Takeaways from Dennis Allen's Press Conference

Dennis Allen spoke with the media nearly 30 minutes on Monday during his end of the season press conference, and here's some of our biggest takeaways from it.

Author:
John Hendrix
Publish date:
Jan 9, 2023 4:50 PM EST

In this story:

New Orleans Saints

It was locker clean out day for the players and our last chance to speak with Dennis Allen for this season. The Saints wrapped up things on Sunday against the Panthers with a very disheartening 10-7 loss that perfectly summarized how the year went. Allen spoke for nearly 30 minutes on Monday, and here's some of the biggest points to focus on from it.

Takeaways from Dennis Allen's Presser

EVALUATION PERIOD COMING: The Saints are going to look at everything, and it's all on the table. That's going to consist of players, personnel, training staff, and even medical equipment. It's a pretty standard thing, but it sounds like a lot of people will be involved. Traditionally, we thought about Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton being the primary and only ones involved in these talks, but Allen did make it a point to include Jeff Ireland, Michael Parenton, and Khai Harley.

They're going to have their work cut out for them, and there's no timetable for them to make decisions on potential coaching staff changes right now. However, Allen did stress the need to make the right decisions for the Saints. No assistant coaches have been requested to be interviewed, yet.

On Pete Carmichael's future specifically, Allen responded, "Again, that’s not where we’re at right now. I think we’re going to evaluate everything. Just like I get evaluated, we’re going to evaluate where we need to improve and that evaluation has not taken place yet. But that’ll happen here shortly, and we’ll have a plan moving forward."

MICHAEL THOMAS' FUTURE/RECEIVER OUTLOOK: The Saints restructured his contract recently, which gives them a chance to move on from him and not be on the hook for a ton of money. What ends up happening with Thomas is going to be fascinating, but it would appear that his time in New Orleans is over.

Allen was asked about his future, to which he replied, "No, again, there’s been no decisions made on anything to this point. I think that was more of a, kind of, gives us, and him, just a little bit more flexibility in terms of what we do as we set our plan going forward."

Allen also said that the contract situation is a better question for Loomis. He also talked about evaluating Michael Thomas from the past few years, saying that it's a tough one. However, he knows when Thomas is healthy that he is a game changer. Interestingly enough, he brought up the team's lack of a receiver that was able to make a contested catch.

PAYTON TURNER'S OUTLOOK: The pass rush will be an important focal point going into the offseason with the future of Cam Jordan being unclear. Jordan is going to spend the next several months in Spain after a getaway with the defensive line, and is not expected back until May. However, the Saints have free agents hitting the market in Marcus Davenport and Tanoh Kpassagnon too.

Payton Turner has been a familiar inactive this season, and is entering a crucial spot next season.

Allen talked about Turner's lack of playing time, saying, "The number one thing has been availability. That was the first thing, and look, that’s a position we have a lot of pretty good players at. Cam, Marcus, Carl, Tanoh, Payton. We’ve got some pretty good players at that position. He’s a young player that needs to continue to work to develop."

ALLEN FEELS SAFE: He expects to be back as the Saints head coach in 2023. Allen said on his future specifically, "I don’t think there’s any need to discuss that any further. And I’m certainly going forward with that anticipation, that’s the indication that I’ve been given. And I’m excited about it. Look, again, 7-10’s not where we want to be. But we’re not as far off as maybe some might think. But there’s areas that we have to improve on." Allen later added that he feels like he has the support of owner Gayle Benson.

USATSI_19474477_168388561_lowres — Nov 20, 2022; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Andy Dalton (14) is congratulated by Jameis Winston (2) as he comes off the field in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at the Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

QUARTERBACK EVALUATION: Allen had a one word answer when asked about having a good enough evaluation of Jameis Winston, which was a simple, "Yeah." He was asked a follow-up about that evaluation, which expounded a bit more of the challenges this year.

"Well look, I think initially it was the injury issue. And then as time went on, I felt like Andy (Dalton) was the one who gave us a better opportunity to win. And we didn’t win enough games, so all those things are always gonna be questioned and second-guessed – I don’t know if second-guessed is the right word, but be questioned. And I’m comfortable with that."

Allen also talked about whether or not quarterback would be the top priority. "I think the quarterback position is always gonna be the biggest position," Allen said, "So certainly that’ll be a position we evaluate, as will everything else."

STINGING EFFECTS FROM TAMPA: It's no secret, but the game against the Bucs changed a lot for the Saints. It was a textbook example at how the team not being able to close out games where they were in the driver's seat, albeit being a rarity. Those last four minutes of the game was something Allen thought kept them out of the playoffs.

“When you have an opportunity to put a team away, you have to put them away and we didn’t do that this year, offensively, defensively, in the kicking game. We didn’t do that enough, and that’ll be something, for us to be the type of team that I think we can be, that’ll be something that we need to improve on.”

SELF-REFLECTION: Allen wants to get better as a head coach, and based on what he said on Monday, there's evidence of that. He'll absolutely some self-evaluation with his staff.

“You sit down and you think about it and you write down things. What did I do well? What did I not do well. Part of that is not just self evaluation but I’ll ask Mickey, Michael, Jeff, coaches, ‘Hey, what did you think? What did I do well? What did I not do well? And I’ll take that information and try to grow from it.”

TREVOR PENNING NEEDS SURGERY: We touched on this earlier, but the Saints will likely be without Trevor Penning for the start of things in the 2023 season. Penning suffered a Lisfranc injury in his right foot, and will undergo surgery. The injury came late in the game against the Panthers, and is similar to what Cesar Ruiz went through. The timetable for his return will be in June as a best-case scenario. It'll be quite interesting to see what the Saints do on the offensive line next season, and they'll have some major questions to answer there.