During Darren Rizzi’s first press conference as interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints, it was immediately clear he wasn’t in the position to just go through the motions. Rizzi will try his best to get the season turned around for New Orleans, and in his attempt to do that, he made it clear there will be changes to how the team does things. Many of those changes have already taken place.
One thing Rizzi has changed is the set up of the locker room, restoring it to it’s pre-covid layout, when players were grouped by position. In an effort to prevent entire position groups from being taken out by illness, the locker room had everyone spread out all over. However, the team never went back to the position group arrangement until now.
As for the rationale, Rizzi explained that he’s preaching unity, and he wants guys to bond together. Additionally, he wants everyone to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Of course, there was also a shake up to the coaching staff. Dennis Allen was the defensive play caller, and Rizzi was the special teams coordinator. With both of them moving, they had to be replaced. The team hired Marwan Maalouf as a special teams assistant coach, and moved Todd Grantham from the defensive line coach to a defensive assistant to help defensive coordinator Joe Woods, who’s going to call plays. Pass rush specialist Brian Young will takeover the defensive line.
Rizzi on the coaching staff changes he made ⚜️ pic.twitter.com/dSQU2ynhx4
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) November 6, 2024
The most eye-popping change, though, is the team implementing an activation period. Prior to stretching before practice, there’s a warm up process to get guys loose. Previously, this activation period was optional, but Rizzi is now making it mandatory.
darren rizzi says they've added an "activation period" before practice to help prevent players from getting hurt pic.twitter.com/yMXCVtsqYQ
— Trace (@yfntrace) November 6, 2024
It’s pretty obvious why this has become mandatory: the Saints have been struggling with injuries. That’s also why it’s a bit surprising the team wasn’t already doing this. You’d think a team that is battling health issues like New Orleans would be doing everything possible to stay healthy.
At 2-7, obviously the Saints weren’t doing a lot of the things they should've been doing. Hopefully, these changes implemented by Rizzi will lead to some wins.