5 potential head coach replacements if Sean Payton leaves
1. Dennis Allen
If Sean Payton leaves, Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen should get the job assuming he doesn’t go elsewhere. To this point, Allen has had just one interview and it came over the weekend with the Bears.
Allen has previous head coaching experience and it didn’t go well for him, as he won just eight games during three seasons with the Oakland Raiders from 2012-2014. Allen was fired after going 0-4 in the 2014 season and then returned to New Orleans.
Would be pretty ideal for the #Saints to promote Dennis Allen to head coach if Payton does walk away. I'm sure they'd hate to lose Allen to another team https://t.co/ZPP5QxLi5x
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 23, 2022
Allen stepped in for Payton this season when the Saints head coach had to miss the Sunday night game in Tampa due to testing positive for COVID-19 and it resulted in a 9-0 shutout victory. Allen took the reigns against one of the toughest teams in the NFL and his defense shut out the opponent.
That right there was an audition for a head coaching vacancy but so far only the Bears have shown interest. Perhaps Allen’s previous head coaching tenure is scaring teams away but that was nearly a decade ago. If Payton leaves, he feels like a lock to take over.
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Hopefully, this speculation is all for naught and Sean Payton remains the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. If he does call it a career, however, these coaches are options for NOLA.