The New York Jets broke 25 years of precedent by firing head coach Robert Saleh midseason. Unsatisfied with his team’s 2-3 start and Saleh’s 20-36 record, team owner Woody Johnson chose to act boldly and go in a new direction just five games into the 2024 season. It remains to be seen how much input Aaron Rodgers had on the move given all of the Jets’ kowtowing to his demands over the last year, but this was big news in the NFL either way.
Could the New Orleans Saints make a similar bold move? Gayle Benson has only hired one coach after inheriting the team from her late husband Tom Benson, who never fired a coach during the season since buying the team in 1985. But Dennis Allen’s position isn’t much different than Saleh’s was before the Jets took action.
Just like the Jets, the Saints are 2-3 right now. Allen has gone 18-21 through three seasons as head coach, which admittedly isn’t as low a winning percentage (.462) as Saleh (.357), even if it is on the wrong side of .500. But how much more losing can the Saints take? They’re coming off their third straight loss.
Every week Allen is slumping at the podium talking about how his team has gotten outplayed and outcoached, and how they’ve made too many mistakes that cost them big opportunities. There’s nothing insightful about that and it raises the question of whether Allen knows how to fix these problems. Allen is supposed to be known for the strength of his defense but they’re getting carved up by has-beens like Kareem Hunt (102 rushing yards, his most since 2020) and JuJu Smith-Schuster (130 receiving yards, his most since the 2020 Wild Card Round). Every week there’s a new tight end streaking through the secondary with a neon sign around his neck showing that he’s open.
He still hasn’t figured out how to compete with good teams. The Saints have lost so many games in the same ways these last three years that they’ve started to run together. Something needs to change, and fast. And it might need to start at the top of the organization.
