Fire Dennis Allen Billboard

Head Coaches are tied to the quarterback they select with either a high draft pick or big free agent contract signed during his tenure. To me the largest indictment of Allen is the "keep doing what you are doing" mantra where the on field production does not match the talent or magnitude of the salary commitment to talent on the roster. The last season of Sean Payton and first season of Allen had no healthy legitimate quarterback. Enter Derek Carr. For most of 2023, we saw inconsistency, an archaic offensive system run by a water boy of Sean Payton's offense that Dennis Allen took little if any accountability or positive input, and Carr get knocked out of games twice.

By the end of 2023 what I think I saw is what Carr might look like when he is healthy and a chance he might not be the emperor of empty yards with reasonable offensive line protection to be a better than average but not great NFL QB. The logic to me is if Carr is even close to viable you have to keep Carr for salary cap reasons and in doing so you keep Allen because the two are tied at the hip. Any new coach is going to want his quarterback which likely means we need a high draft pick which this team does not have and is not likely to have unless we tank. There is too much talent on this roster and the division is too weak for the Saints to tank on the level of the Commanders, Panthers, Cardinals, or Patriots.

To tank requires us eating the cap hits on former stars that are no longer themselves like Ram, Cam, Lattimore, Kamara, CGM, Peat, Mathieu, Maye, Winston, and possibly Hill. If you are older and a high cap you are gone and we intentionally lose without saying it aloud to get a shot at a high draft pick and hope for the best and not end up in the eternal hell that is the Browns, Bears, or the Jets that have drafted the likes of Couch, Manzeil, Mayfield, Turbisky, Fields, Sam Darnold, and Zach Wilson. Look at the Panthers with Bryce Young and the roulette that path could be? As much as we may call for Dennis Allen's head, tanking and missing on a QB is worse.

The Cam Jordan extension should indicate this team is ultra loyal almost to a fault and has no interest in tanking. With that it requires accepting the only way Dennis Allen and Derek Carr ever win a Superbowl is if we get a highly qualified offensive coordinator who can give us a modern offense and Allen can shut up and let that coach run the offense. The way it is looking I think that person might be Jon Gruden.

I don't know if he can do it, but if we cannot get rid of Carr and we cannot get rid of Allen, and he cannot politically be the head coach in this league I would not be shocked if Gruden is brought in to functionally run the offense and call plays and somehow Pete Carmichael stays on as offensive coordinator.

I am not saying that is what is best, but reading the tea leaves it could also mean Allen has one more year, Gruden gets his feet back in the league and if we fire Allen maybe Gruden takes over.