The Saints need time to see what they have in Darren Rizzi.
The New Orleans Saints had some sincere changes of heart after a Week 9 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Dennis Allen is now known as a former head coach and CB Marshon Lattimore is now employed by the Washington Commanders. Special teams coach Darren Rizzi was elevated into the head role but GM Mickey Loomis pumped the brakes on speculation about the next captain of the Saints.
Loomis revealed his stance on the Saints searching for a new head coach with WWL Radio's Mike Hoss.
“That’s not something that we’re gonna be real active with right now. There’s plenty of time for that when the season ends,” Loomis declared. “Our focus has got to be on our team, our players, our coaches, and our staff. You learn more about who you have and the people you’re working with in adversity than you do when things are going well.”
It's never a good sign in New Orleans when anything makes anyone from the city bring up Hurricane Katrina. Loomis did so without much pushback from the local radio legend, which is a small signal of just how dire fans find the current situation.
“As much as Katrina and that whole experience was difficult back in 2005, we learned a lot about the people that were with the Saints at that time,” explained Loomis. “It drove a lot of decisions after that. So look, this is adversity, this is tough. It’s no fun losing games. It’s, you know, I can’t describe to you, how bad our fans feel.”
The organization is a patchwork of people from throughout the city and down the bayou. Many were born fans so they know the pain.
“Believe me, we’re all feeling 10 times worse but you can’t just wallow in that,” Loomis stated. “You have to get up off the mat and show some fight. That’s true for every single person in this building. We are gonna see what we’ve got over the next eight weeks.”
Darren Rizzi trying to rouse Saints
Loomis also shared a few insights on how “pissed off” interim head coach Darren Rizzi prepared for the first day as the new captain in the Crescent City.
“(Rizzi) did a great job. We talked about what his message would be beforehand and I thought it was well received,” Loomis said, “And look, any time that you have a change in the middle of the season, you’re gonna have some emotion involved with that. Hopefully, that emotion creates a little positive bump and I felt like that happened yesterday. I thought Rizzi did a great job talking with the team, talking with the media, describing some things that we wanted to do differently, just to hopefully jumpstart the back half of the season.”
The Saints have a tough schedule to finish out the regular season. Next up are the division-leading Atlanta Falcons (6-3) in New Orleans. Getting the hated rivals in front of the home fans now will be a great gauge of just how everyone responds before the GM gets started on any search for a new head coach.
