Dennis Allen Fired as Saints HC After Shock Loss to Bryce Young, Panthers

The New Orleans Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen on Monday, and special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi was named the team's interim head coach.

ESPN's Adam Schefter first reported the news.

The move comes after the Saints lost 23-22 to Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers, who are generally considered to be the NFL's worst team. It was New Orleans' seventh straight defeat after it opened the season 2-0.

Allen's seat was pretty warm coming into the year.

The Saints went 16-18 through his first two years, and his earlier tenure with the Oakland Raiders didn't offer a ton of encouragement about whether he could spark a big turnaround. The Raiders were 8-28 in his two-plus seasons.

Even if New Orleans won Sunday, Allen was probably on borrowed time by this point. Saints insider Nick Underhill reported that team owner Gayle Benson began meeting with players well ahead of the Panthers game "to get a feel for what was wrong."

Losing to Carolina was clearly a bridge too far. The result was bad enough for defensive linemen Cameron Jordan and Khalen Saunders to apologize to fans on social media:

As much as Allen's ouster is warranted, though, changing the coaches won't remedy all of the problems the franchise is facing.

The front office is reaping what it sowed in terms of its approach to the quarterback position.

Following Drew Brees' retirement after the 2020 season, New Orleans went with a pair of stopgaps in Jameis Winston and Andy Dalton in lieu of developing a draft pick. Spending $150 million on Derek Carr isn't proving to be much better than that approach.

Loomis' wizardry with the salary cap only lasts for so long, too. Every year, New Orleans' front office moved around enough money to stay under the cap and often make some big improvements.

Now, the team is in all likelihood going to miss the playoffs and carry a payroll into 2025 that's projected to be $77.4 million over the salary cap, per Spotrac.

Maybe it's time to consider wiping the entire slate clean from an organizational level.

At the very least, the Saints need to take a step back and rebuild for a year or two rather than keep trying to contend with steadily diminishing returns.

And that's not exactly a great sales pitch to prospective coaching candidates.