Allen says he expects to return as Saints’ coach

METAIRIE, La. — Dennis Allen said Monday he expects to remain the New Orleans Saints‘ head coach in 2024.

“That is my expectation, yes,” he said in his end-of-season news conference.

The Saints went 9-8 under Allen this season and finished second in the NFC South but did not make the postseason for the third straight year. Allen, who had a three-season stint as head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 2012 to 2014, is 24-46 as a head coach overall and is 16-18 in his two seasons as Saints head coach.

“Obviously it hasn’t been good enough,” Allen said. “Obviously as the head coach the last two years, 7-10, 9-8, it’s not what we aspire to be here. So, I have to do a better job, and I accept that responsibility.”

Allen said he has not sat down and discussed the future with Saints general manager Mickey Loomis but will likely do so at some point this week. Allen said there haven’t been any decisions made regarding changes on his staff and won’t speculate publicly as to what those could be.

“We have to look at, what do we need to change?” Allen said. “And I’m not going to go into any of those details in terms of what changes will occur. But there’s things that have to be different. And so, I think that’s part of what we have to do this offseason as an organization.”

Allen said he didn’t spend the season worrying about his job status or that he was under the impression the team needed to hit a certain bar this year to keep his job.

“We’ve got enough to worry about just getting ready for the next opponent and how we’re going to get our team ready to play,” Allen said, “Anything else that you’re worried about or paying attention to is just a distraction the keeps you from being able to do the best job that you can do. … Control the things you can control. I control how I come to work every day, the mindset that I bring to work every day and the amount of effort and intensity I put into it. I control how the message is [delivered] to the team and what we’re doing from a schematic standpoint.

“Any decisions that are made outside of that are out of my control. And so, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about those things. I understand this is a production-based business. I’ve been in this business a long time. So yeah, to say I worried about it, no, but I do understand it’s a production-based business.”

Allen said the Saints weren’t consistent enough and had some close games that they didn’t give themselves the best chance to win. They began the season without running back Alvin Kamara, who was suspended for three games, and ended it without wide receiver Michael Thomas, cornerback Marshon Lattimore and right tackle Ryan Ramczyk because of injuries.

Quarterback Derek Carr left three games with an injury — one to his shoulder, and two where he went into concussion protocol — but did not miss a start.

“It was the hardest year, physically, for me,” Carr said on Sunday. “You can’t say that when you’re going through it because it looks really bad. Now that it’s at the end, I do feel much better. The last few weeks I didn’t get hit so I couldn’t re-injure anything, and the swelling is getting better.”

Over the course of the season, the Saints also saw wide receiver Chris Olave arrested for speeding and reckless driving and Thomas arrested on misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and simple battery after throwing a brick at someone’s windshield.

Carr faced criticism for several emotional instances caught on camera, including a spat with center Erik McCoy, an exchange that appeared to show him yelling at offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael and another exchange where he was seen yelling at Olave after Olave pulled up on a route.

Allen was asked whether he found the amount of criticism directed at him and Carr this season to be fair. Allen said he doesn’t pay attention to outside criticism directed at himself but defended Carr’s play this season and said he got too much of the blame.

“No, I don’t think it’s fair the amount of criticism that Derek Carr got. He’s one element of 11 guys that were out there on the field. And I don’t think everybody ever really fully understands what goes in inside an NFL building and what needs to happen to have success,” Allen said. “I thought Derek Carr played well this year and I thought in particular over the stretch run, when we had to have it to give ourselves a chance, I thought he played some of his best football. So, I’m excited about Derek being our quarterback moving forward for sure.”

Carr and the offense struggled to score consistently early in the season and weren’t consistent in the red zone for the first part of the year. Carr finished 13th in the league in passing yards (3,878), 10th in passing touchdowns (25), 12th in interceptions (8) and 14th in times sacked (31).

Carr threw 14 of those touchdowns in the last five games. His passing yards total was the highest for a Saints quarterback since Drew Brees threw for 3,992 yards in 2018 and the most touchdowns in a season since Brees had 27 in 2019.

“We went out and got Derek Carr because we felt like he was a good fit for our organization, for our team,” Allen said. “And I believe that he was. And I believe that he is. I believe that the more that he gets an opportunity to work with a lot of these young skill players, the more that we’re going to improve from an offensive standpoint.”