gosaints1

1) Dick Nolan? Having flashbacks to the mid 70’s, lol, I know who you meant, it just took a second for me to go down a non pleasant memory lane. Another former Saints LB position coach who tried his hand at a higher position, and didn’t do so well, oof some of us remember that 1980 season and the resulting fallout from historically bad teams..., hmmmm..., I wonder if the two are related.

2) For the 2020 season, not counting week 4, football outsiders has the Saints ranked at 12th overall DVOA. 6th against the run and 21st against the pass. Regardless, I’ll play devil’s advocate and use your 2020 defensive ranking web site for reference. Saints were 26th, that must be bad, and I’d agree it’s nothing to be proud of. But 26 pales in comparison to the team who is dead last on that list, oh.., and guess who would be the DC for that team? Oh..., none other than Mike Nolan. Yes..., that Mike Nolan. Right now, I would much rather have our 26 than Nolan’s 32. His defense is abysmally bad, historically bad, a failure, under his direct leadership, rarely seen, right up there with the worst defenses ever in my ½ century of life.

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/st...m-defense/2020

3) Dennis Allen wasn’t the defensive coordinator for the 2015 season initially. Rob Ryan was the DC when the season began, that defense was his baby, it was his install, at least until he was fired (thank the Lord) mid Nov, iirc.

I’m neither defending Allen nor elevating Nolan to any degree. I’m simply evaluating each one, at one specific position which is as a DC. Bottom line is that a good position coach does not make a good defensive coordinator. And replacing one coordinator that sucks with another that sucks exponentially worse just makes no sense to me.