Sometimes the numbers tell the whole story. Dennis Allen’s promotion to New Orleans Saints head coach was met with some skepticism last year, given his poor performance with the Raiders a decade ago — but his record speaks for itself.
Allen is now 12-15 as head coach of the Saints having lost to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, and he’s 20-43 in his career if you include his Raiders tenure. There have been 174 head coaches in the NFL who have worked 60 or more games, and Allen (63) ranks 169th in winning percentage (.317).
He hasn’t been able to guide the Saints to victory against good teams. Allen’s Saints have won just twice versus teams with winning records, dating back to last season; they’re 2-8 with wins over the Gardner Minshew-led Philadelphia Eagles and volatile Seattle Seahawks in 2022. They’re still searching for a win over a team with a winning record in 2023 after losing to the 6-3 Jacksonville Jaguars, 6-4 Minnesota Vikings, and 5-4 Houston Texans.
And that illustrates the problem here. Allen’s version of the Saints can take care of business against bad opponents and maybe pull a fast one on a backup quarterback thrust into the spotlight, but they aren’t competing with better teams. They lack the team discipline and creativity in play calling to maintain pace good squads around the league.
It’s a disappointing turn for the franchise after years of success with Sean Payton and Drew Brees, but, well: the Saints knew who Allen was when they hired him. All they had to do was look at his resume.
