Transcript of Saints Fire Dennis Allen: Where Do They Go From Here?

Back on NFL Daily. Excited for this conversation. Not sure how this conversation is going to go. I'm looking across the city of Los Angeles at my friend Adam. I'm looking across the country at my friend Ryan from the Saints Block Party podcast. Yes, some of the most frequent guests of this season. They were on after week two when We were talking about Super Bowl aspirations for this Saints team. They were on after Sean Payton dug about 4 feet of the grave for Dennis Allen. And now we're here after, yes, Dennis Allen has been fired by the Saints, and there's no one I wanted to talk about this transaction with more Adam. You look too happy for another man's downfall. I'm not going to say it's Mardi Gras for you all, but it's like Lundi Gras. It's like the day before.

He's getting You made $7 million a year with a 26 and 53 head coaching record. Respectfully, I do not care. I don't care, Greg. I don't care.

Okay. When you heard the news, obviously, it couldn't have been too shocking coming off of that performance against Carolina. We've buried Dennis Allen enough. That's not fun to do at this point. You mentioned his record. Yeah, that's 147th out of 149 qualifying coaches in terms of all-time winning percentage. Now, most of that was with the Raiders, but he was 18 and 25 with the Lions, which is not great. We can move past it. Look, this is a man who coached up a lot of good defenses for the Saints as a coordinator, but he's the ultimate Peter Principal, head coach in the NFL, good coordinator, bad head coach. We get it. Big picture. They named Darren Rizzie the interim, but I think there was a lot of interesting takeaways from how this transaction was messaged and some of the reporting that's come out about it. Where do you want to start?

Let's start with the two biggest things I found so interesting is that Gail Benson has woken up. For the last two weeks, she has essentially not been listening to Mickey Loomis and what he's been telling her, how the team is doing, how he's been telling her how Dennis Allen is doing as the head coach. She went out and talked to players on the side, talked to personnel people on the side to get their thoughts and opinions on Dennis Allen. It seems like she is no longer listening to, I won't say the lies, but maybe the fluffing that Mickey Loomis was doing. She is trying to be an active owner because as much as she may not be a sports person, no one who has a product wants to continually have their product be seen and look embarrassing. Losing to the Panthers, one of the worst teams in the NFL, for in the last three seasons was embarrassing. She also made the call to relieve Dennis Allen of his duties. This was not a Mickey Loomis call. The second thing to tie into that, the people that addressed the team after D. Will was told to the team that Dennis Allen was let go was Foster Monroe and Darren Rizzie.

Why would the NFL general manager of a team not address the team when this happened? Why was he not there front and center of the press conference? And Darren Rizzie is out there. He's going to have his spot on WWL. But I'm not saying Mickey Loomis is going to get relieved of his duties, but there's something happening within that building on airline Drive, and it's just not I believe the Dennis Allen part of it is just the start of it.

What do you think, Ryan?

100 %. He's 100 % right. It's refreshing to see that Gail Vincent is alive, though, because look, she She's been the owner for a couple of years now since time bits and pass. Nobody really knew how she would move in this situation because she hasn't had to really make any moves. Mickey Loomis has been the de facto manager, owner of the team He's the one that made all the move. She's been encapsulated with her circle. So nobody really knew. We were covering this last night. We were wondering what did Dennisale gets fired. And we thought, look, if he were to get fired after this Panthers game, it would have to be a Gael Vincent call. Would she make that call? And she did. She got out there and she talked to the players personally. She went around Mickey Loomis, and I think that just speaks, it says so much just right there. It just shows that there's a level of trust that's decreasing just a little bit. Not a lot, but just a little bit as far as running the organization, because Dennis Allen was his guy.

Right. So let's back it up for a second. Mickey Loomis has I've been with the Saints organization since 2000.

So he precedes Sean Payton.

