Longtime NFL media personality Colin Cowherd shared his five bold predictions for the 2024 season, and he started out a little negatively — predicting the New Orleans Saints won’t wait long to fire head coach Dennis Allen.
“I think Dennis Allen, Saints, is the first coach to be let go,” Cowherd said. “They’ve missed the playoffs back-to-back years. The NFC South, Atlanta and Carolina are undoubtedly better teams. No question. The Falcons and the Panthers are much better teams. Four of the first six games for Denis Allen are against playoff teams from last year. I just don’t see the juice offensively. I think Dennis is the first coach to be let go.”
Saying the Panthers are “undoubtedly better” than the Saints is kind of wild. They won seven fewer games than the Saints did last year while cycling through a couple of head coaches before rebooting yet again this spring. You could argue that Dave Canales is a better coach than Allen because he’s an unknown quantity rather than known for getting poor results, but that case wouldn’t hold much water. Canales could be just as badly out of his depth as Allen has been.
Maybe Cowherd misspoke and meant the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who won the division last year, are up there with Atlanta. The Falcons finally addressed their terrible defense by trading for Matt Judon and signing Justin Simmons but they’re betting big on Kirk Cousins overhauling the league’s most disappointing offense in recent years. It’s fine to be down on the Saints given their lack of success, but the teams in this division are stacked much more closely than you might think. Look at their records over the last three years:
- Buccaneers: 30-21
- Saints: 25-26
- Falcons: 21-30
- Panthers: 14-37
We’ll see how it goes. The Saints have never fired a coach in-season since Tom Benson bought the team in 1985, and it hasn’t happened at all since Dick Nolan was let go in 1980. It would be awfully bold of Mickey Loomis, the longest-tenured general manager in the game, to decide it’s time to pull the plug on Allen even after something ugly like a 2-4 start. But if Allen’s defense folds and his handpicked quarterback and play caller don’t mesh quickly, Allen could be on the outs sooner or later.
