Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Darrion Gray

Mickey Loomis on Saints coaching search: ‘We’re open to anything’

The New Orleans Saints are stepping into this head coaching search with an open-mind. This is likely one of the lessons the Saints front office learned from the last time they had to make a change at head coach. The move from Sean Payton to Dennis Allen was so clear that Payton gave his endorsement on his way out the door.

Mickey Loomis told reporters this week, “We’re open to anything. We talked a lot about where successful coaches come from.” Aaron Glenn, Joe Brady and soon to be Mike McCarthy highlight the list of candidates New Orleans has already interviewed or plan to sit down with.

That triumvirate all represent three different lanes. Loomis classified the lanes as buckets. That’s an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and former head coach. The only thing missing is a collegiate coach.

Once divided into these lanes into pools or buckets. Loomis says they then discussed “The success rate and the success that each pool has had.” Those conversations may have led to certain buckets being taken off the table.

So far their request list includes: Brady, Glenn, Mike Kafka, Kellen Moore, Darren Rizzi, Mike Vrabel and Anthony Weaver.

Vrabel has already been named the New England Patriots head coach, but he and McCarthy are interchangeable representations of the same bucket. There weren’t many former head coaches to pick from. The only other one would be Brian Flores.

So the Saints list consists of two defensive coordinators, three offensive coordinators, one former head coach and a special teams coordinator. There are no coaches from the college bucket, but that’s a versatile list that reflects Loomis’ statement that New Orleans is open to anything.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.