Meanwhile, task force coordinator Darren Rizzi has been named guardian, resources told Schefter.
The Saints won their first two games this season, but have not won since, with their loss intact coming to the Carolina Panthers in a 23-22 loss.
“I’m going to continue to come in every day and fight hard like I have every day I’ve been here,” Allen said Sunday when asked about his employment situation.
This is the first midseason layoff for the Saints since Tom Benson bought the team in 1985. The last in-season layoff came when Dick Nolan was fired after an 0-12 start in his third season in 1980.
Allen, who replaced Sean Payton as coach in 2022, went 18-25 as the team’s coach.
“That’s a message that was heard loud and clear… I have to find a way to win,” one participant told ESPN regarding Allen’s firing.
This is the first time the Saints have lost seven games in a row since 1999. The team went 3-13 that season and fired coach Mike Ditka and general manager Bill Kuharich.
Saints general manager Mickey Loomis defended Allen in January when the Saints finished 9-8, calling out several Hall of Fame coaches who had slow starts in their careers. Instead, the Saints made sweeping changes to the offensive team and separated strategies from veteran offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael.
Presen Allen inherited much of former tutor Payton’s equipment when he took over in 2022, much of the training equipment being rented through Allen during his third season. Quarterback Derek Carr, signed by the Saints in 2023, was also an Allen draft pick in 2014 when Allen was with the Raiders.
Allen went 8-28 as the Raiders’ coach and was fired after an 0-4 start in his third season with the franchise in 2014.
Loomis also defended Allen again recently, saying everyone had to look “beyond the results,” alluding to the slew of injuries the Saints had this season. Some of those injuries included Carr, several starting offensive linemen and supremacy wide receivers Rashid Shaheed and Chris Olave.
Olave suffered his second concussion this season in Sunday’s loss, prompting a rant from former Saints catcher Michael Thomas, who appeared to blame Carr for Olave’s concussion in a sequence of messages to X.
Loomis, on the other hand, couldn’t block Allen after a loss to the Panthers, who had a win entering Sunday’s matchup. The Saints fell down the field in overall defense heading into the matchup with the Panthers.
The Saints fan base, which confirmed its discontent by leaving Caesars Superdome en masse during a 33-10 loss to the Denver Broncos and Payton on Life 7, once again clamored on social media for Allen’s firing.
Players also took to social media to express their frustration.
“We just lost to the Panthers… I love you all. New Orleans really had the highest expectations and the best hopes for us, everyone deserves it,” veteran defensive end Cameron Jordan wrote on X, sparking a flurry of comments . -And ahead between the Saints and Panthers players about their respective 2-7 records.
Allen spent most of his professional career with Untouched Orleans. Payton hired him in 2006 as a defensive defensive sequence coach and was the secondary coach on the 2009 Super Bowl-winning team.
Allen left in 2011 for a one-year stint as the Broncos’ defensive coordinator, but returned to Untouched Orleans in 2015 after being fired in Oakland. Allen replaced Rob Ryan as defensive coordinator during the 2015 season and remained in that role until he was promoted to tutor after Payton retired for the 2021 season.