He precedes Gael Benson. Now, you mentioned Gail Benson has only been the owner of the team for so many years. I think Tom Benson died in 2018. I was actually, weirdly, on NFL Network, on call all that week to talk about Tom Benson's legacy. I read the book Jeff Duncan wrote about Tom Benson, just to be ready for that moment. What? So weird, because they just knew I was a and they didn't have anyone. Very weird. So she's on the team for six years. And look, they were married since 2004. So you could say she doesn't have a sports background, but she's been in this game for a while. Now, we don't need to get into the whole story of how she became the owner. There were lawsuits between her side and Tom Benson and his daughter from a previous marriage and her kids. And ultimately, in his will, the team was left to her. So she is the active owner. And to me, this is her first real test as the active owner, because when Sean Payton essentially quit, The idea was, let's just keep it rolling. Let's keep it rolling with Mickey Loomis.

Let's not upset the apple cart. Dennis Allen has a good defense. Let's just keep it going. And everyone decided to do that. And now the question, as you guys said, was, was Is she actually going to make a move on her own? And I want to read the statement that Mickey Loomis released on Monday. His statement read, Dennis Allen is an excellent football coach. This season, we have had an avalanche of injuries. It took its toll. Dennis Allen never offered excuses. He fought each day for his organization and this team. And that's what makes today disappointing. Dennis has been an integral part of this organization's success. For the better part of 20 years, he will be missed. I I never heard a GM release a statement like that. That felt like he was upset. When you're saying that she contacted the players directly, there's been various reporting. Nick Underhill at New Orleans Football has reported that. It's been out there in different places, New Orleans Times, Pickeyeun, different versions of this story that, yes, the players were involved. And that's crazy. And that tells me that Mickey Mickey Loomis is probably not long for this job.

But every Saints fan, Adam, tells me I'm wrong. Every Saints fan is like, No, they're never going to get rid of Mickey Loomis. It's never going to happen. I think when an owner does a move like this, it's a sign that she's open to anything.

Going on to And then, on with that, I've heard not only was Gail Benson canvassing information for players on Dennis Allen, I also heard that she was canvassing information on Mickey Loomis from players, from personnel. And when you're doing that, I'm not saying it's going to lead to something, but the structure, the crumbles, and the fractures of trust is definitely there. I felt like Mickey Loomis, to use a Game of Thrones For me, that was a reference. Mickey Loomis was like Little Finger to Gael Benson. He would go, just lies, job preservation, job preservation. At some point, Sansa comes to her senses and just like, No, sorry, just completely just nerdy Game of Thrones talk. But came to her senses like, No, you are not I don't want to hear it from you because I know you're lying to me. It feels like that's in motion right now within the team hierarchy. And going back to that statement you just read, I was confused. Was Dennis Allen fired or was he promoted? It's such a weird It was a weird statement. What?

It was almost a defiant statement. Yes. The way it was read.

It was. And this is a defiant guy. It's a defiant organization. Look, they stood behind Mickey and Sean Payton through Bounty Gate as hard as they possibly could. Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton, look, he was the best man at his wedding. And Sean Payton goes, they stood behind Mickey Loomis. This is a man that helped run the New Orleans Pelicans. It does on some level still, but was on a more day-to-day level. So it's a very fascinating organization to me in terms of how it's run, but it was absolutely defiant. And this is a guy, Mickey Loomis, for what For what it's worth, we want to talk GM records, 46 and 61 without Sean Payton at Coach. And one of the reasons I bring all this up, and maybe this is getting too nerdy for our listeners, but I think it's really interesting, is there is no way for this organization to move forward, to me, unless it's a total restart. Because the way they've done things in terms of pushing all that cap money into the future, and Derek Carr has a lot of money next year, and there's a lot of contracts in our next year, and there's a lot of old players on this roster, I think it only makes sense to start over with a fresh front office and a fresh restart, and a group that's going to be willing to maybe feel some short term pain.

It might be a year or two. It might not be. Some of the teams with huge dead cap money have been very successful, including the Broncos right now, but a team that's really willing to rip the bandaid off. And to me, keeping the same guy that's run the team, Ryan, since 2000, how could that be a fresh start?

Exactly. I mean, you got to make a move. Will he get fired or will he move into another position within the organization? I don't care. I don't care how they do it. But something needs to happen. There needs to be a large organizational change. They need to rip the bandaid off. The CapNerds have been screaming about it for years. The Saints keep kicking their hand down the road. I hate that analysis, but to be in a situation like this where we're picking top five, looking like we're going to pick top five in the draft and use 75 million over the camp next year. That is just terrible business.

