ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler: Saints Head Coach opening is a coveted job among people I’ve spoken to; Mike McCarthy could have interest (7 Viewers)

[Broad St. Saint]

Because Gayle Benson doesn’t mettle and will write huge checks to give the coach and front office the support they need.

Not sure why so many Saints fans consider her a subpar owner.

Exactly. The same owner and same FO is in place that, before Allen, had 5 straight winning seasons, many division titles, and a Super Bowl win.

I'm not surprised some might think the Saints HC job is coveted, as far as the jobs that are open right now.

You can't compare the Saints job to jobs with for example, the Chiefs or the Bills -- those aren't available. Neither are marquee jobs for iconic teams like Pittsburgh or Dallas (despite the whole Jerry Jones factor).

If you're going to be a newly hired coach, you have to compare it to the jobs that are actually open for you to get hired into. And if you've never been a head coach before, you have to realize that you only get one chance to make a first impression. If you go to an organization, lose and are quickly fired, you're probably going to be seen as damaged goods when you next try to get hired as a head coach.

The only open jobs are the Raiders, Jags, Jets, Bears, Pats, and Saints. Personally, I'd rank the Patriots as more "coveted" than the Saints - though they /did/ just fire a coach after one season, which is a problem for a new head coach, since it shows a lack of patience potentially. The other issue is that the Pats search may be a dog and pony show before they hire Vrabel.

As for the others, I think you could argue they actually have a worse QB situation than the Saints currently do. In 2024, Carr at least statistically was ahead of the starting QBs for the other 5 teams with an opening. If (big if) he stays healthy, in 2025 a new head coach probably has the best QB situation with the Saints. And QB is the most important thing for success in the NFL. You could make arguments for the Bears (Williams) or Pats (Maye) having a better QB situation for the long term (Trevor Lawrence just had an absolutely terrible season with a huge new contract, 5yrs, $275M, $200M guaranteed), but a new head coach might think he has to worry about not being there for the long term.

 

[St. Geezy]

New England has 131,000,000 in cap space. And they have Drake Maye. Very attractive for a coach.

The “Ridiculously ton of cap space” cycle is just as bad as our situation in ways, maybe even worse. Jacksonville is one of those teams that got themselves caught into that trap.

Having that much cap space means you have an absolutely garbage roster due to very poor drafting and signings and will now have to a.) massively overspend and shock the market on the small handful of actual good players you end up signing because they know you can afford it and they need the extra enticement to join your pathetic team, and b.) once the free agency pool quickly dries, massively overspend and shock the market on very subpar talent just to reach minimum spend requirements, locking yourself into bad contracts galore.

Once again though, ultimately what happens in New England will all boil down to who they sign, how they draft (most important element of all), and who they get to coach those players.

There’s a reason why you constantly see many of the same bad teams with cap space all the time. It’s a cycle. Drafting well is how you get better, not spending a ton of money on other teams’ players that thrived in other teams’ systems. Free agency is a great supplemental piece though, and especially useful when you can find a cheap bargain guy that turns it up several notches in your system.

 

[srcampbell]

Interesting. He's saying the Saints job is coveted? That would be opposite of what most have speculated.

The Saints offer the one thing new coaches want most; patience and time to develop their program. They also offer the one thing veteran coaches want most; a stable front office.
You have to look at it from a coaches perspective. Yes, they are way over the cap and don’t have much talent, but the Saints aren’t in total chaos and don’t have jerk owners and gms like many other teams. That’s why Sean Payton stuck around so long. I would rather work with Loomis than Craft, Khan, or Jones.

 

[WhoDat6278]

The “Ridiculously ton of cap space” cycle is just as bad as our situation in ways, maybe even worse. Jacksonville is one of those teams that got themselves caught into that trap.

Having that much cap space means you have an absolutely garbage roster due to very poor drafting and signings and will now have to a.) massively overspend and shock the market on the small handful of actual good players you end up signing because they know you can afford it and they need the extra enticement to join your pathetic team, and b.) once the free agency pool quickly dries, massively overspend and shock the market on very subpar talent just to reach minimum spend requirements, locking yourself into bad contracts galore.

Once again though, ultimately what happens in New England will it all boil down to who they sign, how they draft (most important element of all), and who they get to coach those players.

There’s a reason why you constantly see many of the same bad teams with cap space all the time. It’s a cycle.

That’s an incredible level of spin. We too have a garbage roster, difference is we can only improve it through the draft because we’re overpaying players who either just aren’t very good or are way past their best (we haven’t used draft picks very well either). I’d much rather be in New England’s position.

 

[Boy_of_wonder75]

That’s an incredible level of spin. We too have a garbage roster, difference is we can only improve it through the draft because we’re overpaying players who either just aren’t very good or are way past their best (we haven’t used draft picks very well either). I’d much rather be in New England’s position.

We don't have a garbage roster.

