The New Orleans Saints have hired within in replacing head coach Sean Payton, who resigned on January 27. On Monday, New Orleans announced that their defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen of Atlanta, Georgia, would be the new bench boss according to the Associated Press.
This is the second time that Allen would have been a National Football League head coach. He was with the Oakland Raiders from 2012 to 2014. In that time, Allen posted a record of eight wins and 28 losses.
Allen has been a veteran assistant coach in the NFL over the last two decades. He was with the Atlanta Falcons as their defensive quality control coordinator (2002-03), and then as their defensive assistant (2004-05). Following his time in Atlanta, Allen joined the Saints for the first time as their assistant defensive line coach (2006-07) and their secondary coach (2008-10). He then was the defensive co-ordinator for the Denver Broncos in 2011 before his promotion in Oakland.
Since Allen was fired by the Raiders, he was rehired as the Saints senior defensive assistant in 2015, and then was named their defensive co-ordinator when New Orleans fired Rob Ryan during the 2015 season.
When Ryan was fired, the Saints had the worst defense in the NFL. Now with Allen in charge, they have made steady improvement over the years. In 2021, the Saints only gave up 335 points, in fact the least number of points in the National Football Conference. The only three teams that gave up fewer points than the Saints were the Buffalo Bills (289 points), New England Patriots (303 points), and the Denver Broncos (322 points).
