New Orleans Saints Should Make Pete Carmichael Interim Coach

As I suspected when the whole storyline began, Bill Parcells will likely not be roaming the sidelines as head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2012, according to ESPN.

While it made sense to me that Saints head coach Sean Payton would reach out to Parcells, I never really thought that the upside was there for Parcells to come out of retirement.

With that possibility seemingly out of the way, speculation turns to who Payton and the Saints will have running the show while Payton starts serving his yearlong suspension, beginning April 16th. 

Initial reports from ESPN's Chris Mortensen indicate that assistant head coach Joe Vitt is Payton's likely replacement—at least until he starts serving his own six-game suspension at the conclusion of the preseason. 

Under normal circumstances, I would understand turning to Vitt. Just last year, he spent a portion of the season performing head coaching duties while Payton recovered from a broken leg.

But circumstances are less than normal here. To me, it makes no sense to turn to Vitt starting next week and then to someone else for nearly half of the regular season, only to go back to Vitt after six games. 

While there has been some speculation that the Saints would turn to new Saints defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who obviously has recent head coaching experience, it makes much more sense to name offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael the interim coach in Payton's absence, for the entire year. 

For one, Carmichael is available for the entire process. Saints players would be answering to one voice for the duration of the season, instead of going through the offseason listening to one message only to switch for six games to another voice.

Football players are extremely strong creatures of habit—a singular, strong message is what they need.

Secondly, Carmichael has been with the team and with Payton since 2006, when he first came on board coaching the team's quarterbacks before being made offensive coordinator in 2009.

The Saints go as Drew Brees goes, this year more than ever, and having the coach he has spent more time with than any other outside of Payton would go a long way in maintaining continuity on the offensive side of the ball as well as keeping a familiar face in front of the team, rather than thrusting a newcomer like Spagnuolo into the position. 

It may be that Vitt has indicated to Payton that he would be less than thrilled with returning from suspension to have to essentially answer to Carmichael, but that's obviously just speculation. 

The Saints have a little over a week before their offseason program starts. While I don't think naming Vitt as interim coach would be a devastating blow by any means, I think Carmichael makes a hell of a lot more sense.