Saints Cap Moves: $28,318,521 cap space ….. 8 restructures, 3 extensions, 3 pay cut, 1 release [All current cap moves are in OP]
My theory on 2022 and 2023 is that Mickey truly believed that Allen was capable of being a bridge from Payton and maintaining status quo.
So did the majority of the fan base.
Agree - it’s just a series of things that didn’t work
They tried to continue the Payton-Carmichael-Brees mind meld with the most essential parts of that system missing. Payton’s feel for the game and Brees’ ability to execute were left in less-capable hands. Doesn’t make Dalton, Winston, or Carr bad guys or football players, but that was a flaw of continuity that we all had to bear out to know. Pete Carmichael spent 20 years with the best quarterback of all time on his sideline, and it’s not unreasonable to think his input in the system was made for that one guy.
DA wound up over his skis, full-team management wasn’t his thing and realizing he had to split off too much time to get the offense where it needed to be wound up hurting both the offense and his specialty of defense. Reading about stretching being optional remains an all-time head-scratcher especially as the injuries began mounting last season.
I’ll fondly, if dubiously so, remember their tenure by the 11 consecutive games DA’s defense held teams to under 20 points, just for PC’s offense to somehow not do enough for that to have yielded nine or ten wins. That’s the ultimate “it wasn’t going to work” indicator for me. I believed it perhaps could, because I trusted the veteran players to care enough and be bought in, but it didn’t work. Let’s see how this coaching staff wins them back over and gets winning football back on the field.