Report: Saints won’t dismiss Dennis Allen after the 2022 season
That’s not entirely surprising, but it’s still hard to believe. Nola.com’s Jeff Duncan reported for FOX 8 WVUE that the New Orleans Saints are doubling down on head coach Dennis Allen, with support from both management and ownership insuring that Allen will return in this capacity after the 2022 season. Allen’s team has underachieved in every phase, but general manager Mickey Loomis and team owner Gayle Benson appear to be giving him a mulligan.
It’s hard to view this decision as anything but a mistake. The Saints have lurched to a 6-9 record under Allen, failing to win back-to-back games until Weeks 15 and 16. Assuming Allen finishes out the year as planned, he’ll have coached four seasons in the NFL without ever achieving a winning record (granted, he was shown the door after an 0-4 start back in 2014). Right now he’s 14-37 as a pro head coach. The Saints are lucky to have won as many games this season as they have while going 5-3 in one-score games; those are coin-flip scenarios that could easily go the other way. Lucky teams win more one-score games than they lose. Good teams avoid them in the first place.
The Saints empowered Allen as head coach expecting him to lead them to the playoffs. Instead they’ve been one of the NFL’s most penalty- and turnover-ridden teams. Duncan’s report cites recent wins over the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons as reasons for optimism, but come one: it’s the Browns and Falcons we’re talking about. Both teams were eliminated from the playoffs this weekend.
From the Saints’ perspective, they can choose to write this year off to injuries. They put a lot of pressure on Jameis Winston’s shoulders as their next franchise quarterback but his body hasn’t been able to hold up. They’ve been without star talents like Michael Thomas and Marshon Lattimore for most of the season. They’ll probably try to spin this as poor luck with injuries and give Allen another year to show he can meet expectations with a healthier roster.
But something odd about Duncan’s report is his note that firing Allen “at this point would be cost-prohibitive” given he’s in the first year of his four-year contract as head coach. While Allen’s specific salary is not public knowledge, most NFL head coaches earn $5 to $6 million per year, with the best of the bunch bringing in double-digit salaries. It’s a really hard sell to believe Allen’s buyout matches the $42 million the Saints are paying in dead money for players not on their roster right now, per Over The Cap. Firing Allen and hiring his replacement wouldn’t be cheap, but Benson’s net worth is estimated at $3.8 billion, per Forbes. She can afford it.
If there is an argument in Allen’s favor, it’s that he has won more games this year than many coaches who were dismissed after their first year on the job. In some cases he’s doubled or tripled their winning percentage just by winning six games. Here’s the list of head coaches who were fired after one season, dating back to 2011:
Hue Jackson, 2011 Raiders (8-8)
Mike Mularkey, 2012 Jaguars (2-14)
Rob Chudzinski, 2013 Browns (4-12)
Jim Tomsula, 2015 49ers (5-11)
Chip Kelly, 2016 49ers (2-14)
Steve Wilks, 2018 Cardinals (3-13)
Urban Meyer, 2021 Jaguars (2-11)
David Culley, 2021 Texans (4-13)
Nathaniel Hackett, 2022 Broncos (4-11)
So Allen has already won more games than everyone on this list but his predecessor with the Raiders way back when. There’s little reason to believe he’ll figure things out and find his first winning season in his fifth year as an NFL head coach, but if the Saints are as committed to riding this out as they’re reported to be, there’s nothing fans at home can do about it. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.
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