Saints Head Coach Allen Comes In Dead Last In Rankings Amongst Peers

Dennis Allen was ranked dead last amongst the NFL head coaches in a recent column.

Oct 29, 2023; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen stands on the side lines during the first quarter against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports / Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

Dennis Allen faces a very important year with the Saints, and it's a season in which he needs to deliver. The outside opinions and views of New Orleans aren't exactly favorable these days. USA Today Contributor Jarrett Bailey of Touchdown Wire put out his rankings of NFL Coaches on Thursday morning, which saw the New Orleans head coach coming in dead last. Here's what he said.

Dennis Allen is the head coaching version of sitting on a whoopie cushion. The Saints have been dreadfully boring with no sense of direction ever since Sean Payton stepped away. They are 16-18 over their last two seasons and find themselves in quarterback purgatory as Derek Carr is clearly not the future. The Saints’ best option would be to finally blow everything up and begin to rebuild in 2025. It would be three years after they should have done it, but better late than never.

Allen was asked after OTAs on Wednesday about a lot of the outside talk regarding the Saints and their outlook this season, to which he responded, “I could care less what the expectations are outside this building.” From a grammatical standpoint, he clearly meant that he couldn't care less, and that's the general belief within the organization.

What's interesting is that Sports Info Solutions put together their model for the Saints season and came out way more favorable than the Vegas odds. They project 10.7 wins as opposed to the 7.5 from betting sites. New Orleans has been close a lot of the times, but they're three years removed from being in the postseason. We know they can probably get to that 8 or 9 win total, but it's going to take them actually beating better teams to get that extra win they've been missing.

The Saints can't be a team that misses the playoffs this year, and the being close finishes just don't cut it. Whether or not that prompts a changing of the guard, there are some things with the team that gives a sense of cautious optimism, and it's going to be on New Orleans to prove that they won't end up in mediocrity again.