Not that I disagree with you much, but for the life in me I don't get the love for Allen.
Gregg Williams and Sharper made this guy, without them he's nothing.
As a DC in Denver he did little there and as a HC failed miserably.
Not one stop has he proven to be"the man", he's been living off of Williams accomplishments and I really seen no team out there wanting him especially as their DC. I like this guy about as much as you liked Ryan but he's going to be just as bad. I don't believe he can get us to a 24th ranked D with Payton loading the smoking gun for him the way Payton has been doing this season and last season. I ask myself what a proven DC could do with the personel we have on the D and I come to the conclusion that it's going to be much better than what Allen will do. If Payton truely wanted to "win now" he should have gotten him a truely proven guy and let him take care of his D with staff included, but he chose to keep his puppet boy Allen, well he's here. I'm as tired as you about the D dropping the ball and now we're taking pieces on the O to fix this god awful D. I do agree we'll be lucky to see a wildcard and totally agree about it taking time to build one in which Allen has had the reins on for 2 1/2 years now and hasn't got it done.

You might be right. As a Saints fan, let's hope things work out.