Takeaways from Mickey Loomis' Press Conference

Mickey Loomis met with the media on Friday to talk about the end of the season for the Saints and some of the pressing issues going forward.

Author:
John Hendrix
Updated:
Jan 13, 2023 4:49 PM EST
Original:
Jan 13, 2023

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New Orleans Saints

Mickey Loomis met with the media on Friday in his end of the year press conference. The Saints general manager was asked plenty of questions in his 25-minute long interview, providing some things that were helpful, but also declining to get into some specifics and items that are saved for a future date.

Takeaways from Mickey Loomis' Press Conference

EVALUATIONS NEXT WEEK: Players and coaching staff evaluations won't happen until next week, according to Loomis. He didn't want to get into any specifics on Friday, which echoes what he said this on WWL Radio earlier in the week with Mike Hoss. Loomis said, "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."

Loomis said that there's no plans to blow up the roster. He said the team is no where there by any stretch of the imagination.

ALLEN CONFIRMED TO BE BACK: Dennis Allen will be coaching the Saints in 2023, as Loomis confirmed. Allen said the other day during his press conference that he felt confident about a return. As of now, no executives have been requested for GM interviews. That can obviously change, but nothing is imminent.

SEAN PAYTON OUTLOOK: Arizona, Denver, and Houston are the only known teams that have permission to interview Sean Payton. No other teams are in currently and none have been denied permission. Anyone wishing to get in on the Payton discussion do have to meet the Saints asking price, which is at least a first-round pick.

Loomis said, "They have to get our permission to have a discussion with him. And then we have to have the compensation settled before they can actually make an offer to hire him."

Naturally, a return of Payton will create a few interesting thoughts on assembling his potential staff. However, the Saints won't likely have to worry about that unless it's for a promotion.

"Our guys are under contract, so the only guys who could actually move without our permission are guys that are being promoted into coordinator positions. So it's not really a real need. I'm sure if there was somebody they really wanted, who was a lateral move, he could call and ask and we'd probably say no," Loomis ended jokingly.

NO UPDATE ON FINES: The team has not heard back on their appeal to the league of an alleged faked injury situation that cost them $550,000. They vehemently denied the allegations, and the club has not had their appeal, but it's coming next week. Cam Jordan did have his hearing recently, but has also not heard back.

JAMEIS WINSTON: Loomis said that Winston's camp has not approached the team about a trade. Loomis said after their evaluation process they'll develop an offseason plan and communicate it to their players and go from there. We'll see if Winston is anywhere in those plans, but it doesn't seem likely.

MICHAEL THOMAS: The specifics on who approached who for the restructure of Michael Thomas' were not discussed, but Loomis mentioned that it was something that was mutually agreed upon and offers flexibility. Loomis stressed that the main thing with Thomas is to get him back healthy, and that his particular injury isn't anything he can't come back from. We'll have to see how this plays out, but the wide expectation that he moves on.

DOOR NOT CLOSED: The door is open for David Onyemata and Marcus Davenport to return to the Saints in 2023. Both saw their void dates moved recently, which gave New Orleans a little bit more time to negotiate with both. As of now, the Saints have just one defensive tackle on their roster for next season, and Onyemata had a decent surge late in the season. As for Davenport, he's coming off a very disappointing campaign.

SALARY CAP 'HELL': Everyone likes to bring this up each offseason, but New Orleans has always found a way. They're certainly in a better position than when they had to trim over $100 million to get under the cap, as they're looking more into the $40-45 million range currently. Loomis hopes the NFL's new broadcasting deals will help the cap rise and that it's always going to be a challenge, but that they do a good job of handling it and have done so for the past 5-6 years. One thing he mentioned that was particularly interesting is that he 'wants to manage the cap back to the middle'.