 

[St. Geezy]

That’s an incredible level of spin. We too have a garbage roster, difference is we can only improve it through the draft because we’re overpaying players who either just aren’t very good or are way past their best (we haven’t used draft picks very well either). I’d much rather be in New England’s position.

Not trying to “spin” anything. Just saying that having a ton of cap space is an indication that your team is horrible and you’re going to have to spend a ton on free agents, which has been a trap for many teams in that position that keep remaining in that cycle.

The teams with moderate space offer the most ideal roster opportunities.

If you have $131m in space, your cupboard is BARE and you will have to overspend a lot if you have dreams of using a ton of it. That’s fact, not opinion.

 

[St. Geezy]

We don't have a garbage roster.

Yeah clearly this guy isn’t familiar enough with the Patriots roster. Now THAT is a garbage roster.

 

[WhoDat6278]

We don't have a garbage roster.

We absolutely do. It has zero depth and we’re just about an average starter short in every position on the field. Combine that with the fact we just went 5-12, how is that not garbage?

 

[Boy_of_wonder75]

We absolutely do. It has zero depth and we’re just about an average starter short in every position on the field. Combine that with the fact we just went 5-12, how is that not garbage?

We do have a lack of depth at every position, but our starters (when healthy) are quite good.

 

[DSnfla]

That’s an incredible level of spin. We too have a garbage roster, difference is we can only improve it through the draft because we’re overpaying players who either just aren’t very good or are way past their best (we haven’t used draft picks very well either). I’d much rather be in New England’s position.

We don't have a garbage roster. We've had BAD coaching and an insane amount of injuries, but we have some young talent that could use some coaching up. On D we have Bresse,McKinstry Taylor, Werner , Adebo,Harris
On O we have Olave, Shaheed,McCoy ,Fuaga, Penning , Miller,,JJ

 

[DSnfla]

We absolutely do. It has zero depth and we’re just about an average starter short in every position on the field. Combine that with the fact we just went 5-12, how is that not garbage?

INJURIES INJURIES INJURIES, did you not watch this season ???? Also we had a HC that was weak

 

[WhoDat6278]

Not trying to “spin” anything. Just saying that having a ton of cap space is an indication that your team is horrible and you’re going to have to spend a ton on free agents, which has been a trap for many teams in that position that keep remaining in that cycle.

The teams with moderate space offer the most ideal roster opportunities.

If you have $131m in space, your cupboard is BARE and you will have to overspend a lot if you have dreams of using a ton of it. That’s fact, not opinion.

The idea it’s a worse position to be in than ours is absurd. We won one more game than New England and have far less room to manoeuvre or improve. If we had a winning record your point would at least hold some credence. Both teams are near enough as bad as each other, at least one can do something about it in the near future.

 

[St. Geezy]

We absolutely do. It has zero depth and we’re just about an average starter short in every position on the field. Combine that with the fact we just went 5-12, how is that not garbage?

We spent just about the final month of the season without a single offensive skill position starter.

Our depth expenditures are at normal levels with the rest of the league. We haven’t supplemented our depth with draft picks well enough. Teams generally aren’t spending a ton of money on expensive veteran depth other than on a small handful of “better than minimum salary” guys, like we have. I’m not sure why this narrative became so popular.

Want to argue that our cap space woes have cost us 2 to 4 big time starters, sure, but using it as an excuse for our depth issues is just flat out wrong.

Our depth isn’t even that terrible…it was just out on the field at the same time. Way too much depth on the field will make any team’s depth suddenly seem poor.

No one is trotting out an entire second unit of offensive skill position starters and looking good. No one.

 

[St. Geezy]

The idea it’s a worse position to be in than ours is absurd. We won one more game than New England and have far less room to manoeuvre or improve. If we had a winning record your point would at least hold some credence. Both teams are near enough as bad as each other, at least one can do something about it in the near future.

I said “Maybe,” which is meant to convey that it COULD be in certain circumstances.

Not trying to start an argument. Focus on the substance of my post rather than the semantics of a “maybe” declaration.

 

[WhoDat6278]

INJURIES INJURIES INJURIES, did you not watch this season ???? Also we had a HC that was weak

Read my post again. Yes, I watched this season, hence “zero depth”.

We don't have a garbage roster. We've had BAD coaching and an insane amount of injuries, but we have some young talent that could use some coaching up. On D we have Bresse,McKinstry Taylor, Werner , Adebo,Harris
On O we have Olave, Shaheed,McCoy ,Fuaga, Penning , Miller,,JJ

Harris is 29, Johnson is 28 and not very good. Neither of them are young talent. Kendre Miller has played about 6 games in 2 seasons, Pete Werner has gone from being very good to completely impactless in 2 seasons.

I’d say Bresee, McKinstry, Taylor (if he’s moved to safety), Olave, Fuaga, McCoy and Shaheed are at least league average starters or could be with the right coaching. That’s 7 players which is hardly anything.