Tag: staff

Mickey Loomis not rushing Saints coach changes, offseason strategy

The Saints just had their worst season in decades, but GM Mickey Loomis isn’t in a rush to start making changes or develop an offseason strategy:

Don’t look for any immediate changes from the New Orleans Saints after their worst season in almost 20 years. General manager and executive vice president Mickey Loomis isn’t in a rush to evaluate his team and consider staff changes. When asked about his plans for the offseason, Loomis says he doesn’t have a plan yet.

“Yeah I think, well, first of all,” Loomis said during his weekly WWL radio spot with Mike Hoss, gathering his thoughts, “I would like to take a little bit of a break here and let the emotions of this season dissipate, so we can view it from a lens that is a step back. We’ll kind of step back this week and then get into those evaluations that you’re talking about next week, and eventually formulate our plans for this offseason.”

Sure, there’s something to be said for a patient approach. Decisions made in the heat of the moment can come back to bite you. And many job candidates  on playoff teams aren’t even able to interview for open positions for another week or two, much less be hired and introduced. But sitting on your hands in these circumstances doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. It’s clear that, for example, massive overhaul is needed for the Saints offense — they just scored their fewest points in a single season (330) since 1995, and that’s with the benefits of a 17-game schedule. Offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. was a bust in his turn as a play caller.

So it’s really discouraging to see Loomis kicking his feet up for a week after a lost season that he built. He took the bait when the Eagles came calling about an ill-advised 2022 draft trade, giving up a 2023 first round pick that’s slotted at 10th overall in exchange for Trevor Penning, a player whose rookie season began and ended with foot injuries. He botched the search for Sean Payton’s successor at head coach and hitched their fortunes to a couple of washouts at quarterback. Now they’re back where they started with fewer means of cleaning up this mess.

And it doesn’t sound like any accountability is coming. When asked who will evaluate his performance as general manager, Loomis replied: “I don’t know, Mrs. Benson, I guess? That’s happening constantly, during the course of the year I’m visiting with Mrs. Benson daily, so that really happens every day during the entire season, the entire year, really. It’s not a formal sit-down-and-give-you-a-review that you might have with some other companies, so it’s really a little different.”

We shouldn’t anticipate any big changes on top of the organization. Loomis is the league’s longest-tenured general manager and Benson has spoken often about how integral he has been to the team’s success. But it’s really difficult to not read this situation as, well, sort of aimless. There’s no sense of urgency being expressed after a season that was filled with secondhand embarrassment. Hopefully the Saints show some initiative soon before this situation snowballs.

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Packers announce 5 coaching staff changes

The Packers promoted two coaches into new roles and hired three new coaches for Matt LaFleur’s staff.

The Green Bay Packers announced five different coaching staff changes on Thursday.

Coach Matt LaFleur promoted Jerry Montgomery to defensive line/running game coordinator and Ryan Downard to safeties coach and hired Ramsen Golpashin as an offensive quality control coach, Quinshon Odom as a coaching assistant in the minority fellow and Micheal Spurlock as special teams quality control coach.

Montgomery, now in his eighth season in Green Bay, has been the defensive line coach since 2018. He’ll join Jerry Gray (pass game coordinator) as the top assistants under defensive coordinator Joe Barry.

Downard was the assistant defensive backs coach under Gray for the last three years (2019-21) in Green Bay. He will now coach safeties.

The Packers hired Golpashin, a former Oregon offensive lineman, from UCLA, where he was an offensive and defensive line analyst over the last three seasons. He’s worked in the college ranks since 2015.

The hirings of Odom and Spurlock were reported last week.

Odom previously worked in the Packers personnel department. He was an offensive line grad assistant at Texas last season.

Spurlock, a terrific returner in the NFL with five career touchdowns, was a senior analyst over the last two seasons at Ole Miss. He played for several seasons under new special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia.

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Report: Saints expect to name Doug Marrone OL coach, dismiss WR coach Curtis Johnson

Report: Saints expect to name Doug Marrone OL coach, dismiss WR coach Curtis Johnson

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We’ve got movement: NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill first reported Wednesday evening that first-year head coach Dennis Allen is moving on from multiple assistants, including wide receivers coach Curtis Johnson. He also reports that Allen expects to name the newly-hired Doug Marrone to offensive line coach, replacing the outgoing Brendan Nugent.

Johnson, the former Tulane Green Wave head coach, was on staff with New Orleans in two different stints from 2006 to 2011 and again from 2017 to 2021. But with the Saints struggling to draft and develop receivers as of late, it made sense to look for a fresher approach. No replacement for Johnson has been immediately identified.

But let’s circle back to Marrone. He was Alabama’s offensive line coach in 2021 and has worked in that role before, including in New Orleans from 2006 to 2008 (when he was also named offensive coordinator). It might be a good fit for him as someone with plenty of experience in that role, though the Saints still need an offensive coordinator with Pete Carmichael Jr. moving into a different post.

