Time to clean house.
“Who Dat!?” might be the phrase you hear most from the New Orleans Saints’ fanbase.
However, for the past couple of years, you could have been forgiven for thinking the team’s tagline was ‘Fire Dennis Allen’.
During the 2024 season, the fanbase got their wish and Allen’s tenure came to an end following a seven-game losing streak.
His head coaching career with the Saints finished at 18-25, a .419 percentage. That record was good for a third place in the NFC South in 2022, second place in 2023 and last in 2024 when all was said and done.
The Saints joined six other teams with head coaching vacancies at the end of the 2024 regular season.
An attractive job?
Depending on who you ask, you will get a different answer to how attractive the team is to prospective candidates.
On one hand, the team has an aging roster, is farther over the salary cap than any other team and likely does not have their franchise quarterback on their roster.
On the other hand, it is one of the most secure head coaching jobs in the league.
The ownership is not overbearing and opens the cheque book whenever necessary, the 2025 draft picks are plentiful and the NFC South is very winnable.
So Who Dat?
The NFL has strict rules around interviewing head coaches while the season is still in full swing.
Ben Johnson or Mike Vrabel never felt like a real possibility for New Orleans.
Aaron Glenn felt like a good fit but with his history with the New York Jets, it was always going to be a tough fight.
As we approach Super Bowl Sunday, the Saints are the only remaining team with a head coach vacancy.
Have the Saints been too slow in their search? Or is the one name remaining at the top of most lists the person they wanted in the first place?
Kellen Moore is looking like the most likely to land the job. Out of all the potential candidates at the end of the regular season, only one of them can claim to be fighting for a Super Bowl this weekend.
He is also not a residual piece from the Sean Payton / Drew Brees era. A clean house is something for which fans have been crying out since 2022.
As offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles, Moore has had an impressive season. Having Saquon Barkley and a dual-threat quarterback in Jalen Hurts surely makes things easier but he has built the offense around his strength pieces.
He has called the right plays at the right time. Both will be music to the ears of New Orleans fans who are often left baffled at play calls and schemes that do not exploit the best players on the team.
2025 and Beyond
There are already many mock drafts being put together to show what a 2025 Kellen Moore-led team could look like.
There is speculation about how much control the head coach will get in the draft.
Will General Manager Mickey Loomis still have final say or even overrule head coach decisions in the process?
The Saints have not drafted particularly well in recent years and fans will be hoping this hire can take control and turn start building for the future in April.
A serious rebuild is looming and cannot really be avoided any longer.
At 36 years old, Moore has only seven seasons of coaching experience in the NFL. This would be his first head coaching position. But New Orleans was Sean Payton’s first head coaching role too.
We all know how that went.
