Tag: Mickey Loomis

Behind closed doors, the Saints admit they have to rebuild

Behind closed doors, the New Orleans Saints admit they have to rebuild. A messy salary cap spreadsheet and a four-year playoff drought are powerful motivators:

The New Orleans Saints have drawn a lot of ire over the years for their stubborn resistance to rebuilding their team. They’ve continued to push money into future years and max out their salary cap resources to try and compete. Now, depending on where you look (and ultimately depending on where the NFL sets this year’s spending limit), the Saints are in the hole by $54 million to $72 million.

But now it’s gotten to a point where they can’t ignore the inevitable. After struggling to keep their heads above water in a series of 9-8, 7-10, and 9-8 seasons after Drew Brees retired, they finished the 2024 season at 5-12. That’s their worst record since the Hurricane Katrina-impacted season back in 2005. It’s time for change.

And while general manager Mickey Loomis has pushed back on that notion publicly, that isn’t what he’s telling candidates behind closed doors. During a guest appearance on the Athletic Football Show, Dianna Russini shared some insight to the Saints’ expectations for their new head coach.

When asked about the team’s ledger and whether they understand they may need to take a year to untangle their salary cap accounting, Russini responded: “They do. And that’s been part of the conversations they’ve been having with these coaches that want this job. Which is, ‘We’re going to practice patience here, knowing that we’ve put you, if you were to get this job, in this position. It’s not your fault.'”

That situation isn’t for everyone. Candidates who are in great spots with elite young quarterbacks (like Joe Brady and Kliff Kingsbury) have chosen to stay put. Others have gone for greener pastures with more money to invest in their roster (like Aaron Glenn), or opted to wait for better opportunities to open up in next year’s cycle (like Mike McCarthy).

But for a young hotshot offensive coordinator like Kellen Moore, who got thrown out with the bathwater by the Los Angeles Chargers a year ago? Who the Dallas Cowboys moved on from a year before that? And who just saw someone in his same situation, Bobby Slowik, jettisoned by the Houston Texans a year after getting these same head coach interviews? The fit might make sense. Desperation is a strong motivator. It may be driving Moore to stay in New Orleans after the Super Bowl. And it may push the Saints to finally work on getting out of the salary cap mess they’ve made for themselves, too.

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Drew Brees gave the Saints some advice during their coaching search

Drew Brees says he’s given the New Orleans Saints some advice during their coaching search: ‘I lend my expertise or recommendations when asked’

Drew Brees may not play for the New Orleans Saints any longer, but he is still deeply invested in the success of the team. ESPN’s Adam Schefter asked if Brees would join the Saints again in an official capacity.

Brees responded, “I don’t know, we’ll see,” as a smile began to grace his face. “It’s in my blood, it always will be. And so whether it’s direct or indirect, yes I will always say ‘we,’ that’s my team, our team, I just take so much pride in what we built and what we accomplished.”

Here’s the thing, though. Brees still has relationships with people in the building, so his opinion is still being heard. It just may not be in an official capacity.

Brees was on record saying he wanted Aaron Glenn in New Orleans before Glenn joined the New York Jets. Those thoughts were put into the public, but also vocalized privately.

“Feedback? Look I always have conversations, I have conversations with everybody in that organization about any number of topics. Hey what are we looking for? Yes. I lend my expertise or recommendations when asked,” Brees said, putting plainly. You have to wonder what his thoughts are on Kellen Moore.

Brees is currently focused on getting back into broadcasting. Joining the franchises as a part of the front office isn’t a part of his mission and he doesn’t need to be. His opinion is clearly valued enough to give input without an official title.

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Mickey Loomis has informed Saints coach candidates a decision will wait until after Super Bowl LIX

NFL Network reports Mickey Loomis has informed several Saints coach candidates a decision will wait until after Super Bowl LIX, and he’ll continue negotiations with Eagles OC Kellen Moore:

This is big. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Friday afternoon that New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis informed several candidates in the team’s head coach search they’re effectively out of the race — and that “while there has been no final decision, he plans to continue discussions with Kellen Moore.”

The Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator cannot speak with the Saints again until after Super Bowl LIX, but Pelissero adds that a meeting has already been scheduled. Expect the Saints to formally hire Moore on or around Monday, Feb. 10 and announce him as the team’s new head coach.

Unless there’s a last-minute hiccup, anyway. Moore could change his mind and the Saints would have to pivot to someone else, but that doesn’t feel likely. Look at what just happened to Bobby Slowik. Like Moore, he was a fast-rising offensive coordinator for a playoff team, drawing interviews for head coach openings himself just one year ago. Then the Houston Texans fired him after a second-year slump. Moore is striking while the iron is hot.

So never say never. Don’t celebrate and toss the ball away until after you’ve crossed the goal line. But for all intents and purposes, Moore is positioned to become the next head coach of the New Orleans Saints. Who could join him on staff? We’ve got six names to keep in mind, and some free agents he could target in the offseason, too.

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Saints suggested as a dark horse to trade up for No. 1 draft pick

Mickey Loomis is known for gambling with draft picks. Bleacher Report has his Saints as one of five teams who could trade for the Tennessee Titans’ No. 1 pick:

The New Orleans Saints are huge fans of trading up in the NFL draft, there is no doubt about that. Their history of doing so is a long one, and while it works out sometimes, it also backfires spectacularly other times.

In a recent article put out by Bleacher Report, they discussed some of the top candidates who the Tennessee Titans could trade the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft to. Among those five teams are the Saints, who while considered somewhat of an outlier among the others, are on the list regardless.

The package for the pick would be a relatively large one, even in a down class compared to some others. The compensation they provide as their projected return is:

  • 2025 No. 9 overall pick
  • 2025 third round pick
  • 2026 first round pick
  • 2026 second round pick

Then following that up, their rationale for the Saints being a candidate:

“This would be the exact same jump Carolina made two years ago, with the Saints leaping from No. 9 to No. 1. It’s extremely unlikely considering that New Orleans still has Derek Carr and would be better off loading up on more picks if it were to finally commit to a rebuild, but it also can’t be totally ruled out because…NFL.

The Saints have an extra third-round pick this year. I believe they’d have to give that up along with the obvious 2026 first-rounder, and probably another Day 2 selection.”

The logic is… less than sound to say the least. Trading up just to trade up is something that nearly never happens in the NFL, teams trade up for a player they want, and the team trading down has to keep that in mind. With the Saints in desperate need of a youth movement, it feels like trading away all their premier assets for 2025 and 2026 in the draft is a ridiculous notion, especially when the 2025 class is not particularly plentiful with blue-chip prospects.

Trading away the 2026 first round pick is asking for disaster, as if the Saints fall apart in the 2025 season, they would be missing out on a high draft pick in a class that is currently viewed quite highly, especially at the quarterback position.

The Saints feel more like an inclusion due to lack of competitors more than anything. While they do have a knack for trading up, it tends to happen in day two or three predominantly, and unless the Saints get extremely desperate for a quarterback that they’re willing to make that jump, it is hard to rationalize.

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Kellen Moore watch: Saints owner’s private jet flies in to Philadelphia

Gayle Benson’s private jet flew out of New Orleans and into Philadelphia on Monday afternoon. A sit-down interview with Eagles OC Kellen Moore appears imminent:

It doesn’t look like last week’s Joe Brady fiasco is repeating itself with Kellen Moore. The New Orleans Saints reportedly made plans to fly in to Philadelphia as soon as Monday after the Eagles offensive coordinator led his team to a blowout win over the division-rival Washington Commanders in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. And on Monday they followed through on that expectation.

The plane, a 2014 Bombardier Challenger 300 licensed through Benson Football LLC and registered with the Federal Aviation Administration at N411ST, departed New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport on Monday afternoon. After reaching a cruising altitude moving north-by-northeast over the Southeast, the flight descended in a turn east over Delaware before approaching Philadelphia from the south. You can find the flight map here.