That's just terrible. Right. To Gail Benson's credit, they've been spending more money in the last five, six years in terms of cash than they actually used to back under Tom Benson. It's quite a history because when you think about it, Sean Payton helped get Mickey Loomis fired. They could really write... This is some telenovela stuff. You know what I mean? It's all mixed up. And look, everyone's got a little egg on their face. I went back and listened to that Week 2 show just for fun this afternoon because I got to admit, I was looking for a sound bite where I could clown you all and play something funny or myself.

We stand by it.

You know what? It was more composed than I thought. You guys went way harder on your podcast, on Saint's Black Party, than on mine. That was where Ryan really hit it when you guys talking about Kendre Miller. When you said, Kendre Miller was the difference. When Adam asked, Are we Super Bowl contenders or not? Ryan answered, Well, if Kendre Miller comes back healthy. Kendre, you're taking it, baby. That's the group.

Oh, man.

No one could take weeks. You did say they were the best O-line in the league. It's just as a reminder how seasons can change fast because they were 2-0 scoring all these points. We thought it was maybe going to be a Derek Carr renaissance. Instead, Instead, Derek Carr and his coach have a interesting statistical factoid that Dennis Allen is the only coach to ever be fired in two places with the same quarterback. He got back?Unbelievable. Before the show, we were talking about, the Saints should get Arch Manning in a few years, which would be interesting. I don't know if you know this fact, Adam. Derek Carr this last weekend tied Archie Manning for losing to the most organizations in the NFL. 31. 31. So I don't know who's the 32nd. I'll have to find out. The Raiders. Okay. The cars. Yeah, the cars could... He could break that record at some point. But I don't know if you all can wait around long enough to get Arch Manning. That's a while.

It's a while. It's a while. I will say this. From what I heard this morning, after all everything happened, the Saints have their eyes set on either Detroit coordinator, which is funny because Aaron Glenn interviewed for the job when Sean Payton stepped down, and I was told he blew the Saints organization away for how well he interviewed. It sounds very coded. I think they interviewed him as a Rooney checkmark and was like, Oh, he actually might be a good head coach. They're interested in Ben Johnson. They're interested in Aaron Glenn. They're interested in Mike Drable. They're going to see how it goes with Darren Rizzie as interim head coach. Just as a fan, I'm just happy to hear those names. Does that mean that they're going to land any of those names? Who knows? But it just needs to shift away from… You got to let the past be the past, and you have to evolve, you have to move on. This is the first step into that. But we keep You keep saying if Mickey Loomis is part of it, it's hard to let go of the past when he's such a prevalent part of the past.

Exactly. Because one of the big reasons the Saints have such a bad salary cap issue, and the Saints aren't as talented as they were, is the drafting. The drafting has been horrible the past couple of years. Ezea Fawzia, second-round pick. Brian Buzzi, who looks good, but maybe hasn't lived up. Oh, my God. You can go on and on for days. They have to take a look at what they're doing, the way they're building this team, and really start back fresh at the table and continue to build up from the foundation, because Because right now, the foundation is just crumbling.

It's tough. They're in as tough a situation as any team outside of Cleveland, I would say, right now in the NFL. But they're there. But things can change fast. We have seen in the NFL, if you get the right coach, certainly the right quarterback, you can be rolling in year two. So it doesn't have to be some really long rebuild. But yeah, Derek Carr doing that Michael Jackson move in the end zone while you were in the crowd in Dallas, that feels like a long time ago.

Dennis Allen after the game, dropping some Kendrick Lamar lyrics. Eight-way game since.

Not a game since.

Man, the NFL season is long. Speaking of which, Darren Rizzie has got to coach eight games here. Our friend Randy Chávez cut some sound bites from Darren Rizzi. He was their special teams coach. I love the sound of him at his press conference. Let's listen to a couple of answers that he had.

Listen, they should be pissed off. I'm The fans should be pissed off. The people of New Orleans, the people of Louisiana, no one should be happy. I think this city deserves a winner. They know what winning football looks like. It's our job to bring that back. There's a bunch of different ways to do it. I think we've been doing things around here the same way for a long, long time. Maybe some are good, maybe some aren't. We can make some changes. But there'll be some different things that we do for sure.

