Head Coach if there is no GM change

St. Geezy said
Very fair. This is a results based business and ultimately he needs to do a better job.

I just don’t agree that this isn’t something he’s capable of fixing or that we need to have someone else course correct. I think his path works, it just hasn’t worked with this iteration of the team.

We hired the wrong HC, and things spiraled from there, along with the absurd number of injuries we have faced severely handicapping our already-compromised situation.

I mean, the man is in year 23 of a GM tenure in a league whose design structure virtually dictates that every team faces a level of good play, average play, and bad play over a span that long, and things have been mostly good to average, with no truly bad until now (and the Katrina year).

That’s what I mean when I say the guy has earned “Tenure Privileges” of sorts. There are going to be peaks and valleys over a span of that long, and when you have a Super Bowl winning GM that oversaw the winningest time period of our franchise’s history over a long span of time, some periods of misfires should be expected and he should be given the opportunity to course correct it.

It is next to impossible to be good in this business for 20+ years, outside of maybe the anomaly that is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and even they have been mostly average to above average during that span with a small handful of dominant seasons, similar to us, with only 2 rings to show for it which came a long time ago. 2 rings is better than our 1 of course, but I’d imagine you’d agree that we had one flat-out stolen from us.

JMO.

I can respect this argument and this response. You're entitled to your opinion, based on your outlook. You may even be correct?!

I can agree with everything you said here, with the sole exception that I now question whether he's capable of fixing the franchise. He has made a series of "bad" decisions, and it has spiraled out of control from there. If he had "owned" those bad decisions and "course corrected" from there, I'd be inclined to believe he could fix the situation. Instead, he doubled down on the DA hire and insulted the intelligence of the fanbase by comparing DA to HOF coaches Chuck Noll and Bill Walsh. Those coaches took over downtrodden perennial-loser franchises and built them into dynasties. According to ML at the time of hire, all DA had to do was maintain continuity of culture. It was apparent to many of us after Year 1 that DA wasn't doing that; it was apparent to most of us after Year 2. Somewhere along the line, ML lost touch with the locker room. One of the GM's main responsibilities, IMO, is to have his finger on the pulse of the team. I think ML failed to do that. The fiasco with Gayle Benson firing DA seems to confirm that. But ML maintains it was an "organizational" decision, despite stating numerous times prior that the organization doesn't believe in mid-season dismissals. And even after the dismissal, he sang the praises of DA as an outstanding coach. I certainly didn't expect him to bash DA, but to sing his praises after the fact made it pretty clear that ML didn't agree with the organizational decision. He seems to be out of touch with the locker room; out of touch with the fan base; and now out of touch with "the organization".

To be fair, it's possible that ML is the only one who knows what he's doing, but surrounded by incompetence. But ML has hired most of those folks over his 20+ year tenure. With that said, he has the power to unilaterally fix that, but hasn't. I'm inclined to believe that the "common element" in multiple issues IS the root cause of said issues. Reference back to my last sentence in prior paragraph. This is why I no longer believe ML is capable of fixing the franchise.

It appears our differences in opinion are solely based on our beliefs of ML is capable of in 2025 and going forward. I'd like to see a new GM, with STRONG personnel background. If ML remains with the team in another capacity, I'm fine with that....he's earned that right. I just question his abilities on the football side, and is ability to "read the team" as relates to coaching & personnel. But if ML stays with the team in his current capacity as GM, I sincerely hope you are correct and he NAILS the HC hire, planting the seeds for a second dynasty of Saints football. I'd be good with that also, and I'll eat my crow however you want to serve it.