Here me out on this. Remember in 2012 when SP got suspended and the Saints could've moved on from him? But instead, in a great show of loyalty, they held his job for him for a year? What if? The plan all along was for SP to just take a year of sabatical to refresh and recharge his batteries and come back, and THAT is why they wanted to just promote from within. Maybe DA took the job knowing it was on an interim basis and maybe THAT is why the locker don't respect him as a HC, because they know he will just revert back to DC. They didn't want that to be known so they had to go through the motions of outside candidates.