This is the comic I had halfway done before I was plunged into the depths of Snotsville, Fevertown. So apologies if it’s a bit outdated. Not only did Dennis Allen get let go over a week ago, his replacement already won a game.

In an offseason marked by a lot of interesting coaching decisions one of the biggest headscratchers was the Saints not firing Dennis Allen. The Saints were an afterthought last season, a team you barely remember existing until they randomly ended up on Redzone being scored on. Most notably the team seemed to actively quit on Allen altogether. In the final week of the year Jameis Winston and company rejected Allen’s decision and improvised a play so Jamaal Williams could finally get a single TD. Arthur Smith got pissed off, Allen threw the team under the bus, and everyone laughed at Allen for losing the locker room. Amy Trask went viral for ripping him for his time in Oakland reflecting how shitty a person he was. There didn’t seem to be any reason to keep the guy. Maybe the cap situation? You don’t want to pay another coach? I guess? The terrible cap management didn’t stop them from signing Derek Carr to a huge deal. The Saints operate like money is theoretical and the bird is coming home to roost ever so soon.

But they kept Allen. Then for 2 weeks the hire of Klint Kubiak looked like the genius big-brain decision that would save the franchise. Then the next 7 weeks happened and we all remembered that oh yeah, Dennis Allen fucking sucks. This defensive smartboy had a team with the worst tackling efforts in the NFL. That’s a big sign that nobody gives a shit. After being embarrassed by Carolina and making Bryce Young happy, Allen was finally given the boot he so richly deserved. Another good indicator of how little anyone respected Allen in that locker room is how the Saints came out against Atlanta and played like a goddamn football team for interim Darren Rizzi.

Allen might be one of those solid coordinator/bad leader guys. The Saints had some decent defenses under him over the past decade. Of course they also had a hall of famer on the other side covering up mistakes and the team wasn’t so badly managed to start. That situation has only gotten worse. I wonder where Allen ends up now.

 

Also, as an aside: for fairly obvious reasons at this stage, I have locked my twitter account and plan on abandoning it. I haven’t deleted anything yet because after 14 years of shitposting I have a lot of history I want to sort through. Like most like-minded fellows I’ve switched over to BlueSky, so if you missed my announcement somehow, here is my account. It is by far the site I am the most active on, especially on gameday, and I post some dumb shit there that never makes it to this page. I’ve also thought about (not too seriously) starting up a private little DrawPlay discord as a place for you readers and stuff to just join me and post about random shit during games, talk football, have ideas for comics, etc. Let me know if there’s any interest in something like that.