Dennis Allen was unable to coach due to a serious injury.
Saints general manager Mickey Loomis cited an “unusual” number of injuries that led to a 2-7 start as the reason the Saints fired their head coach on Monday.
New Orleans is on a seven-game losing streak, with 10 players on injured reserve and three on the reserve/PUP list. According to the team's website.
“I think Dennis Allen is a great football coach.” Loomis said Tuesday on WWL Radio.. “I think everyone who talks about him in our league thinks he's a great football coach, he really is. In this case, I think the circumstances created the record. That's just the truth. , a lot of people don't want to hear that.”
Furthermore, he added: “What comes right back to us is that we've had a crazy amount of injuries, including quarterbacks, and we haven't been able to overcome that. The pressure and stress on the organization and ultimately… That caused the change.”
The Saints opened the season with big wins over the Panthers and Cowboys, but then played poorly and found themselves in contention for the No. 1 pick.
Sunday's 23-22 loss to the lowly Panthers marked rock bottom for the once-proud franchise.
As Loomis noted, teams have struggled to keep their star players on the field this season.
Quarterback Derek Carr missed three games and hasn't played well even when healthy since Week 2, while receiver Chris Olave suffered multiple concussions.
The Saints are also without offensive linemen Shane Lemieux, Eric McCoy and Ryan Ramczyk, while rising receiver Rashid Shahid was recently placed on injured reserve.
Loomis disagreed with the idea that Allen coached an undisciplined football team and denied a recent Nola.com article that alleged players parked in the wrong spots. As a sign of lack of concentration.
He added that he has no doubts about the efforts of the coaches and players.
“It says some ridiculous things like players not parking in the right spots. I mean, it's ridiculous,” Loomis said. “Players have been parking there for the last 15 years. We have 100 more employees than we did 10 years ago because of the construction work going on. It's just stupid and we need to discipline it. It is also foolish to equate it with
“So going into this last game, we had the eighth-fewest penalties in the league. That's more of a comment on discipline than where players park for crying out loud.”
Special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi was named interim manager, and Loomis tried to aid the rebuild by sending cornerback Marshon Lattimore to the helm on Tuesday.
He said the team will not be actively searching for a coach with nine weeks remaining in the regular season.
“There's plenty of time for that once the season is over,” Loomis said. “We have to focus on our team, our players, our coaches, our staff. We need to focus on our peers and the people we work with in times of adversity more than when things are going well. Learn more about what there is.
Furthermore, he added: “This is adversity. This is tough. … We've got to get up off the mat and show some fight, and that goes for everyone in this building. So what we can do in the next eight weeks. I’m going to take a look.”
