Former New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen spoke with FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer on the “Unbreakable” podcast to share his reaction to his midseason firing. While most of the conversation surrounded the toll on mental health that comes with such a high-profile departure, Allen also reflected on his time with the Saints, which he doesn’t view as a failure despite an 18-25 record and three seasons out of the playoffs.
Allen is free to feel that way, and it’s probably a healthier decision than to wallow in grief. But Gayle Benson wouldn’t have made the decision to fire him if he hadn’t lost seven games in a row. Better teams like the Detroit Lions haven’t used injuries as an excuse when they’ve hit tough times; their coaches have found solutions to get out of those jams and now they’re in the playoffs.
That’s been an excuse general manager Mickey Loomis has been all too eager to embrace since Allen was let go while making it clear this wasn’t a decision he agreed with.
“I think in this case the circumstances created the record. That’s just the truth and a lot of people don’t want to hear it,” Loomis said, via the team website back in November. He added: “But it just gets back to what stares at you right in the face, is that we’ve had an abnormal amount of injuries including to our quarterback, and we haven’t been able to overcome that. And so, that puts pressure and stress on the organization and ultimately, it was cause for a change.”
Allen and Loomis can rationalize this however they want — but at the end of the day, Benson made the right call to move on. It was clear in November 2022 that Allen wasn’t the right fit for the job. It just took a couple of more years before Benson made that realization, too.
