Saints expected to be very interested in former Packers/Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy [McCarthy will interview early next week]

No2DC said
I'm not, but I would rather gamble on the next great young (I use young loosely) than go with a guy who knows where the ceiling is. At this point, I basically expect Mick to go with a safe route because he's too old to roll the dice on an unknown. Payton was an unknown and turned out to be the greatest coach in Saints history; that's the direction I would rather go because these next couple of years will not be ideal in terms of the cap or talent. McCarthy is like Marty Schotehemier with a ring. He doesn't have losing seasons, but the probability of winning it all again is virtually zero. It's like no one on the board wants to be the best anymore; we want to be mid-tier. There was time when we had a top 5 coach and QB and now we just want to get by. Sad. if we fail with a first-time coach, so what at least we'll have a high draft pick.

McCarthy’s perceived ceiling is what we’re hoping a young first-time coach can become. In his case, knowing his ceiling isn’t a bad thing. We know that there’s a chance he can advance multiple rounds in the playoffs, and contend for a SB with the right luck in health and good QB play. He has the overall and recent resume that validates that sentiment. He’s a contending coach that any team would want to have when there’s an opening.

On the other hand, gambling on an unknown to become a playoff contending coach doesn’t sound like a better option than a coach who’s proven to already be that. For the Saints who are trying to return to double digit winning seasons again. It may be a process of 2-3 seasons to get to that point with a coach who’s figuring out how to be a successful HC for the first time.

I think this can be a case of talking ourselves out of a blatantly good coach because of opinions of Loomis. Since McCarthy previously worked with Loomis, he must be bad or somehow a replicate of Allen by default. But McCarthy established himself as one of the NFL’s top HCs across 2 decades since leaving the Saints in ‘05.