{"id":182280,"date":"2025-07-05T01:57:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T01:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/182280\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T01:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T01:57:20","slug":"saints-fire-coach-dennis-allen-darren-rizzi-named-interim-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/182280\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints fire coach Dennis Allen; Darren Rizzi named interim coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 The New Orleans Saints fired coach Dennis Allen on Monday, a day after a loss at last-place Carolina<\/a> extended the Saints\u2019 losing streak to seven games \u2014 their longest since 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201cDA is an excellent football coach,\u201d Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said. \u201cThis season, we\u2019ve had an avalanche of injuries. It took its toll. DA has never offered excuses. He fought each day for this organization and this team and that is what makes today disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saints named special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi the club\u2019s interim coach for the final eight games of what is trending toward a fourth straight season without a playoff berth for New Orleans (2-7).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a day for celebration,\u201d Rizzi said. \u201cThis is a tough day. At the same time, there\u2019s only one way to fight through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old Rizzi said he embraced the challenge he\u2019s inherited because \u201cI embrace everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI only know how to do things one way. I grew up a little bit of a fighter. I\u2019ve really never really been handed anything,\u201d Rizzi said, noting that he was a walk-on tight end in college at Rhode Island, an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1992 and got his first head coaching job with Division II New Haven in 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally, we\u2019re going to reevaluate everything,\u201d said Rizzi, who considers himself a disciple of two-time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Parcells, who was a Miami Dolphins executive when he gave Rizzi his first NFL job.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to reevaluate everybody, everything, staff, the coaches the players,\u201d Rizzi said. \u201cBecause, right now, when you lose seven games in a row, you\u2019re obviously not in a place where you can stay status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen went 18-25 without a playoff appearance since taking over in 2022 after Sean Payton, the most successful coach in Saints history, began what turned out to be a one-season retirement from coaching.<\/p>\n

Allen was promoted by Loomis after a six-season tenure as New Orleans\u2019 defensive coordinator, a period that saw his unit ranked in the top 10 in the NFL in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cDennis has been a part of our organization for many years,\u201d Saints owner Gayle Benson said, referring to Allen\u2019s initial stint as a defensive assistant with New Orleans from 2006 to 2010. \u201cHe has been extremely loyal and professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this makes today very tough for me and our organization,\u201d Benson added. \u201cHowever, this decision is something that I felt we needed to make at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a written statement released by the team, Allen thanked Benson and Loomis for his opportunity, calling the Saints an \u201corganization that will always be near and dear to my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen said he never questioned his players\u2019 dedication and resolve, adding, \u201cI am sorry the results weren\u2019t better, because they were certainly deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saints continued to field one of the better defenses in the NFL during Allen\u2019s first two seasons as head coach, but the offense has been erratic and often struggled in the late stages of close games.<\/p>\n

This year, with new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak in charge, the offense began the season by scoring a stunning 91 points during consecutive victories in Weeks 1 and 2. Since then, however, the unit has struggled to produce while injuries to key players have mounted.<\/p>\n

Center Erik McCoy, the Saints\u2019 most accomplished offensive lineman, was the first to go down in Week 3 and hasn\u2019t played since. Meanwhile, New Orleans has endured stints without quarterback Derek Carr, top receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed and veteran guard Cesar Ruiz, among others.<\/p>\n

New Orleans entered Sunday\u2019s loss to the Panthers without three of its top four cornerbacks on defense: Marshon Lattimore, Paulson Adebo and Kool-Aid McKinstry.<\/p>\n

But Carr was back from a three-game absence.<\/p>\n

The Saints outgained the Panthers 427 yards to 246 yet still lost, 23-22 \u2014 to a team it had beaten 47-10 in Week 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Allen went 7-10 in his first season with the Saints and improved to 9-8 last year, narrowly missing the playoffs. Allen hoped that with a new offense, New Orleans would improve enough to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020 \u2014 which also was franchise all-time passer Drew Brees\u2019 final NFL season.<\/p>\n

But since its strong opening two weeks, New Orleans\u2019 offense has largely languished and dropped to 16th in yards per game (331.4) through Sunday\u2019s games.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s defense, meanwhile, has plummeted to 28th, allowing 376.4 yards per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t feel bad, something\u2019s probably wrong with you,\u201d safety Tyrann Mathieu said of how he expected Saints players to process Allen\u2019s firing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, we played probably the biggest role in him being fired,\u201d Mathieu added. \u201cThe way we didn\u2019t close out games. Tackling \u2014 that\u2019s kind of been an issue for us all season.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the 52-year-old Allen remains an accomplished defensive coordinator, his prospects for getting another head coaching position appear dim at best. He is now 26-53 as an NFL coach, including his 8-28 record with the Oakland Raiders from 2012-14.<\/p>\n

Allen thanked Saints fans for their \u201cunwavering passion and support of the team,\u201d saying he realized \u201cwhat a privilege it is to coach a special franchise in a great city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next steps<\/p>\n

Rizzi makes his debut in a head coaching role when New Orleans hosts the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons. A victory would pull the Saints within three games of Atlanta (6-3) with seven more to play.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 The New Orleans Saints fired coach Dennis Allen on Monday, a day after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[8897,7,565,5556,393,122,896,55,2572,2571,6,498,397,1813,9,1438,573],"class_list":{"0":"post-182280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-dennis-allen","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-la-state-wire","12":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","13":"tag-national-football-league","14":"tag-new-orleans","15":"tag-new-orleans-saints","16":"tag-neworleans","17":"tag-neworleanssaints","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-nfl-football","20":"tag-saints","21":"tag-sean-payton","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-sports-transactions","24":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114798149293867884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}