NFL Rumors: Dennis Allen fired as Saints HC after surprising loss to Bryce Young and Panthers | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the New Orleans Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen on Monday.

The move comes after the Saints lost 23-22 to Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers, widely considered the NFL's worst team. It was New Orleans' seventh straight loss after opening the season 0-2.

Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported that Saints special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi has been named the team's interim head coach.

The Saints went 16-18 in his first two years, and his previous tenure with the Oakland Raiders didn't offer much encouragement about whether he could engineer a major turnaround. The Raiders had an 8-28 record in his two-plus seasons.

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

The loss against 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:

Following the retirement of Drew Brees following the 2020 season, New Orleans opted for two stopgap options in Jameis Winston and Andy Dalton rather than developing a draft pick. expenditure 150 million dollars on Derek Carr turns out not to be much better than this approach.

Now the team will most likely miss the playoffs and have a payroll projected to be $77.4 million over the salary cap through 2025 Spotrac.

Maybe it's time to think about clearing the air at an organizational level.