Yikes. Dennis Allen has a lot to prove in 2024, but some observers (and some New Orleans Saints fans) are already prepared for the coach to go. Touchdown Wire’s Jarrett Bailey ranked Allen 32nd among the NFL’s 32 head coaches, arguing that while new hires are unknown quantities, we’ve seen enough to know Allen isn’t the right man for the job.
Here’s why Bailey ranked Allen last among his peers:
Dennis Allen is the head coaching version of sitting on a whoopie cushion. The Saints have been dreadfully boring with no sense of direction ever since Sean Payton stepped away. They are 16-18 over their last two seasons and find themselves in quarterback purgatory as Derek Carr is clearly not the future. The Saints’ best option would be to finally blow everything up and begin to rebuild in 2025. It would be three years after they should have done it, but better late than never.
It’s tough to argue with that evaluation. The Saints have given Allen everything he’s asked for — his own play caller and position coaches, his $150 million quarterback, and his own draft picks and free agent signings — and he doesn’t have anything to show for it. Their playoff drought has extended under his watch, and at times visiting fans outnumbered the Who Dat Nation along the sidelines last season.
When Allen was introduced as the team’s head coach, general manager Mickey Loomis talked him up as someone who could field a competitive team. That hasn’t been the case, and Loomis has since moved the goalposts to defend his decision to hire Allen in the first place.
If there’s reason for hope in 2024, it’s that Allen has maintained a consistent defense (even if some cracks are showing on passing downs and in matchups with teams determined to run the football). That should buy them enough time for Klint Kubiak’s offense to get off the ground. Now, whether it takes off for the horizon or crashes back down to Earth is yet to be determined. And that’s going to decide whether or not Allen returns for 2025. At this point we need to see it to believe it.