{"id":692995,"date":"2026-01-21T05:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/692995\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:46:16","slug":"former-saints-safety-tyrann-mathieu-shares-locker-room-reaction-after-dennis-allens-firing-last-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/692995\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu shares locker room reaction after Dennis Allen\u2019s firing last season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL landscape today has been tough on coaches. Just two weeks out of the regular season, there have been 10 head coach openings. This offseason has shown teams are less likely to settle for anything but the best, with moves such as the departure of John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens to the Buffalo Bills\u2019 firing of Sean McDermott.<\/p>\n

The New Orleans Saints had to make a head coaching change themselves after their 2-7 start in 2024. As the season ended, the Saints began their head coaching search, and ultimately chose Kellen Moore after a Superbowl winning performance with the Philadelphia Eagles. Before Moore, the Saints were under long-time defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. While Allen wasn\u2019t able to find success in New Orleans as a head coach, he remained a respected defensive playcaller and quickly found a job with the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n

The firing was expected as tension grew in New Orleans and fans began to show less patience. While it ultimately came down to being the right move, the firing of a head coach, especially midseason, has plenty of ramifications that follow. Star defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, who retired before the start of the 2025 season, opened up on his podcast \u201cIn the Bayou<\/a>,\u201d about the Dennis Allen departure and how it affected the locker room. \u201cI didn\u2019t just play for myself or for my family. I played for my coaches and teammates too,\u201d Mathieu said. \u201cI remember I felt so bad for that. Because when a coach gets fired, as a player, you\u2019re somewhat responsible for that. You didn\u2019t make enough plays, maybe you didn\u2019t play hard enough, and obviously, you didn\u2019t win enough.<\/p>\n

Mathieu then mentions how he approached the team after hearing the news, \u201cI remember standing in front of the team, the defense, and I was like \u2018man, if y\u2019all don\u2019t feel bad about this, we\u2019re not in the right room.\u2019 If you don\u2019t feel like you just got fired too\u2026 you messed up in the head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s firing was the first time in Mathieu\u2019s career that he was a part of a head coaching change. The superstar safety opened up about his sympathies for the former Saints head coach, saying, \u201cIt really affected me. I was like, \u2018man, we just got this man fired.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saints look as if they are on the right track with Kellen Moore. After a wacky start to the year, the black and gold have found their identity and are looking to begin competing as soon as 2026. Despite the current projections, however, the reality of the NFL always shapes a locker room, and the rebuilding that has to be done after the significance of the departure of a head coach in the middle of the season could have a massive tole on the players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL landscape today has been tough on coaches. Just two weeks out of the regular season, there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,896,55,86184,101114,401,28799,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-692995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-orleans","10":"tag-new-orleans-saints","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints-coaching-staff","12":"tag-new-orleans-saints-interviews","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints-news","14":"tag-new-orleans-saints-staff","15":"tag-neworleans","16":"tag-neworleanssaints","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115931512035366561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692995","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=692995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}