Dennis Allen continues to get disrespected in new head coach rankings
The New Orleans Saints have a new head coach this year and his name is Dennis Allen. He’s not getting much respect entering his first year as the Saints’ head honcho.
In a shocking turn of events, Sean Payton announced he’d be stepping away from the New Orleans Saints‘ head coach position. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was promoted to the head coaching spot and he’s not getting much respect from outsiders.
Brandon Danaher of NFL Spin Zone ranked all of the new NFL head coaches and put Allen second to last on his list with only Lovie Smith ranked lower. Here’s what Danaher had to say:
"Dennis Allen led a feared New Orleans defense last season who had to carry the slack on an offense that struggled to put points on the board without quarterback Drew Brees.Allen inherited a mess in terms of both salary cap issues, an unexpected departure of head coach Sean Payton, legal troubles with star running back Alvin Kamara, and a giant question mark at the quarterback position."
Danaher also goes into detail about Allen’s failed tenure with the Raiders and how the team gave up too much to move up to acquire Chris Olave. He said that if Olave doesn’t live up to the hype, Allen might be unemployed after the season is over.
Allen’s Raiders tenure certainly doesn’t do him any favors (he won just eight games from 2012 to early 2014 when he was fired after an 0-4 start) but a lot of time has passed since then. Allen got to work with Sean Payton for seven years after his time in Oakland didn’t pan out and he obviously can take what he learned from Payton and apply that to his new situation.
Dennis Allen isn’t getting any love amongst new head coaches
The salary cap issues that Danaher touches on really aren’t that bad. The team was able to clear up a lot of cap space and that helped them sign both Tyrann Mathieu and Jarvis Landry. Allen has made moves this offseason that has put the team in a position to be competitive this year.
As mentioned above, Allen’s stint with the Raiders works against him and people simply are writing him off because he’s yet another coaching retread. It’s been eight years since Allen was a head coach though and surely he’s learned a thing or two about why things didn’t work out in Oakland.
Hopefully, he can make Danaher eat his words.
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