Can the Saints escape rut left by Brees’ retirement

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Saints didn’t plan to make big changes when former quarterback Drew Brees announced his retirement almost three years ago.

They kept the coaching staff largely intact after transitioning from longtime coach Sean Payton to Dennis Allen, who was promoted from defensive coordinator to coach in 2022, with the idea that continuity was key. The Saints went to the playoffs in nine of Brees’ 15 seasons, including four straight appearances before he retired.

But the Saints haven’t made the playoffs since, nor have they been able to hit the same statistical highs on offense. They shuffled through five quarterbacks before signing Derek Carr to a long-term contract last offseason.

The Saints have struggled to move beyond the identity and culture created by Payton and Brees as they head into Allen’s third season.

“Drew was the Hall of Fame face, Hall of Fame quarterback and the resilient, surgical player, but that was Sean Payton’s culture,” backup quarterback Jameis Winston recently said on the “Pardon My Take” podcast. “That team was a reflection of who he is. He was the man of the city.”

As the Saints move away from that era and into the third season of the Allen tenure, they’re looking for ways to reinvent themselves and dig out of the hole Payton and Brees left behind.

Winston won the starting quarterback job over Taysom Hill in 2021, but he tore his ACL seven games into the season after leading New Orleans to a 5-2 start. Trevor Siemian took over until Hill became the starter in Week 13. Ian Book also started one game that season when all the quarterbacks were in COVID-19 protocol. The Saints finished 9-8, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

Winston was the intended starter in 2022, but he suffered back and foot injuries four games into the season. Andy Dalton took over in his stead, and Winston never got his starting job back. He would take a pay cut to return in 2023 as the backup.

When the Las Vegas Raiders released Carr last year, the Saints then signed him to a four-year, $150 million contract. He then became the first Saint to start every game since Brees did so in 2017.

Carr, who completed 68.4% of his passes for 3,878 yards, 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions, feels the team is heading in the right direction.

“I just felt like, our team, the last half of the year, we were hot, you know? There was one point the last half of the year, we were the No. 1 offense in the red zone. We were a top-five offense in general. There were all these things that were going so positively, we were like, man, if we can get in…” Carr said on “Two Gs in a Pod” podcast on Feb. 2. “We earned 9-8 [record], but I was really proud of the way we ended as a team. … I know everybody in our building was really excited on how we ended.”

The Saints won four of five games to end the season and improved from 28th to 10th in red zone scoring percentage during that timespan, but it wasn’t enough to save offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael’s job.

“We were sad when Pete was fired. We love Pete,” Carr said. “But [Allen] said he has a plan for this and that, for the scheme with the guys that we have. … We trust [general manager] Mickey [Loomis] and we trust [Allen] with all that. We showed when we get on the same page, it can be pretty dynamic.”

Allen arrived in 2006, the same year as Payton and Carmichael, and held assistant roles until 2011 when he left to become the Denver Broncos defensive coordinator. He then joined the Raiders organization as their head coach in 2012 but was rehired by the Saints in 2015 as a defensive assistant. He was promoted to defensive coordinator that season after Rob Ryan’s firing, a role Allen held under Payton until Payton stepped away from coaching for a year.

Sources told ESPN the Saints are planning to hire San Francisco 49ers passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak to be the team’s first offensive coordinator since Carmichael was promoted to the job in 2009.

It’s unclear how much input Carr had in the Kubiak hire. Loomis said at the end of the season that the Saints don’t make a habit of placing the burden of staff hires on players, though Carr did say Allen approached him during the process.

“I answered a whole bunch of questions about a lot of different people,” Carr said. “I’ve given input here and there. That’s just information for [Allen] to have as he makes the ultimate decision with Mickey.”

The Saints intended to take their time with the moves according to Loomis, which aligns with the timing of the Kubiak hire, something that couldn’t become official until after Sunday’s Super Bowl. But it hasn’t stopped New Orleans from shaking up its staff in recent weeks: running backs coach Joel Thomas left for the same job with the New York Giants and wide receivers coach Kodi Burns and offensive assistant Bob Bicknell were fired.

Offensive line coach Doug Marrone was also fired, and quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry took the same position with the Buffalo Bills. A source told ESPN that Curry was given an offer to stay on as wide receivers coach, a position he had already held once with the Saints, but he elected to leave for Buffalo.

A source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that Kubiak is expected to hire former Chicago Bears quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko. Janocko worked in the same role with Kubiak in Minnesota when he was the Vikings offensive coordinator in 2021.