With one game remaining in the postseason, the New Orleans Saints are the only team still searching for a head coach. With multiple candidates giving them the cold shoulder, and a winter storm that led to a pause in the search, the Saints are left choosing from the candidates that six other teams passed on.
That doesn’t mean New Orleans won’t end up with a really good coach, or someone that they initially wanted from the jump. In fact, the belief is that the Saints will ultimately hire someone who was among their top candidates when they first started their search.
NFL insider Adam Schefter appeared on SportsCenter on Monday, and reported that Mike McCarthy is the name a lot of people around the league expect to be hired by the Saints.
"If we go back to the start of this hiring cycle, most people looked at the New Orleans Saints job and figured that the two names that figure prominently in their search would be Aaron Glenn and Mike McCarthy… I think a lot of people around the league still look to Mike McCarthy as a name that would make a lot of sense in New Orleans. I think right now, he is certainly a favorite, if not the favorite, for the job. But they are still going through their process and we will see how it plays out here in the days to come."Adam Schefter (ESPN)
Adam Schefter says Mike McCarthy makes a lot of sense for the Saints
According to Schefter, Aaron Glenn and Mike McCarthy were always the top two candidates for the Saints. With Glenn now the head coach of the New York Jets, and all other head coaching spots filled, the Saints have a clear path to hiring McCarthy if that’s what both sides want.
This report is consistent with what’s been reported since McCarthy became available after his contract with the Dallas Cowboys expired. The Saints and the Chicago Bears were the two teams that immediately expressed interest in the veteran head coach. However, the Saints are still interviewing other candidates, so it doesn’t quite seem like McCarthy is a done deal just yet.
If he is the guy New Orleans really wants, it’s time to hire him and move on to the next part of the offseason, because the Saints have a lot of other work to do.