Saints fire head coach Dennis Allen: Why New Orleans' hiring of Sean Payton was always going to backfire

The New Orleans Saints parted ways with them Head coach Dennis Allen after more than two seasons in charge, including a poor 2-7 start in 2024. Allen's team began this season with back-to-back wins over the Panthers and Cowboys, but has since suffered seven straight losses, four of which came in the double figures and one came from the same Panthers team.

The losses dropped Allen's record with New Orleans to just 18-25 and his overall record as a head coach to 26-53, including his disastrous stretch with the then-Oakland Raiders that ended a decade ago. The Saints have been so bad in recent weeks that this dismissal almost happened. The effort the team put in on the field was frankly unacceptable. This feeling also extended to personal responsibility.

“Dennis has been part of our organization for many years. He is highly regarded in the NFL. He was extremely loyal and professional and, above all, an excellent football coach for us. All of this makes it very difficult for me and our organization today.” Saints owner Gayle Benson said in a statement. “However, I felt we had to make this decision at this time. I wish Dennis and his family all the best for the future. He will always be held in the highest regard by me and everyone in our organization.”

Crucially, results on Allen's side of the ball (defense) have been declining since he was named head coach after the Saints made significant progress over his years as the team's defensive coordinator:

Add to that the fact that Allen wasn't doing much in terms of game management and several players didn't seem to be up to their previous standards, and it was kind of clear that this was coming at some point.

It's also a reminder that Allen was brought into the role essentially uncontested following Sean Payton's retirement. Payton resigned his position on January 25, 2022 and Allen was named head coach on February 8. The organization wanted to ensure continuity by having someone from Payton's staff take on the role. At that time, Allen even kept almost all of Payton's assistants in office. And the further the Saints got away from Payton's reign, the worse it got.

To be fair to Allen, he wasn't exactly in a position to succeed. The Saints have the worst salary cap situation in the NFL, and it's not even close. Essentially, they had to continue to age and trade players past their expiration dates because they couldn't afford to rush the cap and still field a 53-man roster. And yet they went out and spent a lot of money to hire Derek Carr at quarterback because for some reason they felt like they were just competent quarterback players who weren't really competitive – which obviously wasn't the case .

Whoever ultimately replaces Allen on a full-time basis will inherit a bad situation and similarly underperform. The Saints are doing very badly and have no choice but to take the hit for a few years and eventually start over. Regardless of whether this was really Allen's fault or not, it had at least become clear that he wasn't the one who could turn things around.