One of the more surprising moves of the New Orleans Saints offseason thus far was the team’s divorce with co-defensive coordinator Kris Richard. When the coach he shared that title with, Ryan Nielsen, left town for the full-time gig on the Atlanta Falcons it appeared that Richard would be an easy choice to take over in New Orleans.
Instead, Richard and the Saints agreed to part ways. He’s still searching for his new position around the NFL. Allen brought in former Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods for the same role in New Orleans, as a coach he’s worked with before and who shares many of his coaching philosophies.
Allen gave some insight on the reason behind that split at the NFL combine this week, telling SI.com’s John Hendrix: “Kris was a guy that I think was an outstanding football coach, but I just think we probably had a little bit of a difference in maybe how we view doing things and maybe some difference of opinion in terms of personnel and those types of things. Just felt like it was a good point to go ahead and move on and give him an opportunity to move on also.”
Richard is highly respected around the league, but it’s worth noting that his secondary experienced some issues last season. They only intercepted 7 passes in 2022 after picking off 18 of them a year earlier. There were problems manning the slot throughout the season, with C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s initial replacement Justin Evans benched in favor of veteran backup Bradley Roby — and when Roby went down with an injury, the Saints scrambled to sign Chris Harris Jr. off the street as a insufficient fill-in. By season’s end, four different defenders logged 100-plus snaps in the slot: Roby, Harris, Evans, and Tyrann Mathieu.
That’s just one area the Saints may have felt they could improve by moving on from Richard. Whether or not Woods is the answer remains to be seen, but it’s worth noting that he’s had success in this role before as Vance Joseph’s coordinator with the Denver Broncos (as will be the case in the fall, Woods didn’t call plays; Joseph did then, and Allen will continue to do so now). And Allen is eager to work with Woods again after having teamed up with him in Oakland a decade ago.
“Smart, detailed, great relationship builder,” Allen gushed of his new defensive coordinator. “And so I thought that was I thought that was important in that in that position. You know, and really kind of creating that coach to player kind of bond. I think a lot of times people say, ‘Well, he’s player’s coach,’ and that he’s got this negative connotation that he’s soft or whatever, and it’s really more about taking a personal interest in each and every player, and I think Joe does a great job of that.”