We've been doing things the same for a long, long time. That was good. This could be fun. I don't know if you guys remember the Joe Vitt era, but he's given me some Joe Vitt vibes. I love a fiery Special Teams interim head coach, like what Dan Campbell was the interim head coach in Miami. He's got to give you guys some fire. It was fun. You got the Falcons coming up, Ryan. This is like your Super Bowl.

The Raider Special Teams coach for a little bit.

Visacia. He was.

There you go. I've been calling Rizzo my interim head coach for weeks now because I knew this day was coming. And he just exude that. He does. He just gets his head coach, just gets the team hyped up for two games. You go and win two and then lose the rest. That's all we're doing. You know what I'm saying? That's the most we're going to get. And that's fine with me. Let's not win too much here. Let's not win too much here. Maybe get a top five pick. I hate that type of thinking, just losing to get picks. But look, man, this is where we are. You know what I'm saying?

But you want to win Sunday, right? This This is not Super Bowl. It's like the Patriots Jets game two weeks ago. That was the Patriots Super Bowl. They just wanted to drag down their rivals into the mud with them. Tell me it wouldn't be fun. I know our friend Spicerack, Brad Spicer, is out here with the fired coach principal. He's going to be believing in your Saints. They're going to be playing hard. When I saw some of those quotes from Honey Badger and Alvin Kamara- Players are already having Rizzie shirts.

They have Rizzie shirts on them.

Karl Granderson is putting up Instagram posts of walking into... I feel bad for Dennis Allen at this point.

Please don't. Here's the crazy part of it. Yes, we want to beat the Falcons, and that is huge. This is, our Super Bowl. But I want to point out to another little thing in the Derrick Rizzi thing, and I don't feel like I'm reading too much into it. When he was asked, the teams have two young quarterbacks on the roster. Could they see them getting looked at them for evaluation for the future. And he said, I envision Derek Carr being the starter for us on Sunday. He did not go further than that. It was on Sunday. So I do think if the season continues to go how it has been, maybe they beat the Falcons, maybe they lose a cluster of games, at some point, you have to see what you have in Rattler in a better situation with Tana in a better situation because you're going to be comparing these guys and you're going to compare them and grading them how of this upcoming quarterback class, the Kam Warrant, the Sanders, the Quin yours, because you have to know, Do we need to draft one in the top five or do we feel like we can go BPA, and maybe we could go with who we have in the building?

It's a crucial question that they have to know going into the offseason.

Man, I don't feel like they're going to get a good situation for them to play with, and I don't think either of these quarterbacks really have a chance, talent-wise, makeup-wise, to be able to Excel in the situation to change any of their draft plans. It's tough. It doesn't mean they can't be in the mix next year, and you never know. But I have a hard time believing no matter what Spencer Rattler does this season, that it's going to impact their draft status. But you never know. Sometimes things get freaky with interim head coaches. Sometimes they get him winning. Maybe it'll be fun. Let's actually listen to one more Rizzie sound before we go. This one, Randy flagged, and it just cracked me out.

Lebron can drop 60. J. R. Smith can go 2 for 21 like he normally did. And LeBron could... They're still going to win.

I heard that earlier, and I was like, J. R. Smith getting just shots?

For what? I think he was saying the stars can play well, but if your role players aren't playing well, then it's not going to matter. But he stumbled on it. He was talking Aaron Judge, but that's what I like about interim coaches. You never know what they're going to say. They're going to be media-trained. I appreciate you guys. It really feels like this was our Star Wars trilogy of the Saint Sees. Maybe it's the Godfather trilogy because the third one is just like, it's not going right. But we got the highs. We got an emotional loss to Dashaun Payton, and here we are with big changes. I appreciate you guys. Big changes.

Thank you for having us all, man.

That's Ryan and Adam from the Saints Block Party podcast. Everyone, check out their show. That's it for this one. We're going to be back very soon. It's Trade Deadline. We're going to put up the show a little earlier. Me, Mike Gareffolo, Jordan Rodrie, responding to all the Trade Deadline. Those will come up on Tuesday. And yeah, when the Saints are making big old changes, you know football is back.