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A look back at the history of the Saints Offensive Coordinators

Klint Kubiak is the new offensive coordinator for New Orleans but who else has held the position?

By mollybauer23
Feb 22, 2024, 8:00am CST

On Wednesday, February. 14th, the New Orleans Saints announced that they hired San Francisco 49ers passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak to be their new offensive coordinator. With this announcement, it makes him the team’s 10th offensive coordinator.

This got me thinking “Who else has held that position?” and led to me starting a deep dive into the history of the offensive coordinators of the team. I went all the way back to the inaugural season in 1967 and moved forward from there.

One thing that I found out is that there was only one offensive coordinator for the Saints during the first decade of the team’s history. In those situations, the head coach is the one who ran the offense with the help of their respective assistants.

1967-70... no one?

During the first three and a half seasons of Saints football, the offense was helmed by the team’s first-ever head coach: Tom Fears. He had the help of three - and in one season four - offensive assistants throughout the years. Fear’s groups of assistants had some slightly different faces in its first few years, but he would bring on offensive line coach Brad Ecklund in 1968 and stick with him for two and a half years.

The offense was improving a little bit each year - always finishing with more points scored than the previous season - but the defense was either the worst in the league or close to it. It was never able to be better than 10th in points against, and that’s what eventually led to the dismissal of Tom Fears by the team just halfway through the 1970 season.

1971 - 1972: Ken Shipp

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J.D Roberts was brought on to be the team’s new head coach during the latter half of the 1970 season. In his first off-season, he decided to hire Ken Shipp to be his new offensive coordinator. Shipp was previously the receivers coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.

During Shipp’s two seasons in New Orleans, the offense was near the bottom of the league in points scored. In his first season, the team scored 266 points. When compared to the rest of the NFL, that leaves only two other teams with fewer points scored. Unfortunately, his second year wasn’t much better with the team scoring 215 points, but in 1972 four teams had fewer points scored.

Ken Shipp would not get a third shot as the Saints offensive coordinator. John North, who was the receivers coach for the Lions, would be the new offensive coordinator for the Saints. At least, he was for a few months. Following a winless preseason in August, head coach J.D Roberts would be let go. North would get the promotion and become the team’s head coach.

1973-1975: Head coach John North ran the offense

This three-season stretch might be the worst offense the Saints have put out. For three straight seasons, the offense ranked in the bottom three of the NFL. The 1974 season is actually the only one in this span where it ranked anywhere other than last in the league.

What makes this a bit interesting, however, is the fact that the offense managed to produce nearly the same number of points for three seasons straight, even with a coaching change partway through the 1975 season. They scored 163 points in 1973, 166 points in 1974, and 165 points in 1975.

On October 27th, 1975, the Saints fired head coach John North. Ernie Hefferle was the team’s interim coach for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t fare much better, going 1-7 to finish out the season.

Read the rest here ...

Originally Posted by stickman (Post 993410) Thanks Guido. Solid article. I had completely forgotten about Mike McCarthy.