Dennis Allen couldn’t coach his way through a grueling run of injuries.
Saints general manager Mickey Loomis cited an “abnormal” amount of injuries that led to a 2-7 start as the impetus for why the franchise fired its head coach Monday.
“Dennis Allen, I think, is a fantastic football coach,” Loomis said Tuesday on WWL Radio.
“I think anybody in our league who would talk about him thinks he’s a fantastic football coach, he is.
“Our focus has got to be on our team, our players, our coaches, our staff.
After a long period of injuries, Dennis Allen was unable to coach his way through it.
The Saints fired their head coach on Monday, citing an “abnormal” number of injuries that resulted in a 2-7 start.
The team’s website states that three players are on the reserve/PUP list and ten players are on injured reserve as New Orleans has lost seven straight games.
In an interview with WWL Radio on Tuesday, Loomis stated, “I believe Dennis Allen is an excellent football coach.”. “Anyone in our league who would discuss him, in my opinion, believes that he is an excellent football coach. The circumstances in this instance, in my opinion, produced the record. The truth is that many people don’t want to hear it. “”.
“It just gets right back to what stares you right in the face,” he continued. “We’ve had an abnormal amount of injuries, including to our quarterback, and we haven’t been able to overcome that. So, that puts pressure and stress on the organization and ultimately it was cause for a change.”. “”.
The Saints defeated the Panthers and Cowboys handily to start the season, but they are now in the running for the No. One pick after a run of terrible play.
The once-proud team reached its lowest point on Sunday, losing 23–22 to the dreary Panthers.
The team has had trouble keeping its best players on the field this season, as Loomis pointed out.
Despite being healthy, quarterback Derek Carr has not performed well since Week 2 and missed three games, while receiver Chris Olave has suffered multiple concussions.
Along with emerging receiver Rashid Shaheed, the Saints have also been without offensive linemen Shane Lemieux, Erik McCoy, and Ryan Ramczyk.
The idea that Allen managed an unruly football team was rejected by Loomis, who dismissed a recent Nola.com article that claimed players were parking in the wrong spot as evidence of Allen’s lack of discipline.
“I don’t doubt the coaches’ or the players’ effort,” he added.
Simple things like “the players aren’t parking in the right spots” are written down. I mean, that’s absurd,” Loomis remarked. Since construction is ongoing and we have 100 more employees than we did ten years ago, players have been parking out there for the past fifteen years, you know. It’s just absurd, and it’s equally absurd to conflate that with discipline.
In fact, we had the eighth-fewest penalties in the league going into this most recent match. That’s more of a criticism of discipline than, for heaven’s sake, where a player parks. “.”.
In an effort to help with the rebuild, Loomis sent cornerback Marshon Lattimore to the Commanders on Tuesday. Special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi has been named the interim coach.
With nine weeks remaining in the regular season, he stated that the team will not be in the process of hiring a coach.
Loomis remarked, “There’s plenty of time for that when the season ends.”. “Our team, players, coaches, and staff must be our top priorities. You discover more about yourself and the people you work with during difficult times than you do during prosperous times.
“This is adversity,” he continued. This is hard. We’ll see what we’ve got over the next eight weeks. You have to get off the mat and put up a fight, and that goes for everyone in this building. “.”.
