Dennis Allen: Everybody involved said Jon Gruden’s visit was beneficial for our team
Last week, Saints head coach Dennis Allen brought in former Raiders coach Jon Gruden to help work with the offensive coaches to build a system that best fits new quarterback Derek Carr.
Of course, Carr had Gruden as his offensive play caller from 2018-2021. The partnership ended when Gruden abruptly resigned after racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails he’d sent years before were made public.
On Tuesday, Allen was asked why he’d brought in Gruden last week to watch practice and discuss the offense.
“Look, I mean, No. 1, we’ve had several coaches come and visit. Obviously, Jon’s a guy that has a lot of experience with Derek and Derek has had his most success under Jon Gruden,” Allen said, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN. “And so we felt like bringing him in, having a chance to sit down and visit with him as an offensive staff, with the quarterbacks and just getting some new thoughts and ideas of things we might be able to implement.
“I would say this … offensively for a long time that I’ve been here, we’ve been pretty effective. So I don’t see us putting in a whole new offense or doing something dramatic. But if there’s a few ideas that we could take from that, we felt like that would be beneficial.”
The Saints have Pete Carmichael as their offensive coordinator — a title he’s held since 2009. But when Sean Payton was New Orleans’ head coach, he was the offensive play-caller.
Allen also did not seem concerned about potential backlash for having Gruden come in the building.
“No, look, you ask everybody that was involved and they thought it was really beneficial for our football team. And look, we’re going to look at any avenue that we can to try to improve,” Allen said. “So that was one area we thought, just bringing him in and having the opportunity to sit down and visit with him, would help us.”
New Orleans finished No. 19 in total yards and No. 22 in points scored last season. If the offense can substantially improve with Carr at the helm, the Saints should be a contender in the NFC South.
Dennis Allen: Everybody involved said Jon Gruden’s visit was beneficial for our team originally appeared on Pro Football Talk