Were general manager Mickey Loomis and his confidants on board? Top lieutenants like Jeff Ireland, Khai Harley, and Michael Parenton have sat in on all virtual interviews so far, along with senior personnel advisor Randy Mueller. One name no longer in those meetings is Dave Ziegler, another consultant who left for a full-time role in the Tennessee Titans front office.

It says a lot about the Saints’ interest in Moore that the Saints are flying cross-country to meet with him in person. Other candidates like Darren Rizzi, Anthony Weaver, and Mike Kafka all held their second, in-person interviews in New Orleans at the team headquarters. But it remains to be seen whether anyone from the team brass was actually on board or if this trip was related at all. But that sure feels like a safe assumption.

Update: The jet landed at Philadelphia International Airport around 6:47 p.m. ET, having spent a little over two hours in the air. It’s a 12-minute drive to the Eagles headquarters at the Novacare Complex, but the Saints will likely want to meet with Moore elsewhere. Stay tuned for more details.

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Report: Saints may fly out to meet with head coach candidate in person

NFL Network reports the New Orleans Saints’ team brass may fly out to Philadelphia to interview Eagles OC Kellen Moore in person as soon as Monday:

It’s been a tough week in the New Orleans Saints head coach search. Two of the team’s top targets, Aaron Glenn and Joe Brady, chose to pursue other opportunities and declined in-person interviews with general manager Mickey Loomis after working down the hall from him just a few years ago. All six of the other head coaching vacancies have been filled. If the Saints could get out of their own way they could have their pick of the candidates still available, but guys like Brady clearly don’t view them as an attractive destination.

Still, time is of the essence. Whoever does get hired as head coach will have to build a new staff and the competition for those candidates is heating up. The sooner the Saints can get in the mix, the better. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Sunday morning that the team has made plans to potentially fly in to another city to sit down with a potential head coach after twice interviewing Anthony Weaver and Mike Kafka, as well as their own interim coach Darren Rizzi.

“The Saints also plan to speak again with Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. They are allowed under the rules to speak with Moore, win or lose for the Eagles today, but the result of this game could impact the timing. The Saints ideally want to speak with Moore as soon as possible. Could head to Philadelphia even to speak with him as soon as Monday,” Pelissero said.

It wouldn’t be the first time a team charters a private flight to another NFL city to interview a coach, but it would be the first time the Saints have done it this cycle. Thus far all contact with coach candidates has meant interviews (either virtually or in person at the team headquarters in Metairie) with general manager Mickey Loomis, his lieutenants Jeff Ireland, Khai Harley, and Michael Parenton plus consultants Randy Mueller and Dave Ziegler.

Loading all of them up and onto Gayle Benson’s private jet to go meet with a twice-fired offensive coordinator almost reeks of desperation to fill the job, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

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ESPN suggests Saints may need to change their approach to the 2025 NFL draft

Should the New Orleans Saints adopt a ‘best player available’ approach in the 2025 NFL draft? ESPN suggests it could help them out:

The New Orleans Saints have a long, long list of needs heading into the offseason and do not have the luxury of targeting one specific part of the roster.

When looking across the top 10 picks of the 2025 NFL draft, ESPN’s Katherine Terrell suggested the team just worry about taking the best player available in the first round. This is part of what Terrell had to say about her reasoning:

At $70.6 million over the cap in 2025 (per Roster Management System), the Saints are likely going to have to draft for need. But their biggest need is open to interpretation. They are looking for successors at defensive end and linebacker for 35-year-olds Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis, respectively. They also could use another wide receiver to slot alongside Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed, as well as permanent fixes to the offensive line.

As alluded to, that really doesn’t narrow much down. Rather than worrying about ranking those needs, the decision certainly should just revolve around who is on the board when they come up to pick.

Perhaps the Saints can consider what the bigger need is if they have two players of similar skill levels on the board at the same time.

For example, there is a world where Georgia Bulldogs safety Malaki Starks and Tennessee Volunteers defensive end James Pearce Jr. are on the board at nine. Both are extremely talented and impactful adds. Defensive end is bit bigger of an immediate need than safety, so that might influence their decision.

Mickey Loomis could also just throw all caution to the wind and go with a full best player approach and take Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty above both of them.

