Last one out, turn off the lights. The New Orleans Saints have lost a few coaches to lateral moves around the league as they continue to search for a new head coach, who will want to build their own staff — most notably losing offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to the Seattle Seahawks, where he’ll have the same position.
But here’s another departure. The Cincinnati Bengals announced Monday that they have hired longtime Saints linebackers coach Michael Hodges for the same role on Zac Taylor’s staff. Hodges had been on staff with New Orleans since 2017, and he’s highly regarded around the league. It’s just a shame most of the linebackers he developed went on to play their best football somewhere else; guys like Alex Anzalone, Kaden Elliss, and of course Zack Baun.
Maybe the Bengals will do a better job retaining talent after Hodges has developed it. Whoever the Saints pick as head coach, he’ll now need to replace the offensive coordinator and the linebackers coach, but that was probably going to be the case anyway. These are just the first of many losses we should expect in the weeks ahead.