seahawks last year, and who should make a cameo other than former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton?

The Athletic reports that Wilson implored Seahawks ownership to fire longtime head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider after their frustrating 7-10 finish to the 2021 season, and that he pushed for Seattle to make a run at Payton instead. From the story:

“Wilson and Carroll had clashed in recent years over the quarterback’s role in the offense and the overall direction of a team that had gradually declined after back-to-back Super Bowl appearances. Convinced that Carroll and Schneider were inhibiting his quest to win additional Super Bowls and individual awards, Wilson asked Seahawks ownership to fire both of them, according to league sources who spoke to The Athletic on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details. Wilson also had a preferred replacement in mind: Sean Payton, who had recently stepped down from the New Orleans Saints.”

It makes sense. Wilson spoke glowingly of Payton over the years and there were rumors even in-season in 2021 that he wanted to work with the former Saints coach. And, of course, Payton eventually ended up with Wilson on the Denver Broncos. It wasn’t going to happen last year, though — Payton wanted to take a year off from football, spurning offers from other teams like the Miami Dolphins (who forfeited a draft pick for tampering with him anyway).

Wilson struggled to get things going with Nathanie Hackett in Denver for a year before Payton eventually made his way to Colorado. So Wilson got his wish. It just didn’t happen in Seattle. For what it’s worth, he quickly issued a denial of the story on social media:

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