There’s a Ben Johnson-shaped hole in the New Orleans Saints head coach search. Johnson, the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator, has been a popular candidate in this year’s hiring cycle. He’s interviewed with teams including the New England Patriots (who hired Mike Vrabel instead), Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, and Las Vegas Raiders.
But not the New Orleans Saints. Why hasn’t this year’s top option been linked to their job opening? It’s been reported that the New York Jets chose to not request an interview with him, and there’s speculation he could meet with the Dallas Cowboys after their late arrival to the market. But the Saints stand apart. Johnson’s absence in all the reporting surrounding their search is conspicuous.
Maybe they didn’t feel like he was a good fit, like the Jets reportedly did. If Johnson wants to team up with a new hire at general manager, he may have balked at the situation in New Orleans where he’d be working under the league’s longest-tenured GM. Reports say Johnson made his disinterest in what the Jets had to offer known around the league.
Or maybe the Saints did request an interview with Johnson and were rebuffed. That’s rarely reported — his teammate Aaron Glenn declined an interview request from the Patriots in this cycle’s most notable rejection — but it does happen, and it’s the kind of thing Loomis and the Saints would want to keep under wraps if it did happen. That would be an embarrassing mark against the operation they’re running and what they have to offer to candidates for the job.
It’s no secret the Saints have less to offer than most other teams looking for a new coach. They lack the salary cap resources to sign impact players in free agency. They don’t have a history of drafting well. They’re effectively stuck with Derek Carr’s bad contract. Loomis enjoys rare job security given his lack of success, so if that chemistry is off, a new coach like Johnson would just have to grin and bear it.
Johnson is in a rare position of strength, too, where he can pick and choose where he wants to go. He doesn’t have to, say, hit up the McDonald’s drive-through with Al Davis like Sean Payton once did just because it’s offered to him. Maybe the Saints realized that and chose not to reach out in the first place to avoid the potential embarrassment of getting publicly rejected. If so, that’s the kind of self-awareness Loomis and Co. could really benefit from. But right now we just don’t have enough information to say one way or another. Either way, it’s disappointing that such a promising candidate like Johnson doesn’t appear to be in their plans.
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