Taking a mulligan: 5 offseason decisions the Saints would like a do-over on

Let's start at the beginning of the 2024 offseason for the New Orleans Saints in the do-over department. Everything conceivably has fallen from there to a 4-8 season and very likely fourth straight year out of the playoffs.

1. Not firing Dennis Allen last January

The first significant decision owner Gayle Benson, president Dennis Lauscha and general manager Mickey Loomis had in 2024 was keeping or letting head coach Dennis Allen go. To begin with, he was clearly not a slam-dunk hire when that triumvirate took the easy way out and simply hired the next man in line when Sean Payton decided to step away from coaching after the 2021 season.

Allen was one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL at the time, but his head coach record slapped you in the face — or should have in the Saints' top offices. He was 4-12 and 4-12 in 2012 and 2013 as the Raiders head coach, then was fired after an 0-4 start in 2014. That's really bad, even for the Raiders. No coach in Raiders' history has had a worse two-year span, and there were some bad ones.

Allen inherited a 9-8 team from Payton, who deserved some consideration for coach of the year for winning that many games after losing starting quarterback Jameis Winston to a knee injury in week eight. Three other quarterbacks started games, and New Orleans narrowly missed the playoffs. Allen and Loomis — because Payton acted as general manager — took over a team with problems, but it was still a good team with talent and playoff worthy.

Allen kept too much of the staff for his first season and dipped to 7-10 in 2022. After a promising 2-0 start in 2023, the Saints fell to 5-7 and off the playoff pace. They rallied to win four of their last five games to finish 9-8, but missed the playoffs. Then Allen made key staff changes, but it was too late. After another fool's gold 2-0 start, the Saints cratered to 2-7, and Allen was gone.

The problem with Allen was he never seemed to be in control of the team. He had no aura. He always seemed like an assistant coach trying to be the head coach. He never really had the locker room, particularly after not backing the team for scoring a rub-it-in touchdown against the Falcons in a meaningless season finale in 2023. This was the hated Falcons, and Allen could've gotten closer to his players by supporting that instead of going all holier than thou.

Allen didn't have the personality of a head coach at either stop. This was obvious, but lazy Saints brass either didn't see it or didn't want to deal with it. Loomis didn't even want to fire Allen after the seven straight losses, perhaps not wanting to admit he was wrong for firing him in the first place.

It's likely not, but now Mickey Loomis' job should be in jeopardy.

2. Not keeping Jameis Winston or signing a QB with experience

The Saints unloaded an inconsistent but at times very good backup quarterback in Jameis Winston after the 2023 season because he would have been far too expensive, and then-head coach Dennis Allen never really liked him. Something could've been worked out with his contract, though. Winston loves New Orleans and loved being a Saint.

Instead, the Browns signed Winston, and New Orleans went with rookie fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler and an inexperienced 2023 fourth-round pick Jake Haener.

The results were disastrous when starter Derek Carr got hurt this season and had to miss three games in the team's seven-game losing streak. The Saints' offense has not been much under Carr for two seasons now — other than some brief flashes. But it was a lot worse without him. The Saints need a veteran hand to spell him here and there. And Rattler and Haener are not qualified.

3. Not keeping LB Zach Baun

The Saints picked linebacker Zach Baun in the third round out of Wisconsin in 2020, and he did little in four seasons as he just did not play much. He recorded 74 tackles from 2020-23 in 62 games, and the Saints let him go.

Through 12 games for 10-2 Philadelphia this season, Baun leads the team with 118 tackles and with 74 solo stops and has 2.5 sacks and an interception. All he needed was a few more chances in New Orleans, and he didn't get them.

4. Not keeping DT Malcolm Roach

The Saints have the No. 26 run defense in the NFL with 136 yards allowed a game. Last offseason, they let four-year veteran defensive tackle Malcolm Roach go after Pro Football Focus listed him as having the best run-stop rate among interior defensive linemen in the NFL at 17.4 percent. He made 38 tackles last season in 12 games with eight stuffs.

This season, Roach is still stopping the run at Denver for his former Saints coach Sean Payton, who picked him up as an undrafted free agent out of Texas in 2020. Roach has 32 tackles with 2.5 sacks, 7.5 stuffs and a fumble recovery in 13 games in 2024 for the 8-5 Broncos. Denver is No. 6 in the NFL against the run at 94.7 yards allowed a game.

5. Signing edge Chase Young

The Saints signed free agent edge rusher Chase Young to a one-year deal at $13 million. The five-year veteran has had injury issues. He was also viewed as one of the NFL Draft's biggest busts after Washington took him out of Ohio State with the second pick of 2020 draft. After winning rookie of the year in 2020, Young has not performed consistently when he was on the field with Washington or with San Francisco in 2023.

Young has 3.5 sacks in 12 games this season and has been just invisible far too often as the Saints are 24th in the NFL with 27 sacks.