Either way, New Orleans just desperately needs to add talent to their roster this offseason.

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Saints will be the final team to hire a head coach for 2025

With the Dallas Cowboys hiring Brian Schottenheimer, the New Orleans Saints are the one remaining team of seven who needed a new head coach:

The Dallas Cowboys announced they hired Brian Schottenheimer as their head coach late Friday evening, meaning the New Orleans Saints are now the only team that remains looking for a head coach. They ended up playing the long game, and chose to wait out the other teams to get their choice of the remaining candidates. While this is a decision that could go either way, many of the candidates they did interview still remain which is a somewhat good sign.

The other six teams and their head coaching hires are as follows:

  • New England Patriots – Mike Vrabel
  • Chicago Bears – Ben Johnson
  • New York Jets – Aaron Glenn
  • Jacksonville Jaguars – Liam Coen
  • Las Vegas Raiders – Pete Carroll
  • Dallas Cowboys – Brian Schottenheimer

One positive is Liam Coen moving on from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as this may end up making things a little bit easier in the NFC South if the Saints are going the competitive route again. Even if not, future competition comes into play when it comes to a younger coach like Coen, who is only 39 years old at the moment.

This leaves the Saints with the choice of Joe Brady, Mike McCarthy, Kliff Kingsbury, Anthony Weaver, Mike Kafka, or Darren Rizzi. Ultimately who knows which direction they will go, whether it is sticking with what they know most recently in Rizzi, or going in a different direction altogether.

Thankfully they basically get as much time as they need now to really make the right hire of the group, and while faith in that decision may be waning for fans, the group they have assembled so far has some very quality candidates. We will likely see in the coming days who will take over the helm of the Saints for (hopefully) the foreseeable future.

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Opinion: Saints should take Jaguars’ example and fire their GM

With GM Trent Baalke parting ways with the Jacksonville Jaguars, maybe the New Orleans Saints should follow suit with Mickey Loomis:

Organizational dysfunction.

These two words get thrown around social media spaces like people’s lives depend on using the phrase every chance they get. But what is true organizational dysfunction? Well, we got a glimpse of it with the Jacksonville Jaguars in recent years, and they finally made the decision to move on from general manager Trent Baalke.

It starts with complacency. Complacency with being mediocre, and rather than having the ambition to be the best, focusing on just getting back to being “good” or “serviceable.” The Jacksonville Jaguars struggled mightily in finding the right coach for them, struggled to build a core around their former No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence, and ultimately struggled to find a vision of what they wanted to be. Does any of this sound familiar?

While the New Orleans Saints do not have the number-one overall draft pick at quarterback, they have been running adrift for multiple seasons now after the losses of Drew Brees and Sean Payton to retirement and trade respectively. Additionally, the Dennis Allen hire was a resounding failure, and yet Loomis continues to defend him even post-firing, which certainly does not help his image, nor the image of a cohesive decision making process between him and the rest of the front office/ownership.

The roster management is one of the worst issues though. For a few years now many have called for things to be stripped down to the core, and whether or not you may agree with that assessment, the roster has not performed anywhere near expected, and has suffered significant amounts of injuries. Is this an age issue? Maybe, maybe not. Is it an unwillingness to bring in more experts to assess the situation and dive further into why soft tissue injuries are occurring at such a high rate? Yes.

Loomis has made it abundantly clear in multiple press conferences that he wants the team to remain competitive, which again, make your own assessment. But at the same time, coming off a 5-12 season, there is absolutely no sense of urgency, and you could see that from his post-season media appearance. I have no doubt that he is doing what he thinks is right, and I also understand that this may not be the easiest situation to deal with post-Brees and Payton. However, consistently trying to dig your heels in on the notion of needing to remain competitive after an atrocious season is a tough pill to swallow for fans.

On top of all of that, improving the roster has become an enormous difficulty because of the cap space. They always find a way to circumvent it which is fine to an extent, and required to at least be compliant, however it hamstrings the team each year in what free agents they are able to pursue, as they are not able to offer substantial contracts. Additionally, it forces them to make choices on who to retain, which allows players like Trey Hendrickson to walk. I personally have always been somewhat of a fan of watching it happen, but one of these years it would be so nice to not come into the offseason 50-90 million dollars in the hole, and rather have cap space to pursue players early in the process.

