A possible staff change is upon the Saints. Two huge parts of how the team functions and approaches the offseason and regular season games. Teams around the league are in search of a head coach and general manager, and one of those teams is the Bears. They started their offseason interviews with Jeff Ireland who is currently the Vice President, assistant general manager and the college scouting director for the Saints.
Ireland has done a significant job in New Orleans, mainly in the scouting department. Joining the team in 2015, the team has had multiple steals and studs as mid rounds picks, and there are the duds and questionable picks. Getting guys like Michael Thomas in the second round, Alvin Kamara in the third, Ryan Ramczyk and Marshon Lattimore, Pete Werner in the second, Paulson Adebo in the third, CGJ in the fourth and quite a bit more.
The Bears are going into round two of general manager interviews so maybe Ireland stays, but we can assume that he put in the word that he would hire Dennis Allen for head coach, because the Bears have an interview scheduled with the current defensive coordinator. Allen as a head coach went 8-28 and then was fired in week four of the 2014 season.
In the scenario that Allen leaves, the Saints could promote from within. Kris Richard or Ryan Nielsen could be promoted to defensive coordinator. The Saints could also go after a guy like Mike Zinner or Vic Fangio to take over as the defensive coordinator.
If Allen goes and Ireland goes with him I would assume the Saints promote the scouting position within. The guys who’ve been working with Ireland know how he works and would make perfect sense for the team to promote their assistant scouting director who is currently Cody Rager.
Another thing that the team should address is the team doctors. They gotta go. I know the Michael Thomas situation there were problems on both sides, but to tell someone he won’t need surgery so he’ll play, and then tell him to get surgery after the season ends is unwarranted. All the injuries the Saints dealt with could be a mixture of bad training and bad luck, but something has to be done on the medical and training portion of the staff.
