I totally agree. I believe the sentiment is that if you fire DA and have no ability to immediately improve the roster for the next coach, that the new coach will be signing up for a potentially impossible situation. I don't necessarily disagree, but I think nearly all new coaches are facing that prospect. There aren't many teams that have had a coaching change with a great roster that could be fixed in the first season. If the roster was that good, the previous coach probably wouldn't have been fired.
I think the idea with a coaching change is that the old coach isn't getting what they should out of the current roster. It also serves to stop the acceptance of being losers in the locker room, to make sure that that never becomes the team culture. Those certainly apply to this team. So a new coach has a couple of different effects.
- They have to come in and coach up a roster they can't immediately change. If they can't do that, then the change is pointless.
- Set the priority for new player acquisition, both in the draft and free agency, that will help that new coach succeed by fitting the type of players they need. So the new coach has to be a scout as well.
- Identify current players that are simply not going to help the team get better going forward.
With all of that taken into consideration, the Saints are in a prime position to change coaches now. The memories of being winners isn't so long ago. We still have players that are good and want to be here. We need new leadership to make sure that doesn't change. It only takes a couple of years too long to end up being the Browns of most of the last 30 years.