Additionally, Underhill reports that the Saints won’t be retaining offensive analyst Jim Chaney (brought on last year) or longtime strength coach Dan Dalrymple, who has been with the team since 2006. Both of these departures were later confirmed by Nola.com’s Jeff Duncan. So that’s two position coaches on the outs in Johnson and Nugent, with another opening on top of the strength and conditioning staff.

But as both Underhill and Duncan observed, this is an extremely fluid situation. Allen is actively evaluating his staff and meeting with coaches every single day as he gets everyone in place. Things could continue to change as he speaks with different candidates and gets a better idea of who should be coaching which positions and holding certain responsibilities. As other options emerge, some coaches may end up in a different spot than initially planned. So keep a close eye out for updates.

Frankly, it’s good to see Allen shake things up with some underperforming units. Staying complacent isn’t the way forward. If he feels Marrone is an upgrade over Nugent as the offensive line coach, it’s worth pursuing. The same holds true for whichever candidates are in line to coach the receiving corps, which was the weak link of the offense last season. The initial move to bring in Marrone didn’t sit well with me given how it looked like a stagnant move to “just run the hits” and bring back a retread. But now that Allen’s vision is being executed, it’s exciting to see what more is in store.

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Report: Saints considering reunion with former OC Doug Marrone

Report: Saints considering reunion with former OC Doug Marrone, WR coach John Morton

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Dennis Allen was formally introduced as New Orleans Saints head coach on Tuesday, and some changes are on the way as he evaluates his staff and considers possible shakeups. On Wednesday, Nola.com’s Jeff Duncan reported that two former Saints assistants could join Allen’s staff: Doug Marrone and John Morton, who have each worked with Allen under Sean Payton in the past. Marrone was Sean Payton’s first offensive coordinator, hired back in 2006, while Morton initially joined the staff as an offensive assistant in 2006 and returned as wide receivers coach in 2015.

Marrone is in a curious position. He worked as Alabama’s offensive line coach last season but was replaced by Feb. 1, leaving his current status unclear. It hasn’t been reported whether he was fired, asked to resign, or chose to move on. Either way, he’s a free agent. And as a former NFL head coach in his own right (going 38-60 between stops with the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars), he could be a resource for Allen to lean on, maybe as offensive coordinator. That just wouldn’t be the exciting outside-the-box move some have been hoping for.

As for Morton: he’s been working as a senior offensive assistant for the Las Vegas Raiders the last few years, but it’s unlikely he’ll be retained under the new Josh McDaniels regime. Duncan adds that Pete Carmichael Jr. is likely to step down to a less-prominent role rather than remain at offensive coordinator. These moves would line up with Allen’s comment about looking to tweak the Saints offense rather than introduce any serious changes.

But that might be a problem. Sean Payton saved the Saints in 2017 by firing his longtime friends on defense and replacing them with brand-new assistants: swapping Joe Vitt for Mike Nolan, Bill Johnson for Ryan Nielsen, and totally upending the special teams staff. There’s a very, very thin line between Allen hiring people he’s comfortable working with and looking for a way to get his old friends a paycheck. It’s a tough act to pull off.

Nepotism is a plague on NFL coaching staffs. Too often coaches keep a narrow view on who they want to surround themselves by, hiring their friends or friends of their father or guys who they owe a favor. If that’s the direction Allen wants to take, the most charitable way you could spin it is saying he thinks the best way to emulate Sean Payton’s success is by bringing back all of his old assistants.

If that’s the case, why stop with Marrone with Morton? What’s Joe Vitt up to? I hear Rob Ryan and Gregg Williams are looking for work. Let’s hope Allen ends up taking a fresher approach than this initial report suggests.

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Dennis Allen headlines potential Saints losses to 2022 hiring cycle

Which Saints coaches and execs could depart in the 2022 hiring cycle? Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has to top the list, ass does assistant GM Jeff Ireland:

Few coaching staffs were hit harder last year than the New Orleans Saints, who lost a number of key position coaches to other teams around the league — including their former tight ends coach Dan Campbell, who took secondary coach Aaron Glenn with him to go rebuild the Detroit Lions. Longtime quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi and defensive assistant Michael Wilhoite both joined Brandon Staley’s first-year Los Angeles Chargers regime.

Now the cycle is beginning again, and the Saints could experience more upheaval. So which of their coaches and executives could be on the move as jobs open up across the NFL? Whether they’re considered for a head coach position or a bigger role as a coordinator or assistant, the Saints have some attractive candidates on their roster. Let’s dig in, starting with the most obvious possible departure:

Notre Dame safety returns for fifth year

He went from nearly leaving Notre Dame a year ago to staying an extra year

Notre Dame safety Houston Griffith dipped his toes in the transfer portal last off-season before ultimately deciding to remain with the Fighting Irish.  Notre Dame fans thought they were getting Griffith for one last season but thanks to the extra year of eligibility that all players received for 2020, Griffith is returning to the Irish for a fifth season in 2022.