Then we can get to the draft picks, which sure, are not fully the responsibility of Loomis and who truly knows how much say he has in the process. So let’s for a second say its not him calling some of the shots on picks, why do you as a general manager see approximately (and I am going to be enormously generous here) eight players in the draft classes from 2018-2023 panning out, and allow the staff to remain intact that is making those calls.

  • 2018 was an absolute draft class disaster
  • Erik McCoy is the only player who is still a quality player for the Saints from 2019
  • 2020 you somehow got down to only four picks, and just one remains in Cesar Ruiz
  • 2021 you have Pete Werner and Paulson Adebo
  • 2022 you got Chris Olave, Trevor Penning, and Alontae Taylor
  • 2023 you got Bryan Bresee

Outside that, you also had guys like Kaden Elliss, Zach Baun, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson who have gone on to have solid seasons elsewhere, except that doesn’t help you. The Saints had 34 picks from the 2018 to 2023 draft class, if only eight were quality producers, that’s a 23.5% success rate. There are very few jobs where you can be right less than a quarter of the time and still have job security.

Overall, Loomis has gone from the founder of cap mythology and constructor of elite rosters to the pariah of the organization in many fans eyes in the span of about five to six years.

My opinion of the matter is this, Loomis deserves one more shot to get the coaching hire right, he has really only had one true shot at hiring a new coach post-Payton, and it was a dud no doubt, but mistakes do happen. If he is unable to hire a quality candidate this year, or worse, whiffs on the quality ones because he waited too long or could not sell them on the team, there needs to be discussions about a new general manager hire. Whether that come in the form of his firing or being moved into some other part of the executive management, it needs to be looked at if the organization continues down this path.

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Aaron Glenn telling Saints thanks-but-no-thanks should be a huge red flag

Aaron Glenn telling the Saints thanks-but-no-thanks should be a huge red flag for Mickey Loomis and the organization. Their self-perception doesn’t match their reality:

It’s bad enough that the New Orleans Saints couldn’t even get Aaron Glenn into town for an in-person interview for their head coaching job. The added detail that Glenn gave the organization a thanks-but-no-thanks before accepting the offer the New York Jets gave him should be a big red warning flag for general manager Mickey Loomis and the organization he’s built.

Glenn was in the building just a few years ago. Sentimentality wasn’t a part of this; he spent his last year as a player with the Saints, having begun it with the Jets. And his five years as a position coach under Sean Payton and Dennis Allen was insightful. When the opportunity to occupy the same desk both those men owned before him came up, Glenn considered his options and chose to pass on it.

And that’s a huge indictment of Loomis and the team. He effectively is the team. He’s the longest-tenured general manager in the NFL. He’s held his post for decades. He’s either hired everyone in the building or sat in on their interviews whether that was weeks, months, or years ago. His fingerprints are on everything, and the situation he’s made is so unappealing that Glenn would rather fight off the New York media while reporting to the mercurial Woody Johnson and his teenaged sons than come work with him.

It’s easy to see why the situation Loomis is responsible for is unappealing. The Saints have some difficult salary cap decisions to make and lack the resources to sign impactful free agents this spring. They’re effectively tied to Derek Carr for the next year or two; love him or loathe him, he’s one of six active quarterbacks who have been in the NFL for at least 11 years without winning a playoff game. Of that group (Carr, Geno Smith, Andy Dalton, Tyrod Taylor, Brian Hoyer, and Blaine Gabbert) he’s the only one playing on a contract with $100 million or more guaranteed. Smith is next-closest at $40 million.

Big changes are needed in New Orleans. Loomis has played too fast and loose with the team’s draft picks and salary cap resources for too long, and now it’s really hurting the team. Glenn choosing to try his luck on a laughingstock like the Jets is just proof of that. It’s also proof that the Saints are getting laughed at around the league, too.

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