Griffith recorded a career-high 38 tackles in 2021 while easily seeing the most playing time that he has during his collegiate career.  With Kyle Hamilton off to the NFL, Griffith’s return should help account for some of the talent loss.

Related:

Notre Dame coaching staff tracker

Ohio State legend set to join Notre Dame staff

Notre Dame parts ways with longtime receivers coach

Notre Dame snags yet another Cincinnati assistant coach

Report: Saints RB coach Joel Thomas interviewed for Idaho opening

Report: Saints running backs coach Joel Thomas interviewed for head coach opening at Idaho, his alma mater

Well that’s interesting. The Lewiston Tribune’s Stephan Wiebe reports that the Idaho Vandals interviewed New Orleans Saints running backs coach Joel Thomas for their head coach opening, along with nearly a dozen other candidates. Why the attention on Thomas?

It’s because he’s one of the Vandals’ most popular graduates. Thomas still holds the school records for rushing yards (3,929) and touchdown runs (51), and previously worked as their co-offensive coordinator back in 2004. A return to his alma mater has to be appealing for the 47-year-old, who would be replacing longtime head coach Paul Petrino.

Still, it’s early in the process, and there appears to be a wide range of candidates for the job. Other reports suggest Thomas isn’t even the leading candidate at this stage, but speculation is rampant as the national coaching carousel spins.

It would be great to see Thomas get this opportunity but at the same time you’ve got to wonder how much more turnover Sean Payton’s coaching staff can take; New Orleans lost four position coaches this offseason and could use the continuity Thomas offers, having held his post since 2015. It would be surprising to see him leave during the season, but stranger things have happened. If he does go let’s hope it turns out better for him than it did Joe Brady.

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Polian bids farewell to Notre Dame community

So long as he’s off to the Bayou

News broke late Tuesday morning that Notre Dame special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Brian Polian was leaving to join Brian Kelly’s staff at LSU.  If any further confirmation was needed on top of the Bruce Feldman report, Polian provided that late Tuesday night as he bid farewell to the Notre Dame community on Twitter.

Polian is off to be reunited with Kelly at LSU, the coach that hired him back to Notre Dame in 2017 after he was let as Nevada’s head football coach.  Polian also spent from 2005-2009 as a member of Charlie Weis’s staff at Notre Dame is best remembered during that time for his efforts in successfully recruiting Manti Te’o to South Bend.

Polian was one of just two members of the current remaining Notre Dame staff with head coaching experience so it’ll be worth keeping an eye on to see if Freeman and company hire another assistant with such experience to aid the first-time head coach.

Related:

Notre Dame coaching staff tracker

Notre Dame finalizes 2022 football schedule

Manti Te’o through the years

Everything Marcus Freeman said at introductory press conference

Notre Dame Football Coaching Staff Tracker

What Notre Dame coaches are coming and going in wake of Freeman hire?

When Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU the fear among Fighting Irish faithful was that he’d be taking a good amount of assistant coaches with him.  By doing so that would sting Notre Dame both in the present and in the future as not only coaches would theoretically leave and then current players and recruits would perhaps follow the coaches they have close relationships with as well.

That may have been the fear but so far it’s certainly not the case as to what has happened as one by one more Notre Dame assistants have been reported to be staying on the coaching staff as we await the University to confirm the reports of Marcus Freeman being the next head football coach.

If Kelly thought he’d be able to bring a good amount of the staff with him, so far it’s gone for him about as well as it did for Jerry MaGuire when he left to start his own agency.

Here are what we know so far in regards to Notre Dame’s staff and who is returning and who we do not yet know:

Packers Wire’s 2021 season record and outcome predictions

The staff at Packers Wire predicts the Packers’ record and season outcome in 2021.

The Green Bay Packers are about to embark on one of the most highly anticipated and pressure-packed seasons in recent memory. Most agree Matt LaFleur’s team is Super Bowl worthy, but rarely in Titletown have expectations been this high after finishing 13-3 and advancing to the NFC title game during each of the last two seasons. All the important cast members are back, potentially for the last time.

The Packers are at the Super Bowl door. They’ve been lingering here. LaFleur’s team barely knocked in 2019, but they were this close to kicking it down in January. In 2021, the team-wide focus needed to finish “The Last Dance” storyline the right way could be the battering ram that finally bursts through the barrier and gets the Packers back to the Super Bowl.

Here are the predictions for the Packers season from the staff at Packers